One of the best ways to increase quality time with your family is to better organize your home by clutter control. You can efficiently organize and manage your household by controlling the clutter and, in the process, eliminate the frustration of time spent on locating misplaced items.

Establish a daily Clutter Control Plan. Set aside a specific time and amount of time each day devoted to rounding up and removing clutter. Remember that the house did not accumulate clutter overnight and neither will it be clutter-free overnight. By taking small daily steps following the Clutter Control Plan, your home will become more manageable.

Pinpoint an area or specific room of your home to attack first. Use a timer to help stay focused. Useful supplies include garbage bags, three boxes, magic markers and a dust rag. Label each box as give away, trash or put away. Line the trash and give away boxes with a plastic garbage bag. Set your timer and head for the designated area. Work your way around the room in one direction only. Do not skip a space. Pick up and separate items and trash that do not belong in that room by putting them in the appropriately labeled boxes. Take time to dust as you proceed. Put trash in the trash box, donations in the give away box and things that go somewhere else in the put away box. To help determine which items go into which container ask:
• Is this something that is useful or has sentimental value?
• Has this item been used it in the past year?
• Is this trash or can another family use it?
• Do we have a newer, better one?
• Do we have two of this item?

As soon as the trash box gets full, lift the garbage bag out and take it immediately in the garbage bin. Then line the trash box with a new garbage bag. When the giveaway box gets full, tie the garbage bag up, take it to your car immediately and again line that box with another garbage bag. Next time you are running errands, you can donate the give away bag to an area thrift shop. Avoid excess stress by believing you can get rid of clutter in a yard sale. Instead, get a receipt for the donated items for your taxes from the local thrift shop or charity. When the put away box gets full, take the box to the rooms where the items belong. Put them away if they have a place. If not, put them in the room where they most sensibly belong until you have time to set aside a specific space for those items.

Make a plan to go through each room of your home. When the timer goes off, put away the three boxes until the next day’s Clutter Control round begins.

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