The 10 Commandments of Clutter Busting

1. If you haven't used it for a full calendar year or you can't remember the last time you actually used and enjoyed it, TOSS IT. This goes for clothing, decor, tools, books, crafting supplies, kitchen appliances and utensils, everything. If, in the course of a year, you haven't found sufficient motivation or love to use those things, you aren't going to. Stop letting them take up space in your home.

2. You are a homemaker, not a museum curator. You don't need to feel bad for getting rid of Great-Great-Aunt Ida's service for 24 china if you've never met the woman or don't have fond memories of her. Find a new home for it if you don't use it; maybe another family member would like to have it and will use it or maybe someone who doesn't have dishes at all would love to find something like that at your local thrift store. Things were made to be used and if they're not being used, then they're useless. Get rid of them.

3. On that same vein: Love people and memories, not things. Don't love things that are incapable of loving you back. If you feel a deep affection for a thing but you really and truly don't need, use, or want it anymore, take a photo of it and get rid of the thing itself. I promise you that the people that these objects remind you of don't want you to be burdened by their junk if it's useless to you. They want you to love them and their memory, not the figurine that gathered dust in their home for 40 years and that has now been passed on to you to gather dust in your house.

4. It's not a "system" if all you're doing is shifting clutter. Stop making excuses or insisting that "this works for you." It doesn't. You can't organize clutter, by definition. If you can't keep track of it, if you're constantly trying to figure out a way to cram more junk into that closet, if you have things falling out of cabinets onto your head, if you "only" have to move five coats and six boxes to access the thing you want - it's clutter and it's not working for you. Period.

5. Just because you loved it once doesn't mean you have to keep loving it forever. When I was younger and assembling my hope chest, I loved apple decorations for my kitchen. My mom also loved to shop, so by the time I actually got married and moved out, I literally had over 20 plastic bins full of stuff that comprised my "hope chest" - much of which was apple decor. Which I no longer loved. Yikes. For a couple of years, I kept all of it because I thought I should and because hey, it all cost money, right? We were poor (like...poor) and I felt bad for just wanting to pitch all of this stuff, especially since it had never been used. So it sat, taking up valuable space in our tiny 800 square foot home until I learned this valuable lesson. I realized that liking something at one time didn't mean that I had to love it for the rest of my life and it went to the Goodwill where it could be a blessing to someone else. Stress = gone.

6. Stop keeping your "aspirational clothing." Look, I get it. I'm not the size 6 I was when I got married, for sure. I mean, I'd sure like to be again someday, but three pregnancies in four years does a number on a person and those clothes that don't fit me (and may never fit me again) are just taking up space. Or at least, they were until I realized that they were just wasted closet space and donated them. Now, when I lose weight, I can go to the thrift store and find items that fit me, are in keeping with my current style, and that I actually enjoy wearing. Plus, those clothes were just making feel bad every time I saw them lurking in my closet. The same rule applies to clothing that no longer goes with the life that you have right now. If you don't go to fancy dinner parties or prom, you probably don't need cocktail dresses. If you chase toddlers all day and can't fathom wearing 4" heels all day long, you probably don't need those anymore, either. Get rid of anything that doesn't fit you or your current lifestyle and breathe a sigh of relief.

7. Stop telling yourself what all of your junk is worth. Sure, you may be able to find some sucker on eBay who will pay you big bucks for the Beanie Babies that you've been hoarding since elementary school but it's much more likely that they will sit there, looking sad and pitiful, taking up space in your house and being useless. Stop trying to convince yourself that it's okay to keep piles of junk in your home because "it could be worth a lot of money." I promise you that the odds are grossly against you on this. Not to mention, if you were really going to sell whatever it is, you would have done it by now. Save yourself time, aggravation, stress, and eventual disappointment and just get donate that stuff already.

8. You don't need to completely fill every storage area in your home. Just because you have the room doesn't mean that you need to fill it. If you have an empty closet, that's alright. Leave it empty and be proud of the fact that you have conquered your hoarder tendencies. It's not an invitation to shop or an excuse to hold on to things that you genuinely don't need. Empty space is fine. No, empty space is a gift. It's one less space to have to organize, clean, sort, weed, and otherwise maintain. Learn to love empty spaces.

9. If you bring one thing into your home, get rid of one thing you already own. This is the best advice I can give you if you're looking for an easy way to maintain your clutter problem. If you go to the thrift store and buy five pieces of clothing for yourself, get rid of five things that are already taking up space. They don't necessarily have to be similar items to what you just brought it, but I try to stay in that general realm just so that I can keep various areas under control. It may be, however, that you really do need new clothes but what you don't need are the 5 9"x13" baking pans that are cluttering up your kitchen cupboards. Get rid of them. Done. The balance has now been restored to your home. Ahhhhhh...this will also make you think longer before bringing new things into your house because you will know right off the bat that something will have to go when you get home. How badly do you want these new things?

10. As the FlyLady says, "right away is the best way." If you've just culled your bookshelves and have books that are headed to be donated to the library, put them in bags now and put those bags in your car trunk now. Then, when you're out and about you can quickly drop them off and the job is done. If, however, you say, "Oh, I'll do that later. I'm going to do the floors now," you will never get those books donated and they will sit in your house forever, taking up space. Then, the next time you're out, you'll be kicking yourself over that pile of books in your living room. Do it now and get it over with. The faster you can get stuff out of your house, the better.