How to keep clutter away

Day 52/365

This is the picture of my room during the last year of my college. It's hard to imagine, but for 2 years I actually had to share this same room with another guy. Storage space for me then was limited to 2 shelves in a small cupboard for clothes. Rest of the stuff oscillated between the bed and the table.

It seems to me that the more space we get, the more stuff we find to clutter it with. The apartment I shifted to after college was bigger (though not that big as it’s still Mumbai), but became just as cluttered in a few months.

It was then when I came across the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. And some of the tips I picked up from it truly were life-changing.

Here are a few tips that have helped me keep a check on the clutter.

Keep things where you can see them

Can you tell off the top of your head, how many t-shirts you have? I’ll bet you’ll be way off. One of the biggest reason for clutter is that we store things out of sight and in a way that their quantity is not readily apparent.

Things should be stored in a way that you can guess the quantity just by looking at them once. If you keep seeing you have plenty of anything, you will automatically be motivated to clear them out.

Don’t try to hide your clutter.

Categorize before you organize

This one seems really obvious but most people miss this. Whenever you take up the task of organizing your desk, your room, or your house it is best to first take everything and group them in categories before you start organizing. It’s simple, once you know how much of something you have only then can you decide on the best place to put it.

Have designated places for your stuff

Everything in your room must have a place that it should go to. Don’t just throw your keys anywhere on your desk, keep a small bowl just for your keys and wallet. Have a small jar or an old plastic container to keep your loose change. Have specific places in your cupboard for socks, ties, and so on.

Organizing your room once might be tough, but keeping it organized for a long period of time is even tougher. It would be easier if you are aware of where everything needs to go.

Again, just like with all self-help techniques, it's better to do one thing right then trying to achieve everything and failing. Start off with something small, just organize your desk drawer and try to keep it that way for a week or two.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — The Human Alarm clocks