Conquering Clutter

America has 3% of the world’s kids… and 40% of the world’s toys. We’ve got clutter, right here in River City.

In our opinion the best decluttering advice, from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist, is to “slow the accumulation of new possessions.” In other words, don’t let all that junk in the front door in the first place.

But assuming your household missed that memo— as ours both have— in this episode we discuss:

* non-vehicular nonsense

* our kids’ anxiety about purging toys, even long-forgotten ones

* the personal blind spots we have when clutter-clearing (Margaret has T-shirts from HIGH SCHOOL)

* the procrastination-enabling, problem-compounding reality of owning a storage unit

* the great unused potential of the back of your closet doors

* why the roasting pan you use once a year can become your toy room’s greatest strategy

* the surprisingly plausible “super-fun cleaning party”

Amy organizes a little bit at a time; she thinks emptying a junk drawer a day is the key to a tidy home. Margaret says her house is way beyond the help afforded by cleaning out her makeup bag on a Tuesday afternoon. But wherever you lie on the clutter continuum, this episode is full of ideas for eating that elephant. One delicious bite at a time.

Here’s some links to research and resources discussed in this episode:

* the UCLA social science study in 2012 that shows our collective clutter-induced doom: Life at Home in the 21st Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors

* “low self-worth apparel” as defined by creativity guru Julia Cameron

* the “decluttering burst,” from Courtney Carver of Be More With Less

* the “30 Day Declutter Challenge,” from Liz Neiman of the Love and Marriage Blog

* from Beth Teitel for the Boston Globe: Today’s Families are Prisoners of Their Own Clutter

This episode is brought to you by Blinkist, which distills the best takeaways of popular non-fiction into 15- minute “blinks” you can listen to or read while you’re on the go. Check out decluttering “blinks” like Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up or Julie Morgenstern’s Organizing from the Inside Out with our special code: http://bit.ly/freshblinkist. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices