Dusty CDs, old magazines and decorations that you no longer like? If you want a tidy home, you should start with a system.
Just put something here and something thrown there – it already looks messy in your own four walls. What helps against chaos is a system. But where do you start when you clean up and where do you get your motivation from? In an interview with spot on news, Michael T. Wurster gives tips. He wrote the book “30 minutes. Tidy up forever” (Gabal) and knows what mucking out is all about.
Change your point of view and take photos of every room
“If you want to get rid of clutter as quickly as possible, the best thing to do is grab your smartphone first and photograph every room from different angles,” recommends Wurster. Then you should look at the photos very carefully and pay attention to what strikes you. How so? “By looking at your own four walls with photos, you get a certain distance that can make mucking out incredibly easier,” explains the author.
By the way, future progress is also visualized. “And if pictures emerge while taking a photo that you would like to delete immediately, shock therapy starts that will fuel the great mucking out,” says Wurster.
Digitization creates a lot of space
Wurster points out that you keep a lot of items even though you hardly ever use them any more: “Although you can stream films, series and music via various providers such as Netflix, Disney + or Amazon Music today, pretty much everyone still has a collection of DVDs and CDs on the shelf. ” The honest question is therefore: “Do we still need all of this in the age of digitization?”
The tidying expert has a tip for everyone who is not sure what should be gone and what should be left: “Mark the respective DVD case with a small dot sticker as soon as you insert the film into the DVD player. Also You can do the same for CDs or other media. After a few months you will see from the number of stickers whether you are still using all the DVDs and CDs. ”
Enlarge the trash
Wurster also advises using a box for the paper trash. “This box should be big enough that it is possible to put A4 sheets of paper in it and stack them,” he explains: “After all, a stack of paper is much more space-saving than crumpled paper balls.” If you want it to be particularly tidy, you can also hide this paper box elegantly in a drawer. “In this way, all of the paper waste is no longer in the field of vision.”
Throwing away on trial
“The instincts of hunters and gatherers rest in most people. Real collectors quickly feel emotional pain when they have to give things away from their collections or even throw them away,” says the expert. He recommends a compromise for these people: Trashing them on trial. Wurster explains: “All things that you apparently can’t separate from come in one box. Most likely, several ‘test’ boxes come together, all of which are taken to the basement or the attic store after they have been tidied up.”
The advantage: This allows space to be created immediately – without losing anything. “At least for now,” adds the author. The sorted boxes should be labeled so that you can keep an overview. Wurster recommends writing this information on the boxes: “Who is the box from? What date was it created? When is the throw-away date?” The throw-away date is in the future. “On that date, you throw away the entire ‘sample’ box. Provided, of course, that you haven’t had to open it for some important reason.” And he has another tip: “By equipping these boxes with consecutive numbering and at the same time creating a table of contents for each box, you always have an overview.”
Work strategically and involve others in the clean-up process
Start somewhere, stop somewhere? Wurster doesn’t believe in haphazardly moving around. He therefore recommends: “Prepare the tidying-up process with sticky notes. To do this, stick individual pieces of paper on doors or shelf elements and number them consecutively.” What exactly needs to be done then is recorded on a to-do list. For everyone who likes to avoid work, the expert has one advice: “To make sure that your ‘future self’ really deals with the matter, you can enter dates next to the to-dos, which will then be added to your calendar.”
In a multi-person household, the tasks could be divided among different people. “The big sorting out is broken down into very small steps in this way. These can be implemented extremely quickly,” the expert is convinced. Occasionally it could also be useful to fix the notes with adhesive strips so that they do not fall off shortly afterwards. “But be careful: be careful not to damage sensitive furniture surfaces”, warns Wurster.
Get rid of clutter permanently
“If you want to get rid of clutter permanently, you have to develop an eye for the big picture: Get rid of all ballast and create space,” explains the author and adds: “Then you have to establish clear rules of the game for the home. ” For this, according to Wurster, it is necessary to carry out “permanent optimization work” and to stick to it “with high discipline”.