It’s amazing how a small amount of clutter can be set aside to be dealt with at a later time and before you know it your desk is covered, the kitchen table hasn’t been seen in months, and you’re not sure what happened to your bills for this month. You may have realized that clutter adds up quickly. Now you want to figure out what to do with it.
We all know recycling is important so if you can reuse something you already have to cut the clutter, you avoid adding more to the already too full landfills. By repurposing things you already have, you’re doing your part to care for the earth. Here are some things to consider:
If your family eats cereal for breakfast, don’t throw out the boxes. Wrap them in contact paper or wrapping paper, cut diagonally to remove one corner of the box, and then store magazines you’d like to keep in them. You can do something similar with detergent boxes as long as you won’t mind having them smell spring fresh.
Baskets are another clutter buster if you know how to use them. They can be painted and decorated to match your décor, then you can store current magazines and sales catalogs in them rather than leaving them spread out all over the house. Small baskets can hold a pen and paper to be kept near the telephone so messages can be taken easily. Use a basket to store your napkins, salt and pepper shakers, and other items that would otherwise stay on the dining room table during a meal when you’re not eating.
A calendar with large spaces is another great clutter buster. Instead of having to leaf through stacks of papers to find out when your child’s field trip is, you can add the date and time to the calendar as soon as you get the note and then toss the paper. If you do that with every appointment you and family members have, soon you’ll have a clean desk, won’t miss scheduled appointments, and have a much more organized family.
File cabinets are an obvious choice for helping to tame paper clutter. However, they don’t do a whole lot of good if you don’t have a filing system in place and actually use the files to store your important papers. Look at yard sales and going out of business sales to avoid having to shell out some serious money. Besides keeping files in them, you can also store crafts supplies, children’s arts supplies, and other items.
Use 3-ring binders to help you file papers if you can’t afford a file cabinet. You may have to use several of them to file everything you could fit in a file cabinet, but they’re easier to move and can be taken into a different area of the house if need be.
Clutter busters are all around you if you take the time to look for them. Reuse items in your home for something other than their original purpose. Take the time to de-clutter each day and before long your home will be clear of clutter.
