The Clutter Rules

The Clutter Control Rules - From the book Clutter Control

Rule 1: When in doubt, throw it out.
Absolutely nothing else we say in this book can have such a liberating effect on your life. We like testimonials, and here's one quoted in its entirety from a "Dear Abby" column (San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 1991):

DEAR ABBY: I related to the letter about a husband who was a pack rat because I'm one too. After years of bachelorhood, I married a woman who'd throw out the newspaper while I was still reading it.

In the fourth year of our marriage I was sent overseas, leaving my wife, who was pregnant. When I completed the tour, I was reassigned to the Pentagon, and my wife had the thankless task of selling our home and packing and moving us to the Washington, D.C., area. She handled all of this like a real pro.

A year later we were entertaining guests, and I told the story of our move, bragging about how well my wife had handled everything alone. She casually remarked, "Yes, It gave me the opportunity to throw out all the junk Bill had been carrying around all these years." I was shocked to hear her say this, as she'd never mentioned it before, so I asked, "And just what did you throw out?" She calmly replied, "What are you missing?" Try as I did, I couldn't identify a single item I missed. Then she said, "You tell me what you're missing, and I'll tell you whether or not I threw it out."

Everyone (including me) had a good laugh at my expense, but it certainly proved her point.

So, all you pack rats, clean out your closets and drawers, put the junk in boxes, then take the whole lot to one of those storage lockers. After paying the storage bill for several years, you will be amazed at how much you can live without.
--BEEN THERE AND LEARNED

DEAR BEEN THERE AND LEARNED: As incredible as it may seem, public auctions are held to sell furniture, clothing, furs and valuable jewelry that were in storage for many years and never claimed. The owners either couldn't pay the storage bill, or they died having forgotten that their property had been stored.
--Abby

Taken from the Dear Abby column by Abigail Van Buren © 1991 Reprinted with permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

It is encouraging to read about someone who has seen the light at the end of the (cluttered) tunnel. We would have advised him to skip the step about paying for a storage locker for a few years. Besides saving the money, he wouldn't have to drag all the stuff back home to have a garage sale.

There's an abundance of opportunities to acquire things in our lives. We are invited to do so by every imaginable source of advertisement; by our perpetual comparisons of our possessions with those of our friends, relatives, and neighbors; and by our own private insecurities and habits. We feel like we're building our nest. The more things we can add to our nest, the more secure and successful we feel.

Once an item makes it into our nest, a metamorphosis takes place as it becomes "ours," and its value is completely transformed. For example, before a crystal decanter becomes our possession, if it should be broken or lost it would barely qualify as an accident. Once we get it into our home, however, if it is broken we regard it as a disaster. Obviously this has something to do with how much we paid for it, but it can acquire its own almost inexplicable value, which involves much more than money alone.

Trouble is, acquiring everything you have the chance to is just not worth it. The price paid is a lifetime of being loaded down by things we wouldn't miss if they were taken away from us: things we couldn't find if we needed them, things we don't even remember we have unless we see them, unused things that ultimately crowd out the necessary things we actually use. Don't wait for that to happen—do it of your own free will now.

The Cost of Storing Your Things

One major incentive to declutter is the expense of maintaining all that stuff. You'll be amazed when you figure out the actual cost of keeping it. First calculate how much you're paying for each square foot of your home by dividing the square footage by the monthly rent or mortgage. For example, if you live in a 1,500-square-foot house and have a $1,500 monthly payment, that's obviously $1 per square foot per month. Now multiply by how many square feet are devoted to storage. This can be an eye-opening experience. Let's say you've let an entire room slowly drift into a "junk" room even though it was originally intended as a guest bedroom or a sewing room. You've got 100 square feet or more devoted to storage in that one room alone. So you're paying 100 x $1 = $100 a month for the privilege of having a junk room. That might be worth it if you were storing prized and valuable possessions.

Unfortunately, this monthly $100 bill is for storing items you don't even look at—unless you take a peek when you open the door to toss something else in the collection. Worse yet, just knowing what lurks behind that door nags you silently. You also have a crisis if you do have a guest. And your sewing plans are on indefinite hold—like perhaps for this lifetime.

