If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the stuff in your home, you’re not alone. Here are seven tried and true tips for cutting the clutter and getting your life back.

Clean out the closets. Most people actually wear only 20% of the clothes they own. That means that 80% of what’s clogging up your closet and dresser is stuff you never wear anyway. Set aside 4 hours one weekend to take everything out of your closet, try it on, and toss anything that doesn’t fit well or flatter you, and stuff you haven’t worn in the last year. The only items that goes back in the closet are the ones you truly like. As for the rest of it, take it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army for a hefty tax deduction. Ditch the dailies. Do you really read that newspaper every day? Reduce your subscription to Sundays only, and just watch that pile of unread papers disappear. Stop maxing out on magazines. It’s hard to say no to a 4-year subscription when it costs approximately 11 cents, but it’s only a good deal if you’re actually going to read the magazines when they come. Pick one or two mags you really love and cancel the rest. Then, gather up all of your back issues and drop them off at the local hospital. Their patients and visitors will thank you. Love your local library. While you’re on a roll with reducing your reading materials, paw through those paperbacks gathering dust on your bookshelf and donate them to your library. You’ll get back your shelf space while helping a chronically underfunded public institution — and bringing home another tax deduction. Nix the knickknacks. Think of it this way: The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to dust. If you don’t like those candlesticks Aunt Maeve gave you, take them to Goodwill. Running out of space for picture frames? Pick just a few favorite photos to leave out, put the rest into albums, and Freecycle the leftover frames. Got a thing for porcelain figurines? Unless you have a nice china closet for them, probably best to pack them up for protection — and to clear some breathing room. Master your mail. I know you’re tired at the end of the day, but fight the urge to just drop the mail on the counter and sigh, “I’ll deal with it tomorrow.” That stuff piles up fast, and the bigger the pile, the harder to sit down and deal with it. From now on, as soon as you get through the door, sort the mail into three piles: Trash, Shredder, and Keep. Then, open all of the Keep items and toss the empty envelopes and inserts away with the Trash. When the tottering mound of junk turns into a neat little stack of paper, you’ll feel a lot better about what you find in your mailbox. Tame the toys. And don’t think you’re exempt from this one if you don’t have kids. Pet toys, electronics, and personal care products (do you really use those fancy hot rollers enough to leave them on the bathroom counter all the time?) take up a lot of space. Head over to Ikea for a couple of those snazzy woven baskets to stash Fido’s bone. Lose the dozen remote controls and get a universal remote that handles everything. Simplify by either storing, donating, or Freecycling stuff you just don’t use that often. With a little bit of determination and just a few hours, you can turn your stressed-out space into a peaceful clutter-free zone. Ahh, now doesn’t that feel better?

Tip #1 How to overcome “I don’t where to start”

Starting is the biggest issue voiced by most people who are struggling with getting some kind of control over their paperwork. Usually the un-said phrase that follows is “I will do it later”. That internal exchange only leads to frustration, discouragement and sometimes, depression.

So where do you start? We encourage you to start with what comes in the mail the first day, then the next day, and so on. Get used to the filing system you are using one day at a time. For the time being, ignore the box, file drawer or paper pile where you have been putting things “to-do”. Once you have become comfortable with the system you are using, you can start chipping away at the rest. In fact, you may even be excited about doing it.

The old adage about “biting off more than you can chew” needs to be a daily reminder as you MAKE A NEW START!

Tip #2 “The myth of One-Touch Filing” Some very compulsive person came up with the idea that all you had to do to deal with mail and paperwork was to only touch the document once. In other words, when you receive a bill in the mail, you open it and pay it right then so you don’t have to touch it again. Who can do that?? At least in my life that would mean dumping all my mail in a box (actually to be a purest having the mail carrier do it so that I would touch it once), and setting aside several hours to toss, file or pay. The potential problem is that the box may get so full that I would be intimidated to tackle it.

I suggest that you approach the paperwork process with moderation and compromise by following these steps: 1. When the mail is delivered, recycle or throw away anything that is clearly junk or unsolicited mail, without opening it. 2. Open everything else and sort into 3 stacks: bills to be paid, papers to file and things to read. 3. Set up an appointment with yourself empty those stacks once a week.

The issue that underlies all of this is making decisions. The path to deal with it is learning new habits bit by bit.

How often have we lamented, I KNOW what to do, I just don t DO it! The gap between knowing and doing is a yawning chasm. There s a line from an early poem by Heather McHugh Nothing stands in my way and I can t get over it. How true! We know we should get organized. We sincerely believe that getting organized would make a big difference. We ve read books, gone to classes, and hired consultants. But nothing seems to change.

When we experience the discontinuity between what we think and what we do, all kinds of uncomfortable feelings arise shame, anger, frustration, sadness, despair. These powerful feelings make us vulnerable, touchy, and tender. We construct reasons and justifications to take away the feelings, but that doesn t work. So we forcibly damp down our feelings, muffle the conflicting voices, and hide the anguish from ourselves and others.

How do we do what needs to be done? By accepting the feelings, and, at the same time, developing our capacity to bear them. This is a both/and situation, not either/or. We are both afraid and courageous at the same time; we are both clear and confused. The key to moving from knowing to doing is to accept the feelings, acknowledge their power and take steps anyway.

