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Clutter Busters: How to Accumulate Less

Give junk the boot and create more time, space, freedom and money in your pocket. Here's where to start and how to make the habit last

Sally Hart 11 August 2014

I love spatial planning with unique problems to solve. With decades of designing spaces, a qualification in nursing, a parent of two wonderful grown kids, managing a rural property and business I understand the requirements, joys, and realities of family/professional life. I love the fact that my years of experience are an asset to my clients in discerning what they need and what they don't. I love the practical, and I want it to be beautiful. I genuinely love working with our wonderful clients who come to us with trust and respect in asking us to beautify their homes.

I love spatial planning with unique problems to solve. With decades of designing... More

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Australian homeowners are allocating twice the space to storage as they did 20 years ago, and they still don’t think it’s enough. The price of storage is directly proportionate to size. Cabinetry is one of the biggest-ticket items on the interior spend, so it makes good sense to insist that what is being stored is worthy of its expensive position.

Before we show you how to clear your home of unnecessary clutter, you must first learn to adopt a policy of accumulating less.

IKEA

I’m always asked how to clear clutter, and the solution isn’t as simple as a good clean out and a new storage system. While those steps can certainly be part of the process, the solution is actually about accumulating less in the first place.

To accumulate less requires a certain level of modification to our behaviour. We need to understand that what comes into our homes is permitted by us, and that permission for clutter to enter our front doors is often just inferred rather than given. If we fail to adopt a stringent policy about what comes into our homes, we are destined to be the passive recipients of stuff that chews into our space, time, pleasure and pocket.

Shabby-Chic Style Bedroom Eclectic Bedroom

Firstly, recognise clutter the moment it approaches your home.
Often disguised as a welcome addition, we don’t recognise clutter for the bad tenant it is. Look around your home and identify the clutter creep. How much of the following has your open-door policy permitted?

Stuff you never wanted
Stuff you have never used
Stuff you don’t need any more
Stuff that is sentimental or memorabilia
Other people’s stuff

Sanctum Design

Develop a policy about what is worthy of your valuable space. Recognise clutter in all its forms. It is not alway obvious junk – it might be valuable, but if it is not your taste or useful to you or your home, don’t allow it in.

Now, lets look at some of the frequent ways clutter creeps in.

Jeanette Karlsen

1. Stuff you have never wanted

Junk mail
Free stuff, for example conference material/’goody bags’, toys from fast-food chains/promotional materials
Unwanted offerings from friends/family
Promotional flyers at shopping centres

Say no to all the free stuff. It’s free because it’s junk! Stop these items before they get to your front door – ideally, don’t even let them into the car. Refuse to accept them, or throw them in the bin before you enter your home.

Place a bin near your letter box or garage so that if they get as far as the home, they don’t get past the entryway.

Tamar Schechner/Nest Pretty Things Inc

2. Stuff you have never used
Are you guilty of acquiring the following items?

Jumble sales/fete finds
Products bought on the Home Shopping Channel
Resolution buys (such as sporting goods)
Craft and hobby paraphernalia
Garage sale/bargain items
Short-fix solutions to entertain children
Things that ‘might come in handy one day’

Beware and resist impulse buys. Realise that if you really need something, you might like to research what you need, then buy well. You will buy fewer things and they will be better choices.

Rikki Snyder

3. Stuff you don’t need any more
Look around your home, how many of the following items are lying around unused?

Sporting/pet equipment
Clothing
Toys
Paint tins
Garden supplies
Linen
Crockery/utensils/containers
Luggage and backpacks
Books and magazines
Jewellery
Technology/old cables
Files/papers
Cosmetics and medicinal goods
Old keys
Tools
Camping gear

Our lives evolve and our possessions reflect this. Consider borrowing equipment for new activities in order to trial whether you like it. For example, if you need to drill a hole in the wall, you need the hole and not the drill! Review items and send them on to someone that can use them or sell or dispose of them once they have served you.

flickr.com

4. Sentimental memorabilia
In other words: emotional and physical baggage. Decide if you really want this stuff. If the truth is that you’re keeping it out if guilt, it is pointless. Try to find somebody that would genuinely appreciate the sentiment or otherwise the value. If there isn’t anyone that wants it, free yourself from the emotional and physical clutter.
Perhaps take a photo of it if that makes you feel better, then get rid of it. Rotting in the attic isn’t doing anything or anyone justice.

Rylex Custom Cabinetry and Closets

5. Other people’s stuff
It’s common for your kids, friends and family to use your place as a depot, but this can get out of hand. Beware of storing other people’s things – they frequently end up yours permanently, leaving you with the chore of disposal.

If you’re going to help out in this way, try to set the expectation of how long they intend you to store it for – at least that brings to their mind that you have an expectation it is temporary. If people, particularly children, have not had their own space, they may have no concept that your space is valuable. They will store things at your place that are ‘sentimental’ until they leave home. Then, they will often throw it away because they don’t really want to store it!

Sow the seed early, when they are teenagers, that they need to cull their things because they won’t have space when they move out. This sets the expectation that their stuff is theirs and goes with them.

Luci.D Interiors

Accumulating less in the office. Products such as Receipt Bank and Shoe Boxed will scan your receipts and invoices, accurately extract the key information and securely store the data and images online. Software is available to store wills and passwords safely, which also makes accessing them easy. Digitise as much as possible, including using cloud software for administration and accounting. The paperless office is achievable.

Morgan Howarth Photography

Accumulating less in the bedroom. Stop buying things you don’t need … or don’t even like. Instead, buy classics that don’t date. Know your wardrobe so that you don’t replicate unintentionally – photograph your clothes before shopping if need be. Love it, wear it, wear it out.

Hide & Sleep Interior Design

Accumulating less in kids’ spaces. If the kids are getting new toys, they need to cull. Teach them the principles of life – we don’t get to have everything. Toy libraries are a good concept if you can work it into your routine, or swap with friends.

A gentle way of achieving the same thing is to have a box that is put away for a while to be disposed of later – a ‘transition box’, so if it turns out that they really, really chose to remove the wrong item, it can be reversed. Depending on the age of the child, they may well just forget about it and you remove it without any fuss at all, otherwise you have an agreement about a timeframe that is appropriate for the age.

CAPITAL BUILDING

TELL US
What are you guilty of accumulating? What tried and tested tricks do you have to stop these items from getting through the door?

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Kerrie Langloy7

Really great article I've found very useful. Stuff you can't sell & don't want to waste by throwing away you can give a new home to on www.freecycle.org.au

1 Like 15 March 2016 at 9:08am

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PRO

Clever Closet Company

thanks Kerrie, I'm glad you like it. it looks like you started on the same page anyway;)\

1 Like 15 March 2016 at 9:15am

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Margaret Barkley

We’ve stopped junk accumulating by banning Xmas presents between the extended family apart from the children. Saves a lot of time and energy trying to dream up presents for family members who are trying as hard to declutter as we are.

Like 31 January 2019 at 11:16pm