The trouble is that I think that putting something in a box will make my house tidy. What it actually does is hide stuff away and unless you designate places for these little things it very quickly gets out of hand.

Bowls and boxes are magnets for clutter. I’m not sure how the marbles, playing cards, pens and jam jar lids got into my fruit bowl but I am sure they shouldn’t be there and that my life would be better if they were not there!

Just look around your home and find the first bowl, box or container, look into it, no need to tip it out, and just pick out 5 things that you don’t need any more. If you can’t find 5 things in the first container, move onto another.
Ask yourself:

• Should it be there?
• Should it be thrown away?
• Is it part of something else long gone or broken?
• Do I like it?
• Do I need it?
• Do I want it?

Broken things count as part of your 5 a day declutter and if they can be recycled rather than thrown out that is even better.

The idea is to declutter in small easy chunks so you don’t get overwhelemed and never do it.
If you find lots of things that should be in other rooms it might help you to have a new container for things that live elsewhere—One at the bottom of the stairs for things that live upstairs helps me.

These pictures show the easy decluttering process for a pot that I had on top of a table. By just dipping in and picking things out I found:

1) A firelighter belonging to my son that should be in the tool drawer
2) A clip for food bags that should be in the kitchen
3) Keys, in the wrong place
4) Battery – to be recycled
5) Silver soap holder, containing rusty screws in the wrong place
6) Rusty screws
7) Clips for the shower curtain (which is yet to be put up)
8) A bracelet I’m not sure about but my favorite aunty gave it to me.
9) A sample sachet of baby sun cream – my son is now a teenager!
10) An electrical thing that needs to be recycled if it can because I don’t know what it does.

All of that was sorted in less than 5 minutes. I emptied out all the rusty screws into the bin, put everything else in the right place and put the shower curtain clips back in because they need a temporary home. Most of the clutter in here was useful and often used stuff, just in the wrong place.

I’ve since moved the container next to the shower rail that is waiting to be put up so I’m not tempted to put more stuff in it. The bracelet is being decorative on the shelf until I decide what to do with it.

To get your printable worksheet click on the image or on this link

Just 5 minutes for 5 things. It’s easy.

Colour in the stars when you have done them.

Remember—choose small, not expensive, obvious things for todays declutter.

There are some hints, tips and ideas about controlling clutter in small containers just here.