AIBU to ask where to start when cleaning an extremely cluttered room?

[galaxychoc]

So New Years Resolution was to become one of these people who are naturally tidy and seem to do it so effortlessly.
I have a bedroom/spare room which is extremely cluttered and I don't even know where to start. I have gone in a couple of times and once I see the extent of the clearing out to be done, I just walk back out again. Counter productive obviously.
But if anyone had any basic tips/ideas or steps to follow to start this and actually finish it I would be grateful?

What is it cluttered with?

Four boxes:

Donate, bin, keep, give back to owner

Grab one thing. Decide what box it goes into. Grab next thing.

When donate and bin boxes are full, donate and bin.

Get new boxes and continue :)

Pick a type of thing in it (books, clothes etc) and say to yourself ‘today I will sort out all the books’. I am shite at tidying though do not the best person to respond!

The important thing is to start. Get a carrier bag or a small plastic box or a laundry basket, go in and fill it. Take it out onto the landing and sort it into bin/charity/sell piles or put it where it should be if keeping.

If you have time and energy, go back and repeat.

Nibble away until it’s done.

Depends on what type of clutter? Is it stuff you plan to keep?

Sort into 'keep, donate and bin.' Don't feel you need to do it all in one go. Maybe set an alarm and do 10 minutes a day. Then come out, close the door and then do a bit again the next day.

Similar to the above. One bag for charity, one for the bin. Little pile for keeps. Once finished find the right home for all the keeps. All pens and stationary items together in one drawer, etc etc.

Empty the room. Onto the landing or similar whether you have at least 3 days to sort.
Clean the room.
Either put back in its long term home.
Or bin/charity shop
Or put where it should go. This pile MUST be small.

My technique is go in - close eyes grab something - just 1 thing. Decide what you have to do with that. Rinse and repeat until you get bored (5 mins in my case), repeat every time you feel like doing it - the progress will build.

My advice would be to choose one part of the room that you want to focus on and declutter/tidy it totally. For example if there's a chest of drawers full of random crap, take everything out, wipe down the drawers, then put the stuff you want to keep back in in an orderly fashion. Get rid of the stuff you don't need. Then move on to the next bit of the room and do the same. If you tackle it bit by bit it makes it less overwhelming.

Exactly what idontdowindows says!
I have a bag for recycling, a bin bag for rubbish, laundry basket for clothes then a plastic tub for charity shop/passing on to someone etc.

When each one is full it goes in the car/bin/ recycling and off to it’s destination.

Be ruthless, unless you like it or use it then it’s out!

Do you know flylady.net? Really really helpful with this kind of situation.

For starters, absolutely forget about doing the whole thing at once. Do it in chunks of 15 minutes per day, set a timer, and stop when the timer goes off. As she says, the mess wasn't made in a day and it won't be cleared up in a day.

Secondly, forget about your idea of 'finishing' it. It will never be completely finished, there is always more to do, but you can get it clean and tidy to your satisfaction and get a system in place to keep it that way.

Thirdly, and this is not from flylady, but just a tip for getting started on things: break it down into the smallest possible unit of work that you would be prepared to do, right now, without any further thought, and do it (in your case it might be to pick up one single item, decide what to do with it or where to put it, and do it). Rinse and repeat on subsequent days.

I'd pick a corner of the room and bin/ tidy away/ put in the boot of the car for charity shop everything single object from the corner outwards. It might take longer but you get the gratification of seeing the space clear as you go.

Just start. Grab a bag, get in there and fill it. Charity, dump, whatever, just fill it and get it straight out. Be ruthless.
Tomorrow, another bag, and again the next day. Do this for a month and you'll feel a huge difference.

Don't think. Don't plan. Don't list.

Just start.

Go to the room now (RIGHT now). Open the door. Pick up something...first thing that comes to hand...and sort it. Either put it in it's correct place in the room/house or put it in a black bag downstairs ready for the charity shop or in the bin. It doesn't matter if it's just a pen you grab. That's the first thing done.

Do that ten times. Then have a rest and relax in the knowledge you've started...then keep doing that a few times a day.

Empty room first. Preferably into somewhere where it’ll irritate you to walk by the stuff. Then clean room thoroughly and put back only the items you want to keep. Bin/donate the rest.

I begin my Engineering degree on Monday. My bedroom is an absolute tip, but I have decided that I want it orderly by the time I start school as I doubt I can organise my mind in an environment in chaos.

I really appreciate all these tips and hints.

I'd just go in with a bin bag and fill that up to start with. It's an easy way to start, and motivates you to start sorting the rest.

Do something that makes a major difference to how it looks straight away. Eg if there are loads of books all over the floor, pick them all up and put them on a shelf/in a box, and you will instantly feel much better as you can see loads more of the floor!

Do not start with a finicky job that is sorting loads of tiny things that take hours, but when you look at what you’ve done the room looks no better.

In short go for that awful phrase “the low hanging fruit”

DH is master of tidying. 1. Make space to work ie clear a corner or the floor . 2. Collect similar things together or rehome them. 3. If in doubt throw it.

Is there anything in particular giving you problems?

Watch an episode of Hoarders. It can be quite motivating.

Go in with a bin bag and throw away anything that isn't vital (e.g. your passport or an irreplaceable heirloom). If you are like me you won't have accessed the items in the clutter room for a long time, so you almost certainly don't need most if them.

Glancing through boxes to check if you need to save anything and then chucking the rest is much quicker and more manageable.

I go round the edges of the room and work inwards, if that makes any sense. Start in a corner and don't move on until it's completely tidy; all things must either be thrown away or stored away, not just moved somewhere else.

I do this by moving five things. Pick a finite number of things you’re going to deal with. Five is good. Go into the room and pick up one thing at a time. To begin with and if there is a load of stuff start with things you can easily throw away/move somewhere other than the room. Chip away at it. Try to get rid of stuff: moving crap around endlessly is soul destroying

The floor first. Then the highest surface. Then work my way around at height level. If it's full of junk I use 3 ikea bags for each of our stuff. Then go through keep, bin, donate. Keep gets put away. Bin goes straight to the tip. Donate goes straight to the charity bin at the tip.