Do you wonder how to distinguish between things you love and the “clutter” that may surround you? How do you know how much clutter constitutes “clutter” and how much is just “things you love?” Surely the answer lies somewhere in the quantity, not in the quality.

Clutter is defined as “a crowded and untidy collection of things.” It comes from the word “coagulate” and sounds really scary when you think of clutter in your blood flow and what happens when you have clutter in your arteries or veins. Clutter chokes the energy flowing through your home just as surely as it chokes the blood flowing through your body.

There are a certain amount of possessions which we all have and which may, from time to time, not have a permanent place in our home (or car or office). We have to learn to decipher between clutter, which usually gives us a guilty feeling when we see it and clutter that gives a homey feel to our space.

When I was still active in the organizing business, people asked me how I could possibly know what other people would need to keep or to get rid of. How could I walk into a room in a stranger’s house and look at clutter and tell whether it really needed to be there or whether it had just taken up residence due to lack of care and concern. I finally can put it into words! If it looked like it had been in the same place for weeks, months or even years, it was just clutter and not possessions which gave a feeling of warmth and comfort. If it was covered with dust, toppling over due to the sheer weight or height of the pile or if it was dated material from weeks or months (or, again, years) ago, it probably wasn’t serving any purpose and didn’t add anything to the room decor.

Some of the items being saved were there strictly because the homeowner was superstitious about getting rid of things for fear of throwing away something that would be needed the very next week. I have an easy answer for that, especially if it is the printed word (magazines, articles, clippings from newspapers or even the whole newspaper). Fortunately in our present day technology just about everything printed can be retrieved on the internet. This means that any clippings, articles or things that surely will be useful someday, can be looked up on the Internet and will be much easier to find than to go through piles of papers looking for an item culled from a newspaper in the past. No excuse if you don’t have a computer. Everyone these days has a family member who is computer literate.

So, what to do with the clutter? First of all, buy a box of heavy black garbage bags. Go to your first pile of clutter and say to yourself, “If I haven’t looked at all the stuff at the bottom of this pile for a really long time, I guess I really don’t need it – because if I needed it, the pile would not be untouched for this long.” Then, just start dropping into the black bag all the loose papers, programs, receipts and things that are over, say, six months old (you set the limit based on your comfort level). Now, I don’t think you should risk throwing away important papers (like insurance policies or receipts for major purchases) but I do think you have to lighten your pile of things no longer necessary to have in your house. If you start to find important papers, go find an empty box or wicker basket (roughly 12” x 15”) and just toss the important things you find into that box; you can deal with it later. You’ll probably have several “aha” moments where something shows up that you have been looking for recently. It’s good that you find these things, but they shouldn’t have been there to begin with.

Do you have an alphabetized file box somewhere in your possession for filing things like insurance papers? If not, now is the time to set something up for your own personal use. I wrote about setting up a very simple filing system in the December 2001 issue of phenomeNEWS. You can find a copy of the article on the Internet by going to “Archives” at www.phenomenews.com.

Over the years, I have found that clutter is also hidden in drawers and cupboards. For you who tend to stuff things away “just for now” I want to caution you that the back of the cupboard(s) or drawer(s) is undoubtedly filled with really old stuff. If all the old stuff was discarded, you would have room for the current things in your possession and you wouldn’t need to make piles on the living room or dining room tables. (Do you think I’m looking over your shoulder like Big Brother? Well, I’m not, but take comfort in knowing you are not alone. I’ve seen it all.)

I’d like to give you some ideas for putting away this clutter you have just sorted though. Anything that escaped the black plastic bags needs a new home. You know the plastic storage containers in your kitchen with no lids? Now is the time to remove them from the cupboard and use the containers to separate small items in bedroom and bathroom drawers, both for yourself and for your children. Zippered plastic bags are great storage vessels for small items like toy pieces, crayons, cosmetics, tools and hardware items. Wicker baskets can be used to hold mail (both incoming and outgoing), next to your bed to hold glasses, TV remotes, books and also on your desk to hold accessories like stamps, pens, calculator, clips, etc. You can also use baskets in the bathroom to hold towels, washcloths and soaps and this will make more room in the linen closet for storage of appropriate items.

It is so important to rid your home of items that are no longer of value to your life at this time. Granted, it takes time to go through these areas and make decisions on what needs to be thrown away or recycled or given away. Just get started and get some of the clutter out of your possession. Your home will breathe easier and so will you. As you get a few hours into the clearing out process, it will become easier and easier. As I always say, bless those empty spaces before you fill them again.

Nancy Kalef is the retired owner of Let’s Get Organized! and formerly went to clients’ homes to organize their closets, cupboards and paperwork. Have an area of your life you would like to get organized? Feel free to email your questions and/or subjects to NancyKalef0@comcast.net.