No sleeping on the job. As with any type of maintenance--health, home repairs and upkeep, business contacts, software updates, industry standards, the needs of children or pets--if too much time goes by without active attention, it doesn't take long before the effects are noticeable and time consuming to fix. Last week I encouraged you to just do it with the now or never tip. If you can take care of something in a few minutes rather than putting it in the pile, your time is well spent.  Daily diligence is a must. Taking 5, 15, 30, 60 minutes every day to do something is crucial.  The longer you put it off, the bigger the task becomes.  Just like brushing your teeth or fixing lunch daily, de-cluttering can become one of your activities of daily living in maintaining your well-being: body, heart, mind and spirit. 

Timer is important tool.  Once again, Bob and I are diligently cleaning out files, closets, cabinets, basement, and cupboards to get ready for this year's garage sale and dumping options.  In addition to daily diligence, we've found scheduling an appointment with ourselves for a specific day and time works well. And our most important tool is the timer.  Always use begin and end times. If you don't use a timer you will either work for five minutes and then look at your watch because it feels like it's been five hours or you'll work too long and burn yourself out, vowing to never clutter clear again. When you use a timer, you give yourself permission to quit when the timer goes off.  Doesn't matter if it's 10 minutes or 60 minutes, when the timer goes off you can either quit and celebrate what you've accomplished or reset the timer for a few minutes longer.  If you have more time, before the kids come home or before dinner is ready, or before you leave for a meeting, reset the timer.  When the timer goes off you can stop.  Then schedule the next de-clutter session on your calendar.  Finally, clean up.  

Avoid distractions and interruptions. An important practice when de-cluttering is to work uninterrupted and undistracted.   Start making piles outside the door to dump, donate or deliver to other parts of the house.  Do not start delivering and leave the room. If you do, pretty soon you're in the kitchen, then the garage, then the front hall closet and now you're completely distracted.  And clutter can overwhelm you if you think about your whole house or the whole project!  Start small.  Choose a closet or drawer, or shelf or corner.  If you choose a room or space, start on your left and move clockwise in a circle until the timer goes off.  Then you'll know where to start next time until it's done and you are ready to move to the next space.  As you are decluttering, make three piles: I love, use or need this and this is its home (save), I don't know (for review with some support later*), or out (three separate piles for dump or recycle, donate or sell, or deliver to the person it belongs to or another room or location. 

Paper is clutter too.  With all the technology, you may not have as much paper as you used to, but the information is still there...in your computer, in the folders, in your email boxes, acting like paper. When you dump, donate, and deliver stuff, remember to include paper and electronic correspondence:  Read, Respond and Remove or Deal, Disk (jump drive), and Dump.  

*You may want to review your "I don't know" pile later, when you can go slowly and go through this emotional box with a friend or partner.  Have them help you determine what each item represents for you.  Recall the memory.  Sometimes just telling someone the story of this item is enough to let it go.  Consider a photograph of it and then putting it in the donation box. 

This week schedule an appointment with yourself to de-clutter a small area or make a list of at least 10 things you can do in 10 minutes or less. Then commit to do one every day as part of your new ADLs. Remember to use a timer or your smartphone timer setting. See how much progress you can make this week with a little daily diligence.