Face it – we all have one of these. It’s probably in the kitchen, or maybe the foyer or dining room, but it’s there…a basket, bucket, drawer or shelf stuffed to brims and overflowing with…STUFF!

I grew up in a house where the basket held mail, pens, calculators, notepads, and receipts to be saved. It was always full and as a result there always ended up being more clutter around the basket. Before we could blink, the entire section of kitchen counter was overtaken with torn envelopes and dried-up pens.

As part of my 2013 initiative to declutter and reduce, I decided that the one in my apartment had to go. For good. Not only was it an eyesore, it actually made me MORE disorganized – some important papers were in the basket, others were filed and I never actually knew where anything was. That makes my life more difficult, not less. Here’s how I did it:

I began by getting the basket off of my microwave, enabling me to see how crowded it had made my already small kitchen feel. So terrible!

Next, I spread everything out on the counter. I was shocked at how much I’d crammed into those slots over the past 2 years.

Envelopes
Thank you cards
Birthday cards
Receipts
Ticket stubs
Warranties
Bills
Random recipes from magazines
Camera
Camera charger
Penguin ornaments
External hard drive
Calculator
Wristband with phone-holder
Fancy pen
Measuring tape
Scissors
Folder with Stella’s vet documents
Folder with miscellaneous items like photos and more ticket stubs
USB drive
Sunglasses
Eyeglasses and case
Notebook
Notepads
Random papers and torn envelopes
Empty iPhone box
Chapstick

Ugh. What a disaster. I was pretty overwhelmed to see it laid out like that – which reinforced my thought that that basket was adding stress to my life, instead of reducing it.

The hardest part is that I use most of these items all the time, particularly the calculator, pens and notepads. How could I rearrange and reorganize these items to make them simple and easy to use while delcuttering and removing the entire basket?

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

First, I needed a place to put the papers and bills that are active – a real place, not a catch-all basket. From cleaning and organizing my bedroom previously, I had an empty drawer in my vanity table. It’s small, and was perfectly suited to holding just a few current bills and documents, while keeping any trace of that type of clutter hidden and organized.

I have a storage bin under my bed with electronics, chargers, and chords so I put the camera, external hard drive, calculator, etc. in here. I added Miscellaneous and Stationery folders to my filing crate to store photos, recipes, and cards.

I already have a drawer in my jewelry armoir for glasses, so those items went there. The measuring tape went back in the toolkit, the chapstick went into my vanity, and I filed away the folder with Stella’s medical documents. Many of the other items such as old receipts and ticket stubs were thrown away.

The finished look (so much better!):

Because I’d already re-organized my kitchen and had extra shelf space in the cabinet above the microwave, I was able to put a pen and notepad in there for easy access. Those are the only two things that remained in the kitchen after this process. I feel wonderful about this and am completely committed to keeping my counters clear of clutter. The best part is now that my daily items have specific places it has been SO EASY to keep everything neat, clean, and in place.