8 proven tips for cleaning up indoor clutter

Does looking at disorder typically make you feel paralyzed and overwhelmed? Is "stuff" taking over your living space? Luckily, the process of getting rid of clutter is actually quite simple if you know what to do. Here are eight tips to help you clean up clutter quickly.

Don't try and tackle everything all at once. Organizing your home, office, files, desk or anything else comes down to three steps:

1. Eliminate the things you don't need, want, use or love.
2. Categorize what remains by grouping similar things together.
3. Organize the categories by having a place for everything and everything in its place.

Whatever system of organization you come up with should fulfill three basic requirements if it's going to be a success. What does that mean? The system should be:

• Beautiful so it makes you happy to look at it and to work in.
• Functional because beauty without function is meaningless.
• Easy for the user to maintain.

Once you've decided to do something about your clutter, begin by analyzing the clutter clusters, i.e., where the clutter tends to "live."

• Make a list of where clutter tends to accumulate most frequently.
• Write down how the clutter clusters are impacting your life.
• Jot down the kind of "stuff" you'll find in various clutter piles, e.g., shoes, books, clothes, to get a better idea of what you're dealing with.

If you have trouble doing these steps off the top of your head, physically go from room to room and make note of any clutter you encounter.

If you have clutter, some of it is almost certainly paper. Paper is a major clutter category.

• Try and figure out your specific pattern of creating paper clutter – unread newspapers and magazines, newspaper clippings, old mail, children's school papers, notes or lists, or all of the above?
• Anything that falls into the "junk mail" category can be recycled immediately.
• Keep a paper recycling bin nearby so you can toss anything unwanted into it immediately.

For paper containing confidential information (e.g., a credit card slip) buy a paper shredder or have the papers securely shredded by a company that specializes in destroying documents bearing personal information.

Is your problem that clothes aren't organized? Or that you're chronically unable to get rid of things that no longer fit, are out of style, worn out or were never worn for some reason? Clothing is another common cause of clutter in the home.

• Set up three boxes to sort through clothes you want to keep, which are to be donated, items you may want to re-sell, and those that should be discarded.

Along with clothes, other common kinds are clutter are related to your home office space, pets, books, CDs and DVDs, electronics, hobbies, children's toys and kitchen utensils.

Before you begin your clutter attack, recognize that the feeling of being overwhelmed goes with the territory and don't let it stop you.

Break it down
Break the job into small parts, because each tiny part that you conquer will lift your spirits.

Pick a starting point
To pick a starting point, find the area that bothers you the most, such as the kitchen.

• If it's a large area, like the garage or garden shed, pick one tiny part — let's say a cabinet you've stored there.

Make it manageable
Pick one tiny part of your starting point, such as a single drawer in the kitchen. It will seem more manageable this way.

Do the tough stuff first
You could also pick the most irritating area in your starting point, such as the kitchen table where you can hardly find space to eat because of all the papers and other stuff.

• Pick a pile from one corner of the table.

Give it a priority
Go to work on your chosen area using a cleaning system based on how urgently things need to be cleaned.

• If your bathroom is an untidy mess, make it a priority vs. your attic where you rarely go.
• "Active" living spaces such as the living room, bedrooms and kitchen should be tackled first.

Don't linger over items. You have to be ruthless.

• Depending on how old your pile is, you've probably managed without some items for weeks, months or years.
• Think clearly about what is in the pile, how often items there been used, and when you last needed them. It will help you realize you can probably do without many of them forever.

If you have things you are going to keep and want to store away, such as children's clothing that will be handed down to younger children in a few years, sort and label them well.

• For example, have separate boxes for "1–2 years", "3–4 years" and so on.

Don't mix everything you keep together and create a future nightmare when you want to find something fast. Grab a big fat marker and label boxes as they fill up.

• Sort similar items into several boxes vs. having them all labelled as "miscellaneous." This won't help your goal of eliminating clutter. It only serves to move it out of sight.