Hasta La Ideas

When sorting items during an uncluttering project, I recommend having a minimum of three piles: keep, purge, and other. The keep pile is obviously full of the things you wish to retain in your space. The purge pile can mean the item needs to go in the trash or the recycling. It’s the third pile, the other pile, that seems to be the hang up point for most people.

The other pile might be things you wish to sell, give away to someone, return to the people who loaned them to you, or have repaired. These are the things that require follow-up actions of some kind, and often the stuff just sits around instead of being dealt with right away.

When creating an other pile, try keeping a pad of paper and pencil handy or (best case scenario) your laptop with an internet connection.

Using Paper

1. As you place items into the other pile, list the item on a sheet of paper and note what action should be taken next. For example: Cordless power drill — Return to David
2. After all of your keep pile has been returned to storage and your purge pile trashed or recycled, sit down with your list and organize like actions with like actions. All return items should be grouped together, all your items you want to sell on eBay should be grouped, etc.
3. Once items are grouped together on your list, set completion deadlines for each group. Give yourself 48 hours to return borrowed goods, maybe another 24 hours to list all sale items on eBay and give away items on Freecycle, or whatever schedule works best for you.
4. Mark your deadlines on your calendar and take care of them on schedule.
5. Be sure to also include any follow-up dates on your calendar as well (things like dates to ship items to eBay purchasers and when to meet up with Freecyclers).
6. Enjoy your clutter-free space.

Using your laptop

1. As you place items into your other pile, immediately take action on as many of the items as possible. On the spot, create an eBay or Freecycle listing (or whatever service you plan to use). If you need to return something to a friend, immediately send him/her an e-mail and request a time when you can come by to drop off the item.
2. All other items, list the item in a document and note what action should be taken next. For example: Cordless power drill — Return to David
3. Set deadlines for when you’ll complete all of the actions that made it onto the document.
4. Mark your deadlines on your calendar and take care of them on schedule.
5. Be sure to also include any follow-up dates on your calendar as well (things like dates to ship items to eBay purchasers and when to meet up with Freecyclers).
6. Enjoy your clutter-free space.

Ignoring your other pile won’t make it go away. The faster you can process this pile, the closer you’ll be to living and/or working in a clutter-free space. As the 1988 Nike campaign proclaimed, “Just do it!”