When people ask me for some ideas about how
to approach clearing clutter, there are some
that come up over and over.
Now, I have a lot of ideas.
Some work for some people and not for others,
so nothing's universal, but there are some
that people seem to find particularly helpful
that really do strike a chord.
And one is the ex factor.
So this is when you're trying to imagine an
outfit or, you know, a shirt or a skirt or
a pair of pants.
Ask yourself, if I was wearing this item and
I ran into my ex on the street, would I feel
good that I was wearing this item, or would
I really wish that I was wearing something
else?
And if it fails the ex factor test, it's probably
something that you can give away.
Another thing to keep in mind when you're
clearing clutter is to think about other people.
I mean, imagine far in the future.
You're gone.
Your stuff is still there.
And everybody's arriving at your place and
having to deal with your stuff.
Don't force other people to deal with your
clutter.
Think about it now.
Like, are they going to want to deal with
this broken bread maker, or can you take care
of that now?
Should you go through all those paperbacks
that are falling into pieces now, or should
you wait for somebody else to have to do it
once you're gone?
One really helpful thing to do is to create
a mystery box, because we've all had this
experience where, like, there's a cord, but
what is it a cord to?
Or there's an attachment to the vacuum cleaner.
Is it important?
Is it not important?
In my family, it's remote controls.
We have all of these kind of loose remote
controls floating around.
And I'm like, I don't even know exactly what
it controls, other than it controls something
remotely.
But what is it?
I don't know.
But they do feel important.
They often look important.
And so we can be reluctant to get rid of them.
One thing you can do is you can create a box
and put everything in there.
If you're not sure exactly if it's useful,
if it's necessary, put it in the box.
So if you're all of a sudden looking for a
cord, you can think, ah, I bet I put it in
the box, put the date on the box when you
start it.
And after a year, if you haven't gone in there
to get anything out, well, then you can get
rid GRETCHEN RUBIN: One of my favorite clutter
clearing tips is something that I figured
out for myself, because I noticed that sometimes
I'd be, like, walking through my house or
looking through a closet or a cupboard, and
I would think, should I get rid of this?
And I would ponder it, and then I'd be like,
mm, I guess I'll keep it.
And then I, you know, some time would go by,
and then I'd find myself walking by and I'd
think, eh, do I really need this?
And then, like, well, I think I'll keep it.
And now I'm like, probably I should have gotten
rid of it the first time it occurred to me,
but now, if it's occurred to me three times
that I should toss something, recycle something,
or give something away, I say I'm ready to
let go of that thing.
Three strikes, One thing to think about as
you're clearing clutter is can you put the
spaces in your home to their correct use.
Research shows that about 25% of people in
the United States don't use their garage because
they can't get their car in.
They're using their garage for storage.
And similarly, people have sun porches which
are full of junk.
They have rooms that could be libraries or
music rooms or guest rooms or yoga rooms or
meditation rooms or solariums.
They could be anything, except they somehow
become a junk room.
So if you have a room in your house that's
being used not for an idea that you want it
to be used for that, or maybe it's supposed
to be dedicated to an entirely different purpose,
ask yourself, would it make us happier as
a household if we actually could dine in our
dining room, or actually put our car in our
garage?
Because often, when we get rid of everything
we don't need, don't use, don't love, then
we open up these spaces for a use Yeah, yeah.
One of my favorite tips about how to clear
clutter and create outer order is the one-minute
rule.
And I have to say, for my sister Elizabeth,
who's the co-host of my Happier podcast, this
is the rule that she says has helped her the
most.
So the one-minute rule is that, if there's
something that you can do in less than a minute,
do it without delay.
So if you can print something out and file
it and delete the email, if you can hang up
your coat, if you can put something in the
garbage instead of just, like, throwing it
on the floor or leaving it next to your computer
on your desk, go ahead and do it.
And what this does is that, in these little,
tiny increments of time-- you know, so you're
not having to spend a lot of time, energy,
or money on clearing clutter, just in these
little interstices of your life, you're getting
rid of sort of that scum on the surface of
life, those little tiny tasks that are inconsequential
on their own, but they build up.
And we've all had the feeling of walking into
an office or walking to your desk or getting
in your car or walking into your bedroom and
thinking, oh my gosh, I want to walk right
out again, because I just see all this stuff
I have to claw my way through.
The one-minute rule keeps these things from
accumulating.
And that just gives us a much richer sense
of kind of optimism and energy, and just more
space to move.
