More Great Tips from The Household Helper

When I started the blog internship, I was still unpacking boxes in our new house.  I reached a point where I didn’t know what to do with all the stuff we had accumulated, so I asked The Household Helper for help.  Here are more guidelines on how to sort through clutter after a move.  Her six month rule is awesome–if you don’t know what to do with something after six months, get rid of it.

I have items  from the move that I’m just not sure what to do with.  Do I store these things or make a decision to get rid of them?  I would call these the “gray” areas of clutter — I can see the usefulness of hanging onto items, but don’t necessarily love them or feel anything other than they may be useful  ”someday.”

Your decor may be the biggest challenge.  Sometimes items that you loved in your new home don’t quite work.  Before throwing your hands up in frustration, take some time to try your items in different rooms and areas.  You can use T-pins (found in the quilting section of craft stores) to temporarily hang items.  You can hang items with these pins without putting big holes in your walls.

Once you have the basics unpacked and settled, let your items float from area to area for about a week. If after that time you haven’t made a commitment, it’s time to either toss it or store it.

• limit the items you can hang onto for “some day” to only things that will fit in that box. If the box is full, and there is something you want to add to it, you need to purge the box and make room for it.
• set yourself a date to re-visit the box in say 6 months.  If by then you haven’t found a home for those items, then it’s time to let them go.
• Another really fun and practical idea is to host a swap.  I did this a couple years ago. I invited my friends and family over for cake and coffee and told them to bring any unused decor with them: artwork, shelves, accessories.  While socializing and snacking, we all got to go “shopping” for new decor.   We had the opportunity to help each other out with our decor dilemmas and bounce ideas off each other.

photo credit: ifindkarma