A "junk" room is only the most obvious place to look. For many homes, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Consider some of the other fertile places around the house to discover caches of junk. And add their cost to the first figure you came up with. For example:

	How many square feet of each closet in your home are used to store things you don't use? It's not nice to remind you of all the clothes in those closets that no longer fit. Let's just say they're too large, shall we, and leave it at that. Or maybe you don't wear them because they've gone out of style. With luck, they'll come back in style in thirty years, but do you think you'll actually wear those musty antiques?
	What about under the beds? Gifts you've received that you're never going to use. Perfectly fine other things that are "too good to throw away." Broken things.
	Look in drawers, but don't count the things you use every day—or even once a year. What about the linen from your grandmother for a table that wouldn't even fit into your dining room? Linen with spots, linen with holes, linen you're saving for your kids. (They don't even like the brand-new things you get them for their birthday and Christmas. Lord knows what they'll want with things you don't even know what to do with.) And then there are the drawers bursting with unused blouses, T-shirts, socks, underwear, incomplete bed sheet sets, worn-out towels, photographs, calendars, college papers, postcards, ancient mail, maps, newspapers, matchbooks, and mystery items.
	Bookshelves filled with books you haven't looked at in years—if ever. Or with porcelain frogs. Or with liquor decanters. We're not opposed to collections per se; it's just that it's sometimes difficult to appreciate the beauty of a porcelain frog if there are thirty-seven of them.
	Don't forget books that are stored in places other than bookshelves, including unloved cookbooks, outgrown children's books, and unused reference books.
	Appliances and gadgets you never use. They're often in the kitchen drawers and cabinets, but don't forget the extra set of speakers or the foot massager, no matter where you have them stashed.
	The freezer. You have things in there that no one in the house knows about or can identify anymore—let alone would be willing to eat.
	The garage, carport, basement, or attic—junk heaven. Tires to cars you no longer own. Athletic equipment such as the exercise bike that started in the living room, migrated to the bedroom, and is now relegated to dusty solitude. Dead clothes that no longer fit in your bulging closets. Bed parts. Derelict lawn furniture or equipment. Pieces of lumber left over from a project half completed in 1976. If by chance you can no longer fit your car or cars into your garage or carport, don't forget to add the additional depreciation caused by storing it outside. And add the square footage of the garage to your total storage bill.

The point: You have junk stored in many places in your home, and it costs you really money to store it.

Here are some guidelines for deciding what should be tossed and what should be kept. (When we say "tossed," we are including giving it away or selling it, of course.)

Popular Excuses for Keeping Things Forever

If you aren't actually using something, why allow it to complicate your home? I have a section of my desk drawer that is reserved just for pens. It's always overflowing. The problem is, if my favorite pen isn't there, I will turn the house upside down looking for it rather than use any of the pens that are stuffed into this drawer. Solution? Save the favorite pen plus three or four spares and toss the rest. Now there's room for adding something to the drawer should the occasion arise. And the drawer even closes easily, for the first time in years. If you have several pairs of eyeglasses with outdated prescriptions, give them away. (Several charities solicit them.) It's different if you use something occasionally. (Christmas ornaments are a good example.)

Give your grown kids' things back to them. If you do, maybe they'll learn to deal with clutter a couple of decades earlier than you did. The same goes for your friends, neighbors, or other relatives for whom you are storing things.

Please don't try the old excuse "It's too nice to throw away." Especially if it's so nice, give it to someone who will use it and appreciate it.

If it's broken, fix it or toss it. If it's ripped, have it mended. If it doesn't fit, have it altered. Don't put it anywhere just "for now" and keep it in a perpetual holding pattern.

If you find a screw or have one left over after a project, don't start saving them. It will drive you crazy. Usually when you buy something that needs a screw, it will have one included. If it doesn't, you can get the exact number of appropriate screws while you're at the store. That's much faster and easier than picking through all your saved screws (which over time have a way of starting to get nails mixed in with them, plus a few tacks, push-pins, washers, picture hangers, and other small, sharp, and rusty objects.) And even if you do search your collection and ultimately find three of the screws you need, the project will probably call for four of them.

