Box and Banish refurbished

Box and Banish refurbished

Box and Banish is a drastic, clear-it-out effort that transports clutter away from living areas, to be dealt with later.

Box and Banish is simple.

You will need boxes, lots of them. Starting at the front door, move from room to room placing boxes in front of each storage area: cabinets, drawers, closets, and shelves. 

Gather all clutter from counters, drawers, chairs, tables, floors, ovens, and bathtubs. Place the clutter into a box or bag and place this “clutter bag” in a place outside the living area. Work until all surfaces are clear and clutter free.

Then begin at the beginning once more. Start, for example, at the table in the hall. Remove any and all items from the table that are not assigned there but have a home somewhere else: gloves, mail, keys, change, handbags. When the table is empty, except for the vase of flowers that belongs there, circle the house with your catch. Gloves are placed in the box before the coat closet where they are supposed to live. Mail is dumped into the box in front of the desk area. Handbags and change are delivered to the owner's launch pad area. Items to be thrown away are delivered to the garbage can. Place the items in the box at the correct storage area if you are in a hurry. Otherwise, put them back where they belong.

Next step: open each box or bag of clutter, one at a time. Decide whether each item inside should be thrown away, put away, given away or sold, or stored. You might just have time for one box a day or week. Keep loading up the specific boxes with relevant clutter until you get to it. Some people even leave the boxes in the correct area until they can get to it. If not, label the boxes so finding things in an “emergency” is simple.

Box and Banish has advantages and disadvantages as a declutter method.

On the plus side, Box and Banish creates instant results. Often, impending guests or other emergencies force a version of Box and Banish upon the cluttered household. Clearing clutter quickly sparks enthusiasm and motivation. By making sure that the clutter is placed into a box or bag instead of just heaped onto a surface, good habits start to bud. Everything has a place and everything is in its place. Not somewhere else!

While Box and Banish can create an instant absence of apparent clutter, the method doesn’t do much to change the underlying problem. More gradual decluttering methods go hand-in-hand with other components of getting organized: building new habits, organizing stored items, creating new household routines, reducing spending, accumulating things.

If you're fiercely motivated and determined to complete the declutter process, Box and Banish is an option that jumpstarts organization efforts with fast results. You could probably even throw away Box and Banish boxes, sight unseen!

Daily clutter checks make sure no clutter is permitted to return. Set aside just 15 minutes to declutter each day. You can either declutter the areas by plopping the unwanted items into the correct boxes or empty one of the boxes. Baby Steps taken daily will get you to your goal as well as laying the stepping-stones for useful habits.

Books as soul mates or clutter?

We believe in the promise of books—they'll open our minds and our souls and take us to places we've never been. We find it gut-wrenching to give them away, even when we've run out of storage space. Excess begets chaos, and finding the time to read is even harder when you can't get your hands on the book you know you have...somewhere. Our project is to first edit and then organize our collections.

1. Before you do anything, ask yourself, "Why do I stockpile books? Is it to have meaningful words nearby? To lend to friends? To build a reference library? To create a particular atmosphere? To impress people? Do I really read the books or just have them in the background?" Your collection should reflect your intention.

2. Empty your shelves, grouping books into categories you would find in a library or bookstore (biography, poetry, fiction, self-help) on the floor. Does the size of each pile reflect your interests and goals now? Hold on to works that made a lasting impression, the two or three best reference books on any topic, the classics, your favorite authors, signed volumes, and all new books until you've had a chance to read them (or for one year, whichever comes first.)

3. Rearrange your shelves. Once you've decided what stays and what goes, you can start planning the layout of your library. If bookcases live all over the house, assign categories to specific rooms. Consider both the available space and where you read. For example, biographies in the living room; reference works in the study. Arrange books in each category alphabetically by author or subject. If your shelf space is limited, you can group books by size. (Although I shudder at the thought! I know someone who grouped books by color!! Arggh.)

4. Rethink your storage.  Try framing a window, fireplace, or doorway with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Narrow shelves can also be recessed between wall studs in a hallway without cramping your space. Ready-made modular systems allow you to create storage in odd-shaped areas, around corners and under stairs, without the expense of custom cabinetry. Check out smartfurniture.com (1-888-GO-SMART), and Bookboxes from Levenger (www.levenger.com). You can use small bookshelves as end tables in your living room or bedroom.

5. Send them packing. Parting with the giveaways is easier when you know they're going to someone who'll use them. You can donate to schools, libraries, prisons, senior centers, or hospitals. Or ship the gift of reading to the International Book Project (www.intlbookproject.org) or the Global Literacy Project (wwwglpinc.org); both foster community-based literacy initiatives in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world. If you'd rather sell, try eBay's www.half.com, amazon or a used-book store. Just don't expect to get the money back that you spent on the books.

6. Now read. A University of California-Berkeley study found that all the information released (books, newspapers, film, etc.) in just 2002 would fill half a million libraries the size of the Library of Congress. You'll never get to it all. Schedule regular times to read—during your commute, before bed, and on vacation—but be realistic. Try the "POWER OF 15" principle (15 minutes every single day). Once you've organized your books, you have fighting chance of enjoying them.