Decluttering Confessions: Simple Organizing Tips That Stick

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I’m excited to celebrate the launch of my book Simple Organizing and to kick off the Simple Organizing Clutter Confessions Blog Tour. Over the next few days a group of blogging friends will share honest looks at clutter in their homes. I’ll share my own clutter confession here, and below you’ll find links to the other bloggers on the tour.

Be sure to scroll through the post, visit the other participants, and enter the giveaway at the end.

Simple Organizing Book

We all enjoy looking at beautifully organized spaces, yet aiming for perfection in our own homes often stops us from making any progress. Today I want to focus on practical steps you can take this spring to improve how your home functions.

To encourage realistic, manageable change, I asked several blogging friends to show a real clutter spot in their homes. We all have them — the question is why they happen and what we’ll do about them.

If you read my decluttering book Make Room for What You Love, you know I emphasize being clear about the purpose of each drawer, basket, or shelf. When intentions are vague, people interpret them differently, and that’s how organization systems break down.

Case in point: my house.

Exhibit A (pictured at the top of this page)
“Baskets for kitchen overflow” located in my front hallway.

Exhibit B.
“Clutter” found within the baskets.

These baskets were invaluable during our kitchen remodel. They gave temporary homes to items that needed a place while work was in progress. From afar, the hallway looked neat and tidy. The problem started when the temporary system became permanent without a clear rule about what belonged in those baskets.

I neglected one of my key organizing rules, and that’s when things went wrong.

When a drawer is clearly labeled as a silverware drawer, everyone understands what belongs there and what doesn’t. If someone put pants in the silverware drawer, it would be obvious and corrected quickly. The baskets in my hallway were labeled only as “kitchen overflow,” which left too much room for interpretation.

Here’s a sampling of what I found inside basket number one:

Exhibit C
Mission Trip 2006.
This is a relic that clearly doesn’t belong in a basket meant for current kitchen overflow — and we moved into this house years after 2006.

Exhibit D
Yearbook, 2007 — again, out of place. Also a Phil Wickham CD, which is odd since we don’t own a CD player.

Exhibit E.
An embroidery hoop. I don’t embroider and rarely do crafts, so this was a mystery — another example of things that accumulate when a space lacks a clear purpose.

Exhibit F.
A chewed-up lid for wall putty, likely gnawed by our dog, Jack. There’s a trash can nearby, so keeping the lid makes little sense — and the putty itself was missing.

Exhibit G.
Faux Christmas greenery. Apparently I kept it there to be ready for quick decorating, but it only added to the clutter.

By the time I reached this point in my inspection, I was ready to stop — overwhelmed by how much had accumulated. Clearly, those baskets needed a better purpose. It was time for spring decluttering.

The good news: from a distance the baskets still look tidy. Deep baskets are helpful because they hide clutter and keep a space feeling streamlined, which is better than items scattered across shelves. But hidden clutter multiplies if we don’t manage it.

As life changes, our organizing systems must adapt. We need to periodically pare down what we keep so our homes support the life we want to live. A home should be a sanctuary, not a storage room. I remind myself of that often — it motivates the decluttering and organizing work that helps me feel calm and inspired.

Simple Organizing – Available Now!

Now it’s time for the Clutter Confessions tour. Enjoy visiting today’s participants!

ENJOY THE CLUTTER CONFESSIONS TOUR BELOW!

Home Stories A to Z

Enjoy the tour, and thank you to all the bloggers and friends who have supported this book launch — I’m so grateful for each of you.