Tips about Sorting Your House and Throwing out Old Stuff

I recently inherited some stuff that has been lying around since the 1970s. Here are some tips that worked for me in sorting these out:

○ If you want to throw away two things, but you’re not sure because you might need them later, throw one away today, and the rest some other time, when you’re sure. This is better than rushing and throwing away things you later turn out to need, which you’ll regret. Or going the other extreme and not throwing away even one.

○ Another technique is to designate a shelf as a pre-trash bin. Put things there which you intend to throw away, instead of in the trash. You’ll realise that a few are still useful. Move them back. After a month or two, throw the remaining away.

○ You don’t need to complete the re-organisation by some predetermined date, as long as you’re making steady progress. Focus on taking one step today.

○ If you’re not sure whether to throw something away, unplug it for a while and see if you miss it. For example, I have two fridges, and I unplugged the old one for a couple of months. I haven’t missed it, but I might. So I waited three more months and, when I was sure, I threw it away.

Organising what you keep

○ Keep frequently used items readily accessible, and the rest in a store room. If you mix up frequently and infrequently used items, the former will be hard to find, causing a small amount of daily annoyance.

○ Sometimes we’re not sure what to put in your store room. For example, how many plates and of what sizes do you need in your kitchen for regular use? To answer this, put away all plates in the store room. All of them. Then, each time you need a plate, check if the plate you want is in the kitchen. If not, take it out of the store room and use it. Once you do, don’t put it back in the store room. After a while, the items that are in your kitchen are the ones you need in your kitchen.

○ Clean items before putting them away. They’ll be ready to use, and you don’t want shelves full of dirty things.

○ Use Ziploc bags.

○ Organise things logically, like all knives in one place, all medicines in one shelf, and kitchen appliances in one place. As another example, I’ve decided to put only personal items — clothes, accessories, deodorant, etc — in my bedroom. I found things that don’t fit this description (like a measuring tape) in my bedroom closet, so I moved them out. This makes it easy to find what I want later. If it’s a kitchen appliance, I know where they all are. Organise top-down: first pick a room and then a place in that room. Don’t put it in a different room just because there’s no place in the right room.

○ Label your bags with a permanent marker that describes their purpose:

This makes it easy to find what you want, and ensures that things are organised logically. For example, I’m not going to put a spoon along with potato mashers. Without labels, it becomes easy to mix things up.

○ Organising happens in iterations. Don’t try to get it all done in one go. It’s fine if you finished sorting your bedroom and kitchen and wait a few weeks before you sort the rest of the house. If you don’t have ideas on how to organise, or what to do next, don’t force yourself. Let it come naturally.

○ Be tolerant towards some messiness such as in one room till you’re done organising.

○ Once you’re done organising a room fully, don’t let junk in it. For example, I’ve finished organising my kitchen and bedroom, so I won’t put anything there that I’m not sure about, or temporarily while I think of where it belongs. A room once organised should stay organised.

○ Put things in closed places where they’ll stay clean. Close ziploc bags¹ and cupboard doors fully, lest dust and bugs get in.

1. Unless you’re careful, they’re easy to close almost but not fully, which lets air and insects in.