Clutter Clearing: Use Local Events to Give Yourself a Deadline

Want to get motivated to tackle a decluttering project? Sometimes a deadline helps. That could be the date you told everyone you were having your garage sale, or it could be the date your company is arriving.

But another option is to take advantage of local events. The Lutheran church in my town has a big book sale every Labor Day weekend, and they are collecting books (and CDs and DVDs) now. Drop off is easy (it's local, and they have pretty long hours) and they take some books other places won't, like books with highlighting. So it's a great time for local people to tackle a book/CD/DVD decluttering project.

Similarly, Friends of the San Francisco Library runs a big book sale in September; that's another deadline someone could aim for.

And a number of cities by me have city-wide garage sales or flea markets; that's another way to pick a date and have a deadline to aim for.

Are there any events in your city that might inspire you to declutter?

[photo by jmgold / Jeremy Goldstein, whose Flickr profile speaks of his own challenges in sorting through the books.]