Eugenia Orr - Clutter-Free Home Living: The How-To Guide

Author Profile:

Eugenia Orr - Eugenia Orr, a native Chicagoan, has studied Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Planning,Real Estate, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Olivet Nazarene University. She is theN'Teriors Editor for N'Digo Magapaper, the Chicago Architecture and Design Examiner andhas been featured in Green Business Quarterly, Green Building Design, Our Annual GreenBook, and Chicago Agent Magazine. Check out Eugenias blog at www.thehavenmaven.net.For more tips and tricks check out Eugenias website at www.eugeniaorr.com or email her ateugenia@i4interiors.net.

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Clutter-Free Home Living: The How-To Guide
by Eugenia Orr

Researchers have found that we lose about a YEAR of our lives looking for items we need. A clutter-free home not only makes you and your guests feel more comfortable, it also makes the things you need easier to find, literally saving you time and money. In eight chapters, Clutter-Free Home Living: The How-To Guide will highlight the important reasons to get your house in order and how to do it. Youll learn step-by-step how you can better organize areas that tend to attract clutter, such as your kitchen, bathroom, and closets, and get you back on track. Youll also discover how to organize items such as gadgets and electronics that tend to go missing when you need them most, and how to purge the items that you dont really need.

Copyright 2011 Vook, Inc.
Compilation copyright 2011 Vook, Inc.
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Chapter 1

C ongratulations! By reading this book, youre taking a first step toward simplifying your life by creating a clutter-free home. Clutter is an addiction, and recovery from any addiction begins by admitting there is a problem. Only then can clutter be defeated.

So, youve admitted you have a problem with clutter and organization. Now, lets break down some common types of clutter to determine what kind of challenge you face and what kind of help you need.

• The Paper Pusher: Could you recycle a forests worth of trees from the magazines, notes, and junk mail stacked around your desk and couch? Have bills, statements, receipts, kids art projects, and other documents taken over your home simply because you fear you might throw away something youll need later? While every item is worth keeping, nothing can be found in indiscriminate towers of papers. Despite the fact that we live in an increasingly paperless, digital world, paper still accumulates. This is the plight of the Paper Pusher.
• The Runaway Fashionista: Maybe your clutter takes the form of clothing, shoes, jewelry, or other personal item. Even a fabulous collection of Jimmy Choos and Christian Louboutins can be too much of a good thing without the space to store them. If your closet is out of control, if finding the desired blouse or tie is a chore, if you buy new items to replace the ones buried under everything else, you just may be an out-of-control fashionista.
• The Furniture Hunter: Do your friends extra chairs, tables, and sofas seem to find a way to your house? Do your relatives pass their furniture on to you? Guess what? They passed those items on to keep their home from becoming a furniture showroom like yours has become. Priceless antiques are nothing more than alley-finds when theyre pushed to a corner, covered with clutter, or dusty from neglect. If your weaknesses are old desks, chairs, dressers, buffets and lamps, youre a confirmed Furniture Collector.
• The Product Junkie: Everyone likes to smell good, but when your bathrooms overrun with the latest shampoos, conditioners, and entire inventories of scents from Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, and Victorias Secret, its time to admit you might be a Product Junkie. The bathroom should be a place of serenity and calm.
• The Decor Disaster Victim: No home is complete without artwork and accessories. In fact, most designers will tell you that the key to any room is a well-placed set of accessories and art to enhance the color palette and furniture. One collection (possibly two) is more than enough for any room. Dont let a collection become an obsession!
• The Holiday Enthusiast: Do you decorate your home for every holiday? Could your Christmas lights tangle up the entire block? This seasonal obsessive loves to decorate for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Easter, Independence Day, St. Patricks Day, and every other holiday imaginable. She also has the napkins, candles, and flags to prove it!
• The Chronic Collector: Finally, if youre that person that holds on to just about everything, well, then, you are a Chronic Collector. This can be a bad situation, sometimes forcing you to leave your house just to find peace. Your home should be a haven; the one place you can go to relax, unwind, and get away from the stresses of everyday life. If the only way to get from one room to the next is by navigating six-inch paths, your home isnt at peaceits become a junk drawer.

Now that youve identified your problem, lets talk about some ways to ditch the clutter and find the beauty within.

Chapter 2

S o why be organized? The only way to clear clutter and keep it away is to know why you need to be organized. Since you identified your clutter problem in Chapter 1, lets focus on how staying clutter-free provides tangible benefits that make the effort worthwhile.

• Saving Money: If you constantly pay bills late because you cant find the statements, becoming more organized will help you to save money on late fees and keep your credit rating intact. Paper Pushers lose track of bills and statements along with more pleasant mail (like party invitations) in the shuffle. The Fashionista will find that a well-organized wardrobe saves money because its easy to recognize you dont need another pair of black pants when you can see clearly see 10 pairs already hanging in your tidy closet.
• Saving Time: If your commute is prolonged by the acrobatics required to cross your living room, the benefits of reducing clutter should be obvious. Meanwhile, many of us waste time by working harder rather than working smarter. Proper organization breeds efficiency, better time management, and peace of mind.
• Saving Space: Every clutter type, from the Runaway Fashionista to the Decor Disaster Victim, will benefit from an orderly living space. The Furniture Enthusiast will enjoy the freedom to move about the cabin freely once their home is no longer the dumping ground for their friends and familys used items. Once the house is clutter-free, guests will think twice about gifting you with so much stuff.

Those are general reasons to eliminate clutter and lead a more organized life. Your personal reasons may be even more meaningful. The most important thing is to identify the benefits you will enjoy by ridding your life of clutter. Write them down and post them in a prominent place as a constant reminder.