Stuff for Your Stuff

This is part 2 of a mini-series on the benefits of minimalism. Click here to read part 1: The Tyranny of Choice. Click here to check out an excellent resource, The Minimalists.

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After Christmas is the best time to buy storage bins. Big Box stores (a crazy sobriquet if ever I heard one) will put large plastic totes on sale because they know you just got a whole lot of stuff at Christmas, and you need a place to put it all. Or you bought new decorations for the holidays and now need to store them.

You can buy plastic totes with Snap-on lids and plastic totes with flip top lids that interlock when you close them. There are shoebox sizes and under the bed sizes and nest able sizes. You can buy ugly utility totes to store in the basement, but if you want your stuff within easy reach, you can buy pretty storage containers to match your décor.

Christmas is a great time to buy storage containers; a change in seasons is a great time to simplify your life.

We're coming back inside after three months of summer. We'll be seeing our stuff up close and personal for the next five months. Winter is long in the northeast, but even if your summer activities will bleed into October and November, the beginning of fall is a great time to decide what you need and what you need to get rid of.

I'm not neat by nature, but with the help of a by-weekly cleaner and by purging unnecessary objects from my life, I can keep my apartment relatively neat. My current health situation demands a walk area void of trip hazards, and the more stuff I have, the harder it is for me to take care of it. That's true for me as a person with health issues, but it's true for you as well. The easiest way to stay organized is to purge what you don't absolutely need.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. First, focus on one area at a time. Take one room, one closet, one drawer at a time. Or set a time limit: do as much as you can in fifteen minutes. Keep in mind the mess may get worse before it gets better! Focusing on one drawer will make step two easier.

2. Collect and sort. From this one drawer or one closet, take it all out and put it in a pile. All of it. Look at the pile and choose the essentials that you want to keep. Don't hesitate. If your first thought is a wavering, "Oh, I don't know," then you really don't need it. Leave the keep pile alone for a minute and

3. Fling the rest. My cleaning lady, my dear friend Tracy, calls it "flinging boogie," and I've gotten good at it over the years. We'll deal with sentimental objects later, but for now toss everything not in the keep pile. If it's in good condition, try selling it on craigslist or facebook marketplace, but give yourself a time limit. If it doesn't sell by "next Friday" take it to Goodwill or Salvation Army.

4. Organize. Now you can buy those pretty organizational tools, like drawer organizers and shelf boxes. Don't crowd things; leave space. It makes grabbing what you need easier, and if you don't have to root around, the drawer or closet will stay neater longer.

This quick guide can be used on closets, desk drawers, kitchen cabinets, and bookshelves. We'll deal specifically with clothes and sentimental objects later. For now, do one or two sections and reward yourself with an easy, unconstrained deep breath.