Use the Outdoor Technique to Declutter Your Closets and Drawers.
If you have a big mess in your home, you may already be using the piling method to fix it: you drag the clutter to the center of the room and then begin to clear it out little by little. But what about when the clutter is contained—as it technically should be—in containers, drawers, cabinets and other hidden places? Using containers to store your belongings is the best way to stay organized, but that doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t end up with a disaster inside them. In fact, when everything you own is hidden away, it can be difficult to realize that it’s even a mess when everything looks so presentable on the outside. Duplicate items and cluttered container interiors are a scourge, but you can use a modified version of this technique to fix it all.
Outdoor technology.
What you’re going to do in this case is what’s called the “openness” rule . This comes courtesy of decluttering gurus The Minimalists, who also created the popular “packing party” technique . When you throw a packing party, you pack everything you own and then spend three weeks living like you just moved into your home, unpacking only what you need. After three weeks, you’ll be left with boxes of stuff you didn’t need access to for 21 days, which likely means most of it you don’t need at all. Minimalists call an “open” packing party because instead of packing everything into boxes, you unpack it and gather a big pile of stuff to start decluttering.
Essentially, you’re pulling everything out of where it’s stored. Cabinets, boxes, containers, baskets, drawers, cupboards are all fair game. Once it’s out in the open, you’re forced to deal with it instead of continuing to ignore it like you do once it’s out of sight. This means you’ll end up having to throw away or donate some and reorganize the rest.
How to actually use technology “outdoors”
This is a fairly labor-intensive approach to decluttering—it’s not one of those things that can be done in a few minutes. After all, you’re committing to making a huge mess before you even start cleaning. This method also goes against most of my typical advice because it requires you to try to treat large areas of the house at once. I usually suggest decluttering and organizing smaller areas, but here you’ll want to create multiple containers, closets, and storage areas at once.
The reason is that you need to look for duplicate elements. If you’re following an organizational triangle (and you should be), you should keep similar items together in the same place, but this is a rule that’s easy in theory and harder in practice. Are all the scissors in your house in one drawer? What about your lip balms? Your technical chargers? By collecting them from different sources and storage locations, putting them all together, you will see how many duplicates you have. The stack itself also serves a larger purpose: just to visually show how much volume you have. Seeing the excess accumulate can counteract the hesitation you may feel about getting rid of things “just in case” you need them in the future, you may skip them or think they have sentimental value. If these types of feelings make it difficult for you to throw away or donate things, this clutter may be the answer.
Once you’ve got everything in a big pile, use a method like the 20/20 method to quickly weed it all out. Ask yourself two questions: If I need this item in the future, can I replace it for less than $20? Can I replace it in less than 20 minutes? If the answer is yes, get rid of the item. If you have duplicates, get rid of all but one. Once the pile has been reduced, place whatever is left back into the storage boxes and places it all came from, being careful to keep similar items together so you know where they are when you need them.