Since most households do have a need of a nail or a screw occasionally, just remember that almost any method of acquiring and storing them is preferable to the one-at-a-time-whenever-you-happen-upon-one method and then adding it to the little box or mayonnaise jar full of them.

Save the stereo box for thirty days. If the stereo hasn't broken by then, discard the box. (If you bought it by mail order, save it for the full warranty period.) Unless you're planning on moving (have the date set, etc.) don't keep the box "because you'll need it when you move." That's true, but it may be years away. You or the moving company can use another box when the time comes.

Rule 1 still counts if you don't know what an item is. My mother will save something even though she's not at all sure what it is. She'll convince herself that it fell out of her refrigerator or something else vital and that if she throws it away, she will only then discover where it should have gone. If she weren't my mother, I would point out to her that she has lived for over sixty years. If she hasn't learned what something is by now, there is no particular likelihood she will do so in the next sixty years.

Rule 2: Use it or lose it.
This rule is particularly helpful when you are attempting to implement Rule 1 and are getting rid of some of your stuff. How do you decide what to keep and what to toss? Sensible advice for this rule is if you're not using something, get rid of it. This does not allow you to plan on using it tomorrow. How does the song go? "Manana never comes."

Future time is especially not a factor in this rule. "Use it" refers to the here and now. It doesn't mean some time in the future. You don't have to use something every day, but you can't use the excuse that it "might come in handy after the earthquake"—unless it's a flashlight or something sensible. Not your collection of lampshades. If you haven't put up any strawberry preserves since 1962, despite your strong conviction that you will do so again next year, you can safely give away your mason jars and lids.

There is a twist to applying this rule that's very helpful to parents trying to teach children about clutter. You might phrase the rule: "Put it away or lose it." We received a letter from a woman who told us how well this version of the rule worked for her. She cleaned every Saturday morning and just threw out anything left in her way! It didn't matter if it was clothes, toys, or food. Out it went. No bluffing. A particularly brief period of time elapsed before the house was completely picked up by early Saturday morning. Hard to argue with success.

According to our mail, the biggest roadblock many people had in implementing our first book, Speed Cleaning, in their home was that the house was too cluttered for them to even start. Rule 2 is a solution to that problem and more. You reduce clutter, and you make housecleaning that much easier.

Rule 3: Efficiency counts, so store things accordingly.
Perhaps you've seen the classic movie Cheaper by the Dozen. The head of the household in this movie was an efficiency expert. (Remember them? Businesses used to hire them all the time. They still do, but they call them management engineers or industrial engineers now.) This particular efficiency expert devoted his life to the study of such things. He found, for example, that it was considerably faster to button his shirt starting at the top and buttoning downward compared to starting at the bottom and buttoning upward. This little gem of knowledge in itself may not reduce clutter, but efficiency boils down to a maximum of output with a minimum of input, and it's a concept that's crucial to managing clutter.

Efficient storage reduces clutter by making it easier to replace things after each use. If it's easier it's more likely to happen. Efficient storage means that what you need is close to where you use it or where you expect it to be. Move things so they are efficiently placed for use and replacement. For example, if the recycling bins are in the far end of the garage, no one is going to use them. In the kitchen, move the silverware and plates to a drawer and cupboard between the table and the dishwasher. Put the glasses between the sink and the dishwasher. Since the kids normally throw their coats just inside the door (if you're lucky), move the coat-rack there, even though it looks better next to the desk down the hall. It's not carved in stone that you must store the vacuum in the upstairs closet. Move it downstairs, where it's more convenient. Efficient storage also means that things you use most often are stored in the most easily accessible places. In other words, "hot" items go in "hot" places. You'll have your own list of "hot" items, of course, but it'll probably include things such as measuring spoons and cups, keys, bottles of spray cleaners, the roll of cellophane tape, the corkscrew, the good pair of scissors, the dishwashing soap, etc. Resist the temptation to return rarely used items to a "hot" (and therefore convenient) spot. If you're not alert, the anchovy paste will end up in front of the mustard. The pewter polish will get shoved in front of the powdered cleanser. Or the wood bleach will block your access to the furniture polish. "Hot" places are easily reachable ones such as top drawers, eye-level cupboard shelves, and the front sections of shelves.

