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.