Give It Away

Throughout the year, I make it a habit to clean out my closet and fill a bag with travel-size soaps, shampoos, and other toiletries. Then I give the bag to a local women’s shelter.
Sara Ortins
Woburn, Massachusetts

About once a week, I give each of my kids a plastic bag, send them to their rooms, and tell them, "Fill it up!" Some things go to Goodwill, and the junk gets tossed.
Stefanie Rothbard
Westlake Village, California

I keep a shopping bag in my closet. Whenever I come across an outdated item of clothing, I drop it in. When the bag is full, I take it to my local clothing-donation drop-off center. My closet stays uncluttered, and my favorite charities get to reap the benefits.
Kristy Majer
Santa Barbara, California

Whenever there’s too much stuff around the house — Tupperware bowls without lids, extra bedsheets or picture frames — I log on to the Freecycle Network (www.freecycle.org), which matches unwanted items with someone nearby who wants them. You simply post what you have and someone will gratefully take it off your hands.
Susan Heffern-Shelton
Little Rock, Arkansas

My family abides by the “one in, one out” rule: For example, if we buy a new pair of shoes, we have to get rid of a pair. This keeps clutter down and encourages us to donate used items to local charities more frequently.
Kristine Wood
Arlington, Virginia

The Paper Chase

My three children — 5 1/2-year-old boy-girl twins and their seven-year-old sister — are self-proclaimed artists. Every day, I come home to a multitude of lovingly created works of art. While each creation is special and treasured, our refrigerator door is only so big. I have given each of my kids a three-ring binder to use as an artist’s portfolio. There they can store all their work and proudly show it to their friends and their grandparents.
Deana Buzzy Mitchell
Cumming, Georgia

I use a large Rolodex file to organize small bits of paper, Post-it notes, and pages torn from newspapers and magazines. For instance, the paint colors of the rooms in our home go under P, favorite restaurants under R, and local farmers’ markets and their days and times of operation under F. Then, when I’m going shopping, I just remove the relevant card for instant referral.
Peggy Raso
Tappan, New York

The “touch it once” technique has really helped me eliminate stacks of paper. Whenever I am confronted by a pile of bills, mail, or papers, I sort through it by touching each item once and immediately deciding whether I should file it, send it, or throw it away.
Alexa Greenblatt
Fairfax, Virginia

After years on various boards and home owners’ associations — paying bills, clipping articles, saving recipes, and generally keeping way too much paper — I discovered the joy of using a bonded document-shredding company. My office uses one, and I learned that the company will come to your home to shred personal papers as well. I am now saying good-bye to about 25 years’ worth of accumulated paper.
Kathleen Michel
Ventura, California

To keep up with the incredible volume of junk mail I receive, I make my first stop the recycling can. I immediately throw out any advertisements, along with all other unwanted mail. This process keeps some potential clutter from getting into the house in the first place.
Kathryn Kilgore
Irvine, California

Instead of keeping the hard copies, I scan my bank statements and save them as JPEG files on my computer. I also use software to do my bank reconciliations. It saves me from accumulating more than a hundred sheets of paper a year.
Cindy Smith
Springfield, Virginia