Store similar things together—such as all the different sizes and shapes of flower vases you own. When you need one, you only have to look in one place. Also, you'll have no decision to make after you clean a vase and wonder where to put it. The same applies to food inside the cupboards and even inside the fridge. The easier you make it for things to get put where they belong, the less clutter will appear. You'll also have a fighting chance of finding what you're looking for if it is where it belongs. That can be a surprisingly gratifying experience.

Rule 4: Handle something once.
This rule is necessary because of the excuse "for now." For example, "I will put this jacket here for now," or " I will put this stack of papers here for now." This phrase is forbidden to a known clutterer.

Once you say "for now," you are admitting that you are going to handle whatever it is more than once. That seemingly innocuous decision increases clutter and at least doubles your work load. What you're really doing when you utter those forbidden words is putting off making a decision about it right then and there. Don't be lazy. That decision won't go away just because you put it off, and it won't be any easier to make later on. So make your decisions about things right then and there.

Here's one way to apply this rule: When mail arrives, don't just idly sort through it looking for something interesting. Instead, stand next to a recycling bin or trash can as you sort. Toss the appropriate pieces then and there. It's a very liberating thing to do. Put bills in the "Bills" file of your cabinet (see Rule 7). Put interesting catalogs or ads with the newspaper and look at them after you read the paper. The file them as needed or recycle them with the newspaper.

We met a woman who stood at the trash can as her kids brought home paperwork from school. She looked at each paper, made the appropriate comments directly to her kids, and tossed it into the trash. If the paper was special in some way and merited saving, she had a special place for it in her filing cabinet.

My mother's repair drawer was a great example of the lengths to which the "for now" philosophy could be carried. Putting something in that drawer was exactly the same as throwing it away, because nothing ever emerged from it. We just kept more and bigger repair drawers to hold all that stuff. When the opportunity arises, or whenever you feel the words "for now" starting to form on your lip, remind yourself to handle the item once. Don't leave it in some temporary holding area instead of where it ultimately belongs.

Rule 5: Recycle it.
We're not talking about just paper, aluminum, glass, and plastic. You may argue that you throw these items away anyway, so how does recycling help with un-cluttering? Well, for one thing, it's a good habit to get used to putting certain things in certain places. In addition, many people have a tough time parting with certain containers, especially glass bottles. Mayonnaise jars are good for storing bacon fat, and pickle jars or peanut-butter jars are just right for something else. Recycling finally allows the world's bottle-savers to put their bottles to good use. Recycle them. The same goes for plastic Cool Whip containers, with their irresistible resealing lid, and microwave plates that remain after the dinner has been eaten. Even if you can't recycle plastic in your area, don't save these disposable items.

Other things can be recycled also. What about clothes you no longer wear or fit into? Recycle them into the hands of someone who needs them. Don't forget old sweaters and shoes that aren't so obvious when you open the closet door. What about books that overflow the capacity of your bookshelves? Sell them to a used-books store, or give them to a school library. Magazines can be given to a school or hospital or nursing home full of folks who will enjoy them. If you don't want to go to the trouble of finding a new home for your old magazines, recycle them with your newspapers if allowed. Old towels can be used for rags only if you need more rags. Otherwise, recycle them along with your old clothes. The same goes for unused linen, baby clothes, diapers, ties, belts, purses, wallets, plants, or bikes. In fact, almost any inanimate object in your house is a candidate for reuse by someone else.

Rule 6: Pick a number and stick with it.
If you really do use an empty mayonnaise jar for storing fat drippings, go ahead and save one. But if you use one mayonnaise jar every six months for drippings, and you purchase mayonnaise approximately once a month for consumption, you only need to save one jar to have a sufficient supply. One. Uno. One more than zero. Don't save any more jars until you use the one you've saved.

