Are you a packrat? Are you raising little packrats? Do you shove things in the closet and slam the door? Are your dresser drawer’s stuffed to the gills with clothes for all seasons? Does your 10 year old still have toddler toys in her room? Is your chosen file system for bills and important papers is a box? Are your kitchen cabinets a hazard to your health every time you open a cabinet door?

If this is you, you are not alone. All the clutter that fills our homes is a product of our busy lives. It’s so much easier to shove toys in a closet when someone is coming to visit than put the toys away properly. All of us can be accused of doing the stash and dash. However, what happens when we do this too much? Mass chaos in our homes.

Almost everyone reaches the point of wanting to clear the clutter at home. I imagine that very few people are totally organized. I know I can count the people I know on three fingers and not one of them is me! Despite what you might think, being a packrat isn’t a novel thing. Most people don’t put things away. But sometimes the clutter gets to be too much and at that point, you need to do something about it.

People usually keep things for two reasons: an item is sentimental or it is useful to them. These two reasons should shape everything you do when cleaning up the clutter in your house. But first, you have to establish an attack plan. Making sure the task isn’t too overwhelming is your first step. Decluttering your home will take time so it isn’t a task you want to tackle over one weekend. Be reasonable and give yourself breaks. Making the keep or toss decisions will be much easier if you aren’t attempting to clean out a closet 20 minutes before you are leaving for dinner.

Most people don’t have an entire weekend or a crew of willing participants to declutter a whole house in a weekend. For that reason, I am breaking these suggestions down into a series of articles by room with tips and tricks for each one.

Let’s start in the master bedroom and bathroom. Have you got nightstands crammed with old lip balms, paperbacks, remotes and notepads? Let’s start there. But first, grab three large green trash bags. We are going to take care of the master bedroom in record time.

Open that nightstand drawer and get busy. You have three piles – keep, toss, or giveaway. The keep pile is your most important pile. Making sure the items in your “keep” pile are legitimate keepers is the most difficult thing to do. Be ruthless. Pitch what you know you won’t be using in the next year. You really don’t need to keep that dried-up bottle of foot lotion that you got as a gift 3 years ago! And those dog-eared paperbacks can be given away. After you have sorted your stuff, take a good look at it. What should really be in your nightstand? Place those items back in the drawer and keep it neat. I think you’ll find you have plenty of room. Do the exact same thing to the other nightstand. I will point out that having your significant other help you at this point would be great since it’s probably not your nightstand. If that’s not possible, try to be kind but ruthless in tossing what isn’t necessary to keep. Then, hit up any and all piles of paper, books, magazines, old mail, and general junk that’s accumulated in your bedroom.

Next, head to the bathroom medicine cabinet and storage cabinets. This is a great collecting spot in our house for hair clips, old brushes, old toothbrushes, rags, toilet repair kits and other sorts of junk. Ask yourself what really belongs there. Check the dates on medicines. Pitch what’s outdated. You really don’t need to keep that tube of half-hardened toothpaste or that half-full bottle of hair spritz that didn’t work on your hair. Nor do you need to keep your daughter’s old Elmo toothbrush. You’ll most likely have two piles here: toss or keep in place. Organize the cabinets when you return items to the cabinets. Be logical about placement. Put the things in front that you use the most. Whatever is left must belong somewhere else. Take it there and leave it. We’ll get to that room eventually.

The last remaining part of the master bedroom is the closet. This endless black hole that sucks clothes in until there’s no remaining space for anything. If you’re lucky, you’ve got some shelves. If you don’t, we’ll work around that. If you’re really lucky, you don’t need to share your closet. But if you do, you’ll definitely need that other person available during the purge. It’s only fair!

Begin with your shelving. Everything comes off the shelves and onto the bed. Cull the shoes and sweaters that you don’t wear and put them in your giveaway bag. Pitch the old handbags you no longer use. Refold the keeper sweaters. Put shoes back in boxes if you have them. It isn’t very likely that you’ll find a lot of toss items in your closet. Most will be keepers or giveaways. At this point, your closet shelves should be empty. Find a place on your shelf for shoes you wear the least. Build from the back to the front beginning with shoes you wear infrequently. And yes, you can stack them. Or if you’re inclined, purchase a door shoe rack. Some are metal, some have pockets. All should cost right around $20. You’ll definitely free up some shelf space! If you have no shelves, there are hanging shoe racks for closet rods and hanging sweater shelves too. A great site with tons of organizers can be found at www.stacksandstacks.com.

Whatever you choose to put on the shelves, have a system that allows you to reach things easily without making a mess. I use gift bags to sort things on the closet shelves. One for pantyhose, one for bathing suits, one for beach cover-ups, etc. I use these bags to divide my stacks on the shelves to keep things neat. Handbags of all shapes and sizes get stacked into a larger tote bag or two to save space. Later on, even if you are digging around making a mess, straightening up will prove much easier.

Now, let’s address your clothes. Many folks say toss anything that you haven’t worn in a year. I agree to some extent however, sometimes that isn’t an option. Let’s say you just had a baby and don’t want to pitch your pre-pregnancy work clothes. Makes sense to keep them. Let’s say you want to hold onto a nice suit that’s a size too small. Keep it. It’s not the end of the world. However, you need to seriously go item by item and ask yourself if you wear it or will be wearing it ever again. Is it out of fashion? Is it threadbare? Does it need repairs to buttons or seams? Make concise decisions and stick to your guns. Remember, whatever you choose to give away is going to a needy individual.

Find the most inaccessible part of your closet and place your infrequently worn clothes there. I cover mine with leftover dry cleaning bags to keep the dust off my formal clothes. Trash bags work good too – just poke a hole in the bottom center and fit the hanger through to cover your clothes. Sort short sleeve shirts, long sleeve shirts, slacks and dresses. Unless you have a big closet, don’t worry so much about season. If you have enough room, sort by season. Sorting clothes by length makes it much easier to find items and much easier to put them away. Finally, put your favorite clothes where it’s easiest to reach them.

Making your significant other clean his half of the closet will probably prove to be the hardest part of your closet decluttering. I’m pretty sure I’m still waiting for my husband to clear out his half from when I cleaned the closet last year!! Once you’re done, you’ll find that putting away laundry is so much easier and faster.

Now, it’s time to tackle the dresser drawers. Use the same plan of two piles: keep and giveaway. Again, if you have the room, devote a few drawers to summer, a few to winter. If you have a million socks, pitch the ones that are threadbare and the ones you don’t wear. I fold most of my socks and roll the colored socks I don’t wear too often. Then I use the rolled socks to divide my piles of folded socks. This works pretty well and saves me from buying a sock drawer organizer. Work your way through the whole dresser. And hopefully, your significant other will be doing the same within minimal supervision from you!!

One of the great things about decluttering a room is the tremendous sense of accomplishment. You might be tired when you’re finished, but remember, clearing away clutter is a big, time-consuming job. While it may not seem like much considering there are many more rooms to your house, it’s a big step in the right direction.