Decluttering your life in 13 weeks (10 minutes at a time): weeks 5 & 6

Are you getting used to the idea of doing a little at a time to clean up your stuff? Here are your next two assignments for decluttering your life. Hope you enjoy them!

Week 5: Clean out your car. This one might take thirty minutes instead of ten, depending on what you want to do. But even ten minutes will make a big improvement!

You’ll need a trash bag, a damp cloth, some window cleaner (or you can put a tablespoon of white vinegar in 2 cups of water), and a few paper towels.

First, take a picture of the inside of your car. Try to get as much as possible but you probably won’t be able to see all of it in the pictures. Open all the doors and the trunk and give your car a good airing-out. Then take three minutes to throw out all the junk in your floorboards, trunk, and under the seats. (My college roommate once found a carton of milk under her front seat — talk about stinky.)

Next, take a damp cloth (wet it under water and wring it out pretty well) and go over every plastic surface inside your car. This will get rid of all the dust, fast-food residue, stickiness, and other gunk that might be lurking about. This should take you about two minutes, but if your car is really dirty, it’s worth doing some extra credit to get it clean. Examine the cloth and take a second to say “ick” at the brown grossness that was once all over your car!

Last, use your window spray or vinegar water and paper towels to wash the inside of your windows. Vinegar is stinky, but it also naturally absorbs and neutralizes odors and after your car airs out a little it will smell fresh and clean. Start with the windshield, then do the front side windows. This will take you about three minutes. When you finish, decide if you like the results enough to spend another five minutes cleaning the rest. Technically, you're finished...but we hope you keep going for just a few more minutes.

Now look at your car and be really honest about the condition of the seats and floors. If they’re awful—or if they are starting to bother you now that the rest of your car is clean—do a little more extra credit and give them a quick vacuuming. Ask your parents if they’d rather you use the shop vac or the house vacuum. If they say “neither” try to dig up a dollar in quarters and go to the nearest car wash or gas station and use their vacuum.

Take another picture of the inside, and compare your shots. It looks a lot better, doesn’t it! If you like having your car this way, try keeping it clean for a week. Try to get through the week without leaving trash, clothing, papers, or anything else in your car. When the week is over, decide if you like having a clean car enough to keep it clean for good.

If you don't have a car: Take a few minutes to make sure that all of your junk is out of your parents' car, then spend a few minutes cleaning it out as listed above. Your parents like a clean car as much as you do, and this will make them really happy.

If your car and the family car are already clean: Sit in the car and play music or relax for about ten minutes. (Just kidding. You get the week off!)

Week 6: Now that we’ve seen how much of a difference ten minutes of doing little things can make, do a little cleaning and freshening up in your relationships. Take ten minutes to make a list of three people you can spend time with this week, and list something nice you can do for them that they wouldn’t expect. One of these people should be related to you, and one shouldn’t be. (The other is up to you.) Can you pick a few flowers for your mom? Watch the game with your dad? Leave a nice note on your friend’s Facebook wall, or play catch with your little brother? Fill the dishwasher for your sister on her night to do chores? Making the list should take about ten minutes, but the actual list items can take however long you choose.

One rule: don’t make this about buying them stuff. That’s too easy. Instead, think about ways you can show your love for these people through your actions. Get as creative as you want, but try to make it something you know they’d like.

It will take a little time, but it’s worth spending time with/on the people you care about. I promise. At the end of the week, decide if you like this little ten-minute habit, and whether you’ll continue it.

So now you have a clean bathroom, you’ve made strides into cleaning your closet, you’ve cleaned up your backpack and your car, and you’ve made a real effort to show love to important people in your life through your actions. Take a few minutes to feel good about your accomplishments, and meet me back here in two weeks for another round of decluttering!

Decluttering your life in 13 weeks (10 minutes at a time): Weeks 3 & 4

Ok guys, it’s been a couple of weeks. Did you clean up your bathroom junk and talk to your folks? Time to get started with the next two steps. Remember to shoot for 10 minutes. If you want to do more, ok...but don’t do so much you turn yourself off decluttering forever! The whole idea behind this is to learn small habits that help you manage your life.

Week 3: Get another playlist going and tackle your closet.

First, take five minutes to go quickly through your clothes and set aside five things you haven’t worn in at least six months. They should be particular to the season—don’t give away your winter coat if it’s August! Just look for and find five things you really don’t need/use anymore and put them in a “donate” bag.

Take a couple of minutes to turn all your hangers around so the open part of the hook is facing you. When you wear something or you hang up your clothes, turn the hanger back right. (You don’t have to turn the hangers backwards anymore after this.) In a few months or so, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you do and don’t wear regularly—because what you haven't worn will still be turned around backwards. Note: you should probably tell your mom you're doing this so she doesn't go in there and straighten up your hangers for you!

Next, spend a minute or two thinking about zones. What would be a good way to organize your stuff? Maybe you’ll have a sports-clothes zone in your closet, a shoe zone, a pants zone, etc. Just think about how you might group things together in a meaningful way so you can find them. You can start your first closet zone if you want. Just put like things together.

