The Listia decluttering series, inspired by ListiaLeslie’s 40 day decluttering project. This week, Leslie worked on the closet.

Cleaning out the closet can be a daunting experience, but with a few easy steps, good music, and a few rules assigned to the clutter, it becomes an easy, rewarding experience.

1. Great Music
Pick some music with a great beat which inspires you, and turn it on, or wait a few days to clean and find music on Listia. Turn off the TV and you may find yourself doing your very best decluttering dance moves!

2. Make Rules, Prepare To Divide Items into Categories
I chose to divide items into 4 categories:

a) Keep: For items I absolutely need to keep because they serve a need or have essential sentimental value
b) Recycle: Items for the recycling bin, recycle-friendly trash
c) List on Listia: Listia is the perfect place to give away the great things I no longer need. In turn, I get credits that I use for gift shopping, without any out of pocket spending
d) Trash: Items that cannot be recycled, donated or listed on Listia

3.  Staging Area
Here comes the hard part, but it’s worth it. I created an area which I call the Staging Area. First, I took absolutely everything out of the closet and put it all in the staging area. From here, I organized the items and  sorted everything, applying all the above rules. The only items to go back in my closet were the items which were not deemed as trash, recycled goods or for listing on Listia.

4. Create Areas In The Closet
Before I put back the items I knew I was going to keep, I divided the closet into 3 areas: Jackets, folded items, hanging clothes, bins & boxes. Then, when it was time to put everything back in, I knew where the essentials were going. The miscellaneous items were then organized into bins which fit on the closet shelves. Since my vacuum cleaner doesn’t fall into any of those categories, it did not go back into that closet.

5. Labels
For items that went into bins, I pulled out a label maker (which I got on Listia!) and made sure to mark each bin with the appropriate label. For example, one bin has sandals and flip-flops so I marked it “Sandals & Flip-Flops”.

Now my closet is free of clutter, and I have room for more T-shirts! 🙂  What are your tips for cleaning out the closet?

My Newly Decluttered Closet

Leslie works at Listia and recently embarked upon a 40 day Decluttering Project. She will be sharing  her experiences with all of us over the next few weeks. This is the first installment of Leslie’s Decluttering Project. 

Small space living makes the quest for a clutter free life a huge challenge. Sometimes I win, sometimes the clutter wins. This year for Lent, I chose to give up clutter and send it packing! For the next 40 days I’m working through clutter to create a clear, peaceful, and harmonious living space.

Room by room, I am dividing items into three categories:

1. Keep
2. Recycle
3. List on Listia

Listia is the perfect place to give away the things I no longer need. In turn, I get credits that I use for gift shopping, without any out of pocket spending!

Decluttering Project #1: The Bathroom

Before I started this project, it looked like a beauty supply store threw-up in my bathroom.

BEFORE

Do I really need 5 different shades of red nail polish? No. Do I need 3 different kinds of anti-wrinkle cream? Maybe. What I DON’T need is every product I own spread all over the counter, taking up valuable real estate and creating stress. I want my bathroom to be clean and relaxing.

AFTER

After decluttering the bathroom, I have exactly what I want! A lovely bathroom that invites a sigh of relaxation and not a sigh of exasperation.

My next challenge is the kitchen. Who knew such a tiny kitchen could get so cluttered?

– Leslie

Thank you to everyone who entered a video into the I Love Listia Video Contest. We are honored that you took the time to make so many great videos, and appreciate them all. You can view many of them on our Listia Channel. The challenge was to create a video describing why you love Listia in 90 seconds or less. Entrants had the entire month of February to submit as many videos as they wanted, and the entire Listia staff voted anonymously on their top 5 picks. It was really hard to pick only five! The results are in, and the winners are. . .

1st Place: $500 & 50,000 Credits

2nd Place: 40,000 Credits

3rd Place: 30,000 Credits

4th Place: 20,000 Credits

5th Place: 10,000 Credits

Congratulations to all, and thank you so much for all your creativity. Winners: Your credits will appear in your account today, and you will receive an email from Listia in your Listia account to confirm. Check back soon for more fun video contests.