We’re entering yard sale season. If you’re planning on having one, follow this simple rule. Pick a charity before your yard sale and make a rule that all unsold items go directly to that charity. Nothing gets returned to the house, attic, basement, or garage. A few local charities that I support are St. Vincent De Paul, Habitat for Humanities ReStore, and Dorca’s International.
A great way to prevent clutter is to stop it from coming in the door in the first place. Put a trash can, recycle bin, and shred container in the garage, and use them to clean out the clutter from the car, your purse, your work bag, and school backpacks. Also use them to toss or shred as much mail as possible before bringing it into the house.
To save time, remove items that are used frequently, from their boxes, and toss the box. For example, take small appliances, like hand-mixers, blenders, and mini choppers out of their boxes and store them directly in a kitchen cupboard or on a pantry shelf. Also remove smaller items from their packaging and store them in containers without lids, for example batteries, paper plates, q-tips. This eliminates the step of opening and closing the box or packaging each time the item is used, and makes it easier to get things out and put them away.
Before stocking the pantry with items for your Thanksgiving feast, organize it. Clear off one shelf at a time. Check expiration dates. Remove all expired items. Donate anything you won’t use before the expiration date to the local food bank. Group like items together and put back in the pantry with the closest expiration dates in front.
Schedule yearly bathroom purges to help keep your space organized. Items to purge include outdated lotions, makeup, and topical skin products, broken bath toys, soiled bath linens, and expired medications and prescriptions. The Drug Enforcement Administration website has information on safe drug disposal and the national drug take-back initiative in October.
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