Last, go quickly through the clothes you’ve set aside. Is anything in there by mistake? Can you hand anything down to your little brother or sister? Tell your mom or dad you’ve got a bag of stuff to donate.

We'll revisit your closet in a month or so. For now, just try not to let it get any messier than it already is, and any time you run across something you don't use anymore, set it aside. You can keep a bag in the bottom of your closet for this.

Week 4: Go through your backpack.

Sit down somewhere where you have a bit of room and take everything out of it — every paper, book, candy wrapper, and pencil stub. Go quick and sort everything into piles: papers to give your folks, things to file away in your notebook, writing utensils. Throw out the trash. Empty the crumbs out of your bag over the trash can.

Ideally you should do this once a week. Getting in the habit of keeping your bag clean will mean it's easy to find anything in there. Guys, this goes for your gym/sports bag as well...but you really ought to be taking everything out of it every night when you get home from practice so you don't end up winning your household's Stinky Award. And ladies, going through your purse once a week and cleaning out the extra junk will help keep your bag slim, neat, and clean. (A lumpy purse that is bursting at the seams doesn't really compliment your outfit.)

Now that we’ve been doing this for a while, does it seem a little easier? It’s kind of amazing what you can do in 10 minutes, isn’t it?

Decluttering your life in 13 weeks (10 minutes at a time): weeks 1 & 2

I’m guessing that at some point in your life you’ve had a friend who’s been really, really organized. Not only does organization come naturally to that person, their room is always picked up, their clothes are clean and neat, and they know how to find something right away if you ask for it. If you’re like me, you think of these people primarily as miracle-workers, and maybe they make you feel bad, disorganized, sloppy and cluttered. After all, you see what could be, but you just don’t seem to be able to do it for yourself. The thought of getting your life in order seems overwhelming. You already know you won’t be able to do it perfectly. So really, why should you bother?

Well, first of all, the point of organization isn’t to be perfect. It’s to help you manage your life so there is less you have to think about. Getting a handle on your belongings will help you worry less when things are chaotic, stressful, and just plain weird. You’ll already have a system in place. And you know that as a teenager, your life has had a tendency to get progressively more complicated the older you get. So it’s a good idea to get a handle on what you have, and make it a habit now.

The other thing to know is that the vast majority of us own a whole lot of things we never use. They’re broken, forgotten, outdated, or otherwise unusable. If you watch organizing shows on TV, almost everyone says “I need to get organized.” But what they really need to say is “I need to get rid of the stuff that’s weighing me down.” That’s the point of this article—how to get rid of what you aren’t using anymore, because you’ll use the things you do have more effectively and have less junk to worry about.

For the next few months we’re going to look at your life in two areas, the stuff you own and the stuff you do. Before you get overwhelmed, know that I’m only going to give you 13 steps to get you started. Each step should take about 10 minutes. You can do what you want with them. You can do them all at once, or one week at a time. That’s up to you. This will require a fair bit of self-motivation on your part, and also some honesty, but just plow ahead as much as you can.

We’re going to do this two steps at a time. So work on these two things and in a couple weeks I’ll be back with more you can do to get the clutter out of your life!

Week 1: Talk to your parents. Tell them you’re thinking of getting rid of some of the stuff you don’t use anymore. You want to do your best to sell, give away, or donate those things. Is that OK with them? If it isn’t, ask them if you can have a couple of boxes to store the things you aren’t using in the basement or attic. But don’t go around throwing out stuff without talking to them first.

Then spend a few minutes getting used to the idea of getting rid of what you don’t or can’t use anymore. Remember that your stuff won’t miraculously improve in condition. What’s broken will probably stay broken. You’re going to have to be a little less emotional and a little more ruthless about getting rid of stuff.

Week 2: Clean up your junk in the bathroom. You’re going to trash stuff in here, not give it away, because you shouldn’t share personal items. Get a music playlist you like going and take 10 minutes to go through your toiletries. Sort through everything you use on a daily basis and throw out what is no good anymore. Don’t forget to look under the sink and in the shower. Throw out empty bottles. If it’s something you’re going to replace, take a picture of the bottle before you toss it.

Guys: junk your old razors, shaving cream, cologne, hair stuff, or deodorant you don’t use any more, wash your comb in the sink with hand soap, and replace your toothbrush.

Girls: get rid of makeup you don’t wear anymore and anything that’s broken, smelly, has separated, changed form, or doesn’t look right to you. Wash your makeup and hair brushes in the sink with hand soap. Clean the icky crud off your flatiron with a wet paper towel (make sure it’s unplugged!). Get rid of dirty or broken hair accessories. Replace your toothbrush.

Now look around the bathroom...hopefully you can tell a difference! And try to get in the habit of keeping your stuff picked up and put-together, or at least wipe the counter off after you get ready. Your parents will love you...we promise. :)