Creating stations to get rid of clutter

What do you do when you come across something in your home that you no longer want? Do you throw it out? Take it to a local charity? Or perhaps you’re like most people and you just ignore it.

It’s easier than you think to get rid of items in your home that you no longer want.

There are 3 “stations” in our home for discarded items that I think maybe helpful for you.

For sale station

(Our for sale station is in our basement, next to the stockpile donation station.)

If you would like to try selling some of the items in your home, set up a “for sale” station.

This can be anywhere in your home and items can be in plastic tubs or stored on shelves. Set aside time once per week to list and/or re-list the items you have for sale on Kijiji, Craigslist and/or eBay. If your items don’t sell within a reasonable amount of time, donate them.

If you’d like to save all of your items for a yard sale, be sure to donate all items that don’t sell once your yard sale is over. If it didn’t sell one year, it’s not likely to sell the next.

Donation station

(Our donation station is in a corner of our basement, but I just cleared it out the other day to take the items to the local thrift store, so here they are sitting in the dining room.)

Perhaps you can’t be bothered with selling things, and would rather donate items you no longer need. That’s great! Set up a donation station in your home for storing these items until you can make it to the thrift store.

Our donation station is in the basement, but you can keep yours anywhere that you will be able to see it often.

Make a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly trip to drop off your donations. If your pile of items to donate grows larger than the container you are using to store them, drop the items off earlier. Don’t let the container overflow.

Stockpile donation station

(Our stockpile donation station is right next to our stockpile on a small shelf.)

If you are often able to obtain large quantities of items with coupons (or even without), consider donating what you will not use to a food bank or shelter in your area.

Dedicate a small location in your stockpile for items to be donated and once that area is filled up, deliver your donation and free up room in your stockpile (to collect more donation items, of course!).

Having these 3 designated areas in our home has drastically reduced the amount of clutter we have. It also feels good to have a donation and for sale schedule as well, to make sure that these items actually make it out of the house.

It’s not hard to find unwanted items in your home. I think I find a box full of stuff to get rid of every week or two. I don’t know how the stuff gets into our house in the first place, but if it’s not being used, out it goes!

Do you have a sale or donation station in your home?