Spring Decluttering Projects: Utility Upgrade

Here’s your second Spring Decluttering project (and last week’s, in case you missed it!): the utility closet. I love the idea of a spring utility refresh for a couple of reasons. Number one, it’s a great decluttering ‘practice’ project because it’s not so big that it’s overly intimidating. You can probably finish it in an hour or two on a weekend – start to finish. Number two, it packs a decent punch in terms of impact on your home. I like to think of it as a pimped-up version of your junk drawer (which I’ve re-branded as the Useful Things drawer!) This a place in your house for centralized storage of the ‘useful’ categories that don’t have an obvious home. Technically they could be stored anywhere, and often are. This makes them A) hard to find when you need them and B) susceptible to build up as you keep buying more because you don’t realize how many you already have.

So if you’ve caught the decluttering bug follow along and treat yourself to an upgraded utility closet! You’ll be building up your decluttering muscle at the same time!

Gather

So what exactly am I talking about when I say ‘utilities’? Get ready to gather the following categories for Spring decluttering:

• Batteries
• Light Bulbs
• Picture hanging hardware
• Tape (all kinds welcome: masking, painter’s, duct, packing, etc.)
• Home hardware (hardware parts for furntiure or appliances, floor protectors)
• Charging cords
• Packing/mailing supplies

These are just a few examples, you’ll probably have a few more to add to the list. These things may or may not currently share adjacencies with categories like cleaning products, tools or office supplies. Don’t worry about that for the moment. What you are going to do is go on a little tour of your home and poke your head into drawers, cabinets, closets and shelves to gather any and all utility items you can find. Don’t forget that pesky junk drawer!

Bring everything you find to an open surface you’ve cleared like a dining table so you can see it all!

Declutter

Let me guess, are you feeling some surprise and shock at the amount of accumulation for some of these categories? This particular Spring decluttering project is going to unearth all manner of clutter from the nooks and crannies in your home! Some examples of what you may encounter are as follows. Light bulbs that don’t fit any of your lights. Loose batteries that may or may not be dead. Eight rolls of packing tape you kept buying because you thought you didn’t have any.

One of the reasons this project is so impactful is because all of this stuff is useful and used in your house. When you can actually find it and easily access it your life becomes incrementally easier to live!

Okay, now it’s time to weed out the stuff you don’t need or won’t use. It’s not enough just to gather everything in the same spot – the decluttering is the most important part of this little project! You can’t define a good centralized home for all this stuff until you understand how much space you need. I am certain you don’t have any emotional attachment to this stuff, so make sure you do a good job editing. You will eventually go through all 8 rolls of packing tape but you do not need perfectly good chandelier bulbs when you have no chandelier. Or dead batteries (here’s how to dispose of them responsibly.) Shed all of that deadwood and then survey the scene.

Find the Spot

Now that you’ve done the Spring Decluttering, how much do you have? Taking stock of the overall space your utility items will require is important because now you are going to scout out a permanent, designated home for this stuff. Some folks are lucky enough to have a whole closet devoted to utility items. But it’s not necessary. They could live in another utility-type spot like a laundry room or mud room. Or if space is tight they could occupy a single cabinet or bank of drawers. The important thing is that they remain in your living space vs. a garage or basement storage. They don’t need to take up prime real estate, but keeping them handy and easy to get to (and put away!) is the goal – that’s how you will sustain the organization.

Now you can consider the storage needs for each individual category. 

Smaller containers that fit both the space you’ve decided on and the category are next. Please make sure to measure the shelves or drawers in your space. Consider each category, if it’s something you reach for often use a bin without a lid. If it’s more occasional like light bulbs a lidded option may be better. Once you’ve decided on a bin,drawer, or some other container make sure you assign the most-used categories to the most accessible spots.

And voilà! You now have a decluttered and organized space for your utility items. It may seem like an insignificant project but believe me, you have just saved Future You a lot of time and energy waste, not to mention money. And you’ve built up some decluttering muscle in the process! Bravo!