We are all guilty. Yes, you. Me too. There is just something about us. We like to keep things. Some of them are valuable, but most are not. Despite our best efforts, our homes are slowly overcome with pure junk we have collected over the years.



We have to face facts. George Carlin was right. We have our stuff and we keep it with us no matter where we go. Our stuff is our stuff and nobody is going to tell us any different. The problem, of course, is that over time all the stuff can take over your house.

When this occurs, it is time to say goodbye to some of the stuff. It may be difficult, but if you can show some discipline in applying the following advice, you can take your home back from all that clutter.

Getting rid of your junk can be painful. Making it as easy as possible is a smart move. To do this, order a dumpster for your driveway. It will keep you from stopping to early because of full garbage cans.

Now map out your home. The key to effective junk removal is not to randomly grab stuff from around the home. Instead, pick a room, basement or whatever and work on it until you finish. This keeps you from overlooking things and gives you a sense of progress.

Okay, now we need to decide how quickly we want to do this. The thing about all of our junk is it has a natural self defense method to avoid being thrown out. This is called the memory.

Every piece of junk will bring back memories of some part of your life. It may look like a beer dispenser hat to you, but it reminds me of that great game in college I attended with long lost friends.

This is going to be true for practically everything. If you want to spend a month worth of weekends cleaning, this is okay. If not, you need to make a rule that there will be no reminiscing and stick to it. There is no right answer. The choice is yours.

Finally, we are ready to start grabbing and tossing. Adios, el junko! In fact, we are going to draw a line in the sand. It is called the rule of twelve. When applied with discipline, it helps you figure out objectively what is junk and what is not.

There are twelve months in a year. Obviously. These twelve months cover all four seasons. The rule of twelve says that if you have not used something in the last twelve months, it is trash and should be tossed in the dumpster.

Obviously, there are some things that survive this rule. These are generally things associated with important events like the birth of a child, marriage and so on. Your running shoes from high school are not an heirloom. Toss them!

If you follow these basic tidbits of advice, you too can reclaim your basement, attic and closets. I would offer you a free gift as well, but that would just clutter things up again.