If you intend on saving boxes for packaging future gifts, pick a number and stick with it. If you're convinced that you must save a box for each of the different potential size gifts, you really ought to call a spade a spade and just open a store, because that's what you'll have with so many boxes. Limit your collection to four boxes of various sizes stored inside the largest one. That should be all you ever need at any one time, or at least until you have a chance to replenish your supply. When you reach your number, don't save another box until you use one from your supply. If you do come across another irresistible box, then toss one when you add the new one to your collection.

Whatever you do, don't exceed the chosen number. It's not fair to change the number willy-nilly. Pick a number for other things around the house that contribute to overall clutter. For example, decide to keep two week's worth of Newsweek or Time. Each week, throw away the issue that's three weeks old when the new one arrives.

If you have a passion for purchasing, this rule is for you. Purses are prime examples. Once again, pick a sensible number of purses to keep, and stick with it. If you decide on seven, this means that other purses are clutter. Rank your top seven purses, give the others to charity, and don't buy a new one until you're willing to let one go.

Use this rule with shoes, socks, porcelain frogs, mustards in the fridge, or packages of paper towels in the cupboard. Also work clothes. Two sets are enough. Any more than that and you're just trying to get around giving away you old clothes. Junk drawer? Yes, you can keep it, but only one per household—not one per person or one per room.

Rule 7: Use a file cabinet.
We feel as strongly about this as Hoover felt about a chicken in every pot. Every contemporary home needs a file cabinet—not just those with a home office or those belonging to your superorganized friends. Even if you don't have a desk—or instead of one if you don't have room—invest in a file cabinet. You can always use the dining room table as a temporary desk, but nothing else is a substitute for a file cabinet.

File cabinets start at about $40 for an inexpensive one with two drawers. An office- quality file cabinet of the same size can be two or three times as much. There are definite advantages to the more expensive ones: the drawers open fully so you can easily file all the way to the back. The drawers in the cheap ones don't open more than two-thirds of the way, so filing in the back of the drawer is always a pain. But even if you get the cheapest one available, it's still a great deal.

Some new cabinets have built-in metal frames for hanging file folders. If not, purchase an add-on frame for each drawer. And get a supply of the hanging files themselves. One of the reasons some people don't like file cabinets is because they have never used them with hanging files. These hanging files are what changed the cabinet into the wonderful clutter-buster it is.

Besides being a perfect storage place for such obvious choices as bills, important papers, and correspondence, the file cabinet is just right for warranty cards, product information, instruction booklets, stationary, photos, stamps, your kids' important schoolwork, report cards, spare batteries, diskettes, pens, pencils, tax returns, receipts, invoices, telephone books, and certain other books you want nearby, such as dictionaries, catalogs, address books, photo albums, and more. All sorts of non-traditional items can be stored in files, to your advantage.

Rule 8: Do Something.
This rule really isn't as flip as it sounds. We're encouraging you to proceed to action in order to solve or fix something that's bothering you. In the Introduction, we suggested that most of us have some idea of what to do to solve our own clutter problems. We may not know exactly what to do, or exactly where to start, or what to toss and what to save, or what we need to buy in the way of shelves or storage baskets. But we do know we need to clean out, toss, and organize. Unfortunately, for many of us, what we do best with our clutter is to fret about it and mull it over. We may practically salivate when we see a sale on closet organizers, but we're still stuck by our own indecision and inaction.

Rule 9: A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Obviously your parents thought of this rule before we did, but maybe that's just another reason why it's so important for getting rid of clutter. Some clutter is just stuff that belongs someplace else. Whether it's the kids' toys strewn through the house, a closet full of clothes that no one in the family wears any longer, newspapers piled in the corner, or paper stacked on the desk, these items are clutter as long as they are not in their proper place.

Clearly, it's much easier to decide to put everything in its place than it is actually to do it—especially if you're fresh out of places.

The flip side of this rule means that if everything is in its place, you can find an item precisely when you want it. That event in and of itself can sometimes make your day.

Rule 10: Items displayed in the house have to pass a test.
This seems only fair. After all, you have only so much space. The items taking up that space should justify themselves. It's not a complicated test. They just have to have a valid reason for being there. The reason can involve function or form. No problem. It passes the test. But it doesn't pass just because someone put it there "for now" five years ago and it's never been moved since, or because someone gave it to you who might notice if it's gone, or because you don't know where else to put it.

