Last year when I was on holiday, I found a (very expensive) magnetic key holder.  I thought it would be the answer to my problem and almost bought it.

However I resisted the temptation but kept the idea in my head. When I got home I looked around to see if I could find a handy place where I would store the sets of house and car keys.

I put up some hooks in a handy but unobtrusive corner of the kitchen.  It’s a place I walk past every time I come in or out of the house.

It’s been almost a year now and I realised recently that it has definitely become a habit.

I drop my keys on to a hook every time I come into the house from the car.

I wonder how much time I’ve saved, not to mention the peace of mind when I leave the house.

Well  – how about sorting out what you do and don’t need – or want.  It’s time to take drastic measures that give clutter a new life somewhere else.

Don’ t know where to start?  Try going in to one room at a time with 4 boxes.

Label the boxes with these 4 categories.

Rubbish – Into this box goes any items that you don’t need or want any more, but that are damaged or broken and can’t be sold or donated.

Give Away/Sell – Be generous!! Think about the uses someone else might get out of the items versus the use they get in your home buried in cabinets or closets. Consider the financial benefits of selling your stuff at a garage sale or in an online auction (eg Trademe or eBay).

Storage - Put items in this box that you really can’t part with but don’t need on a regular basis. Make an inventory of the items as you box them. Group similar items together. Remember one good way to clean out cupboards and drawers is to store out of season clothing in another space.

Put Away - This should be your smallest category. These are items that you need on a regular basis. Monitor yourself by deciding  if you have a place for each item. If the items in this box won’t fit into your home without cluttering up an area , have another think – Do you really need them? If you do need these “essentials”, get a storage solution that fits into your home, don’t just leave the stuff  in boxes.

Follow these tips to make life easier at the next season change.

Clean all your Winter clothing items thoroughly before sorting and packing.  Bits of dirt and other particles left on items can not only stain and set into your clothes during storage, but will deter insects from getting into the clothes and dining on your sweaters and woollen coats.

Get some plastic containers to use to store your winter clothes,. You can choose from hard plastic lidded containers on roller wheels or soft plastic zip up bags. If you have room under beds, try to get containers that will fit into that space.

You can use cardboard boxes for temporary storage. Make sure you use new clean boxes to avoid staining and insects.

Old clean suitcases are also useful storage containers for out of season clothes.

Line containers with acid free tissue. Cedar blocks can be effective against insects, but keep in mind that it is not a  complete guarantee.

Fold your items for storage and stack the folded items from the lightest items on top to the heaviest items on bottom. Stacking items loosely will allow air to still circulate.

If you have spare wardrobe space, you can leave some items like coats and skirts hanging. Use all of the extra hanging loops to keep the clothing from becoming misshapen. Wrap the clothing in something breathable (e.g. old sheets) and make sure the clothing has enough room to breathe. This will keep down the risk of mildew and mold. It will also keep the clothing from wrinkling and creasing during storage.

This is also a good time to decide what you need to keep and what you don’t, A good rule of thumb is to get rid of clothes that you haven’t worn for two years. There are lots of options for your unwanted clothes. Good used clothes can be offered to second hand clothing shops. Look in your local phone directory or on-line yellow pages for places. Dress for Successwill take good professional clothing to assist disadvantaged women. Go to http://www.dressforsuccess.org/locations.aspx to find your nearest DFS drop off point.

In the Autumn, reverse the process to cleanand store your Summer clothes and pass on your unwanted items.

Some storage don’ts

Don’t hang sweaters or other knit items that can become misshapen by long term hanging. Instead carefully fold the items and place into the storage container.

Don’t use mothballs, especially if there are young children around. Although mothballs certainly keep insects away, they are poisonous if eaten. Plus you have to air your clothes for ages to get rid of the smell before you can wear the mothballed clothes again.

Don’t store clothes in tightly closed plastic bags as they will not breathe.

Don’t store clothes near heating sources or in sunlight. You need a cool dry dark place to prevent fading, mildew and deter insects.

A key factor in deciding on how you will organise the information is how you are going to find it again when you need it.  You can have the most sophisicated system in the world – but it is totally useless if you can’t find what you want when you need it.

For example it may not makes sense to you to store your passport and driving licence in a filing box.  However, it doesn’t matter where you stoer these as long as you can pick up your passport at least three hours before your flight is due to leave. (Now that’s organisation!!)

You may have some of this information in electronic form.  This is very cheap to store but do make sure you have a backup copy of the important stuff.

For papers, you can use a small portable system called a concertina folder.  This is a cardboard folder with partitions inside.  Make sure there are enough partitions for your needs or buy more folders.

The partitions will have a space for names for each set of papers.  Decide what names are meaningful to you (and your partner) and label the partitions clearly. 

Then put your papers in the appropriate sections of the folder.

Another useful small system is in ring binders.  You can separate the subject in each ring binder using cardboard dividers.  These can be colour coded and also have a space for labeling each section.

If you need a bigger system, you can use the same principles. A visit to your stationery shop will open your eyes to the range of system that are available so you can choose what will work best for you.

You will be amazed at how much time you save when you have all your information stored in a systematic way.  You will also love waving goodbye to piles and boxes of mixed papers and hours of fossicking through them to find the one thing you really need NOW! (Like that passport when you are due to leave for London or Paris!)

Household stuff

• mortgage documents
• rental tenancy agreement
• insurance – house, contents, car, other valuable household items
• invoices about renovations and maintenance (keep these in case you need to query any work in the future)
• guarantees for appliances and other household goods
• energy and telephone contracts and invoices

 Your personal stuff

• birth certificate
• marriage certificate
• property contracts
• passport
• driver’s licence
• next of kin information,
• your will
• references and testimonials
• bank statements and other financial records
• insurance – e.g., health, life, income protection, accident
• parents’ birth, marriage and death certificates

You need to decide how you want to organise storing all this information.

For example you might want to keep all the insurance papers together, all the legal personal papers together.  Or you might prefer to keep all the household stuff together and personal stuff somewhere else.

You may have some of this information in electronic form.  This is very cheap to store but do make sure you have a backup copy of the important stuff.  It is helpful to use the same

Once you have an idea of how much paper you are dealing with you can decide how you want to store it and where. 

For example you may not want to store your passport and driving licence in a filing box.  It doesn’t matter where these are stored. 

The important thing is that you know and can put your hand on them when you need them.

You really do need to organise your information in some way. 

How you do it depends on factors like whether you are in a settled home situation and have room for a small filing cabinet, if you move around a bit and need to have a portable system, and how much information you have and need to keep. 

How much you are prepared to pay for a system is an important factor.  But you can organise yourself at very little cost.