11 Things to Throw Out ASAP, According to Professional Organizers
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Everyone has clutter, and professional organizers can suss it out as soon as they step into a house. These pros will help you decide (with some gentle prodding) whether to discard, donate, or sell things you aren't using, before neatly corralling the rest of your items into user-friendly, clearly labeled containers.
According to experts, this process can usher in all kinds of positive changes. "People don't realize how much clutter is weighing them down," says professional organizer Bridget Urgo, co-owner of the home organization and relocation company The Settler. "When they start to declutter, they can find things more easily, think more clearly, and spend less money because they aren't buying duplicates of things that they already own." If you don't want to hire a professional to thin out your unwanted items, you can do it yourself—starting with these notorious sources of clutter.
The Vases Your Flowers Came In
After someone sends you flowers, you're left with a utilitarian-looking vase that inevitably gets stashed in a cabinet or closet with all the others you've ever received. "You are never going to use those vases—when you're arranging your own flowers, you'll use the nice Tiffany vase that you got for your wedding," says professional organizer Maura Fitzgerald, founder of Fitz Just Right, who just removed two huge bins of vases from a client's home.
Solution: Florists will happily take these back, so upcycle your vases by dropping them off at your local flower shop.
Kitchen Gadgets
One reason we all have so much clutter is we have too much stuff in general—especially in the kitchen. "You don't need an apple corer and a mango slicer. They are too big and take up too much space in kitchen drawers. Just grab a knife when you need to cut fruit," Urgo says. Fitzgerald feels the same way about trendy unused appliances. "Instant Pots…who is using those now? I see a lot of Instant Pots and Vitamixes collecting dust in storage rooms or taking up space in cabinets," she says.
Solution: Donate or discard appliances that you no longer need. Many public libraries have programs that allow members to rent appliances; it's worth checking to see if they might want yours, especially if it's unused.
Old Electronic Devices and Their Boxes
We all have this drawer or cabinet: the one where we hoard cracked phones, outdated laptops, and cords and boxes that go with electronics that we no longer even use. We hold onto this stuff because we think we may need it someday—but no one ever does. So get rid of them! But do so only after you've wiped them clean; before discarding old devices, Urgo urges clients to clear the memory so no one can get ahold of their personal information.
Solution: After you reset your device, recycle it or sell it back to the manufacturer. You may be able to get a credit toward a brand-new phone or computer.
Tote Bags
Organizers say it's astounding how many canvas tote bags and reusable grocery bags they find hanging in mudrooms, stuffed into hall closets, or lying around musty garages. "You just don't need that many bags—edit them down so you are left with under five bags," Fitzgerald says.
Solution: Use your surplus bags to carry other items on this list to Goodwill, or call a local food pantry and see if they could use them. The bags may be helpful to people who are picking up their groceries for the week.
Instructions Manuals, Receipts, and Other Paper
According to Urgo, this is a big issue for Baby Boomers. "They have so much paper—old files, receipts, junk mail, instruction manuals—clogging up their homes and offices," she says. Young families have a lot of paper clutter too, but it's in the form of school art projects and homework. Your children's masterpieces are admittedly hard to part with, so professional organizer Nikki Boyd, founder of At Home With Nikki and author of Beautifully Organized, A Guide To Function and Style in Your Home encourages clients to have their kids pick their favorite pieces to keep.
Solution: Take pictures and store them in a digital folder for safekeeping. For example, in the case of instruction manuals, snap a picture of the model number on the dishwasher manual so you can reference it if you ever need to call the company to have it fixed. "All the other information in those manuals you can get on the company website or YouTube," Fitzgerald says. The same goes for archiving kids' artwork. Aside from your all-time faves, "the other artwork can be photographed with a phone and curated in a beautiful digital photo collection that can be enjoyed at any time," Boyd says.
Gift Wrapping Supplies
Organizing expert Shira Gill, author of Minimalista, says it's not uncommon to walk into a house and find entire closets filled with wrapping paper, tags, tissue paper, boxes, ribbons, and bows. "I find that people love buying gifting supplies simply because they are cute, and they like the identity of being a gifter," says Gill who notes that actual gifts with no destination are another common form of clutter.
Solution: Gill suggests investing in an Elfa Utility Mesh Gift Packaging Over the Door Rack and narrowing down your gifting inventory into just what fits in that station.
Cookbooks
With so many of us getting our recipes online or via social media, those beautiful cookbooks don’t get much use anymore.
Solution: Hold onto three or four that you love and have room to attractively display in your kitchen and donate the rest. Gill uses this strategy all over the house when trying to thin out extra items. "Good editing is as simple as clearly defining your limits (ie, what you can fit) and then selecting your favorites," she says.
Anything That’s Past Its Prime
Old toys. Your teenage son's size 4 hockey skates. Broken crayons and capless markers. Expired spices and beauty products (did you know you're supposed to discard mascara two to four months after purchase?) This all has to go. "My rule is, do you eat this or use it? If not, toss, it," says Urgo. Old cans of paint also fall into this category. "Paint expires pretty fast, so you’re never going to end up using the rest of what’s in those cans," says Fitzgerald. "Take a picture of the cover so you remember the brand and the color if you need to touch up a wall in the future."
Solution: It depends on the item, but there's a sustainable and eco-friendly way to get rid of pretty much anything. For old paint, contact a local paint recycling or disposal company to help you throw away the paint in an environmentally responsible way.
Tea
When Gill starts organizing a house, she is often surprised to find loose tea bags and boxes of tea jamming up drawers, stuffed in cabinets, and tucked away in the pantry. "It's truly staggering," she says. "I have no idea why, but people seem desperate to fill their homes with every imaginable type of tea."
Solution: She urges her clients to pause on the tea purchases until they've used up their existing supply, and she limits volume by ditching all unnecessary packaging and using a tea organizer.
Extra Linens
According to Fitzpatrick, linen closets are an unexpected but significant source of clutter. People store extra sheets, pillows, and blankets that they really don't need. "Adults only need one pair of sheets because you're washing and changing them once a week," she says. "Kids may need two in case of accidents—but that's it." Pillows collect dusk mites so shouldn't be stored at all.
Solution: You can donate sheets and blankets in good condition to a women's shelter. For items that are past their prime, check in with an animal shelter or look into textile recycling in your area.
Grandma’s China (and Other Sentimental Items)
In this case, organizers recommend only holding onto the pieces that are most important to you. "It's always struck me as strange that most of us store the items we deem the most precious in dusty attics, basements, or garages," says Gill.
Solution: Turn it into art or use it. "My father’s favorite mac and cheese recipe is framed in our dining room and it brings me joy every time I pass it on the way to the kitchen," says Gill. Her clients have turned childhood collections into art installations or framed a single item in a shadow box frame to display in their home. (For hard-to-frame items, she suggests using The Heirloomist, which is a service that turns your most precious memorabilia into modern art.) Fitzgerald applies the same logic to Grandma's fine china and silver. "I tell people to pull it out of the boxes and use it as their everyday dinnerware and flatware. Who cares if it gets dinged or tarnished? At least you are using and enjoying it," she says. "These nice things can elevate everyday life."
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