Rule 11: Don't do things "later."
Let's say you just spent an hour picking up in the family room. It's in impeccable shape—splendidly uncluttered by things that don't belong there. You know only too well that it can be turned into a war zone by the family in minutes: discarded clothes, food, dirty dishes, shoes, toys (kids', dogs', and cats'), soft drink and/or beer cans, dirty ashtrays, school papers, newspapers, magazines, cups, and glasses.

THINGS NOT TO DO LATER: A PARTIAL LIST

If you brought stuff into a room, take it back out the very next time you leave that room (after you're done with it, of course).

Take things upstairs if you are going there anyway.

Take things downstairs if you are going there anyway.

Take everything out of the car that was added this trip.

Pick up things when they drop.

Wipe up spills when they happen.

Vacuum up messes when they occur.

Wash dirty dishes and wipe off the counters before the food dries on them.

Fold clothes when they emerge from the dryer.

Iron clothes while they are still slightly damp.

A lot of clutter in your home will disappear if you follow this rule. It's not much more than leaving a room the way you found it. If there wasn't toothpaste spread on the sink before you came into the room, there shouldn't be any there when you leave it. This rule solves clutter problems without adding one second of time or one ounce of work to anyone's overwhelmed schedule. It doesn't involve any extra time to take dirty dishes to the kitchen if you're going there anyway to get a glass of water. It doesn't take any extra time to carry your shoes to your bedroom if you're going up there anyway to do your homework.

Rule 12: Label things.
We're not talking about putting a label just on the kids' gym shorts, although that's a prudent idea. We're talking about labeling things around the house—things that people don't label because they don't think of it or because they think it isn't necessary. How often have you gone to a storage closet to retrieve something from a cardboard box you had stored there yourself, only to find that there are now six cardboard boxes there and they all look the same? You start by muscling down what you think is the correct box and taking off the tape with which you so carefully sealed it. After you discover that an item isn't in that box, you halfway reseal it with the used tape and start on the next box. Let's say you do eventually find the item you're looking for—it's just that it's forty-five minutes and six boxes later. That's the kind of problem that labeling can avoid.

LABEL STORAGE BOXES
Label all storage boxes to avoid the grief outlined above. Get a good marking pen and, at least on cardboard boxes, write on the box itself. Try hard to avoid the label "Miscellaneous." Other examples of labels that may come back to haunt you are "Garage Sale" or "Charity." Even if your label ends up listing everything in the box, doing so is still simpler than looking through your entire collection of boxes. Usually you can get away with a label such as "Books" or "Summer Clothes"—as long as you don't have more than one box with that same label. Use a label just complete enough so you can tell what's in the box without actually opening it. When you add or remove items from a box, change the label accordingly.

LABEL FROZEN FOOD
Everything starts to look alike after a few days in the freezer. That's understandable if you wrap items in aluminum foil, of course, but food stored even in plastic wrap turns white and crystalline and becomes disguised quickly enough.

Put a roll of inch-wide masking tape and a pen in a drawer next to the freezer wrap of your choice. Use a length of the tape to make a label for everything you freeze. Also add the date to the label: If you have more than one package of chicken, you'll know which one to use first.

Rule 13: Call in a professional.
A whole new profession has arisen of saintly people who make their living solving other people's clutter and organizational problems. They will come into your home and—working either with you or by themselves—will clean out the closets, install the necessary organizers, set up a filing system for you, and generously encourage the calm you've longed for to emerge from the chaos that's been driving you crazy.

How do you find a pro? Look in the yellow pages under "Organizing." In the San Francisco yellow pages they're listed under "Organizing Services and Systems—Household and Business." Another place to look is through community-oriented classes. Household organizing or anti-clutter classes are taught several times a year in San Francisco, and the instructors usually work in the field themselves.

There's a catch to this rule, however: We insist that you use it only if you promise to follow all the other rules once the professional has come and gone. He or she will leave, and the clutter will return almost immediately unless you modify your behavior. Implementing this rule does not reduce the number of rules to just this one, in other words.