Knowing what to do, yet not doing it has value we can hardly imagine. In the midst of the dilemma we approach what philosopher Jacob Needleman in Time and the Soul calls the gateway to consciousness of our true nature where we stand in the opposition between the inner movement toward the deep self and the outer movement toward the external world. Through this gateway, we come to understand, deeply in our bones, our nature as beings of much more than rational knowing.

We are as much feeling and intuiting beings as thinking beings. We live in a world that is far more than the mental. Neither reasons, nor justifications, nor thoughts come near to explaining what s happening. When we stand in the uncomfortable experience of knowing yet not doing, we come closer to this reality. If stay with the discomfort, we find a depth in ourselves, a complexity that is more like who we really are.

Yet we think all the time. We mull over past events, rehearse future ones, and mentally fiddle with the present. All this mental activity appears to do something, but in fact, it does very little, and lets us avoid actually dealing with our stuff. To make something happen, we need to pull back from thinking and give more weight to doing.

Organizing builds the bridge between the internal, thinking self and the outer, doing self, and so is a particularly powerful practice for righting the balance. Ideas, images, and insights give form to thoughts about organizing. They provide guidance, trigger understanding, and give the thinking self something to do so that, soothed and occupied, it can get out of the way. Techniques, tools, and practice can then help the doing self make the changes.

So, we re ready. We can bear our uncomfortable feelings well enough. Our thinking mind is soothed enough. Poised on the brink of actually doing something, not just thinking about it, resistance shows up. It may come in the form of a balky you can t make me! attitude, or scattered anxiety that wants to bolt in wide-eyed panic. Or a if I can t do this perfectly, why do it at all judgment. Or shame at our lack of discipline. Or waves of apathetic fatigue.

When these powerful feelings come up we suddenly find more important (or less important!) things to do. Confronting our resistance is just too much. Resistance, however, is a sign that we are wrestling with an angel or a formidable demon. It shows us that what we re about to attempt has the potential to make a real change in how we live our lives. No wonder we resist!

When it comes right down to it, we do want to be effective; we do want meaningful lives. And for that, we wrestle with our resistance, learn its lessons, and make peace with it. We will encounter resistance again and again. Best to honor it as an important messenger, get to know its particular forms, listen to what it has to say and proceed anyway.

Adapted from The Spirit of Getting Organized: 12 Skills to Find Meaning & Power In Your Stuff, Pamela Kristan, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003

I was asked recently at a seminar, What was the biggest life changing thing to happen to me, since studying self improvement techniques? I must admit I had to really think, because there were so many aha moments. Eventually I came up with something that had nothing to do with self improvement in the recognised format. It worked out that my biggest change came when I read somewhere, that in order to get things done MAKE A LIST.

It all sounded so innocent and hardly world shattering, so I started to make a list every night of the things that I wanted to achieve the next day. All of a sudden I became really efficient and things that had been put off for months, all of a sudden went on my list and got done. It was amazing the difference it made to my life. No more sitting in the chair at night and saying, Oh no I forgot to do so and so.

This sounds so silly that many of you will pooh pooh it. All I ask is that you give it a go. You will really shock yourself as to the difference it will make to your life.

It seems to me that anything committed to paper takes on a real importance, when we need to remember something, if we have an idea, if we want to quit something or even if we want to achieve something, it establishes that thought or idea as a must do item in our mind.

If most of you are like me, you will have had plenty of experience jotting things down on odd bits of paper and then collecting them all on the bedside table and eventually throwing them in the bin because it was too much trouble to look at them. Well for you there is hope because I have worked out a system that works for me, and I know will work for you.

Buy yourself one of those small notepads that have the spiral binder on them or any notebook that suits you. [I only suggest the spiral bound one because it opens on itself very easily.] Make a list of all the things that you need to do or achieve the next day. There is no need at this point to put any specific importance on the items. On the first list really dig deep and put on it all the things that you have been putting off and also all the current things that need doing, whether they be work, or jobs around the house, or things that need sorting out at your club etc . You will be shocked to see the size of this initial list and for the first time ever you will appreciate how much you have procrastinated in the past. Don t worry or get put off because it soon gets into a workable size.

At this point, make a promise to yourself that you are going to do this for one month no matter what, in fact write this down in the front of your book as a reminder. As I said earlier this sounds so simple and so silly, that you may be doubting its power.

I promise that you will experience a change in you life that you would not believe is possible. It even helps you sleep better because you don t keep worrying about things you should do or should have done. All of a sudden it is not being left to chance.

During the day anything that needs doing or any reminder that you need make sure you get in the habit of putting it on your list.

The secret to making this work is that each night you update your list and write out the next days list. At this point you prioritise things that have been left undone from the day, and you put ALL the things that you have left undone from that day on the list. Your second promise to yourself, is that nothing can remain on the list for more than two days This of course will only be jobs or things that are on the list mainly as a gentle reminder. If something does stay on your list, it is up to you to sort out if it really is important.

Get in the habit of keeping this list and I guarantee that your life will change. You will have an unpaid secretary reminding you throughout the day of all the things you need to get done. It will make you more reliable because your day will be more organised. You will achieve more each day because your day is structured, and it will make your relationship flourish because all those silly little jobs around the house will be done.

Well there it is the most simple success tool ever. You will find that ALL really successful people rely on lists and daily reminders. Who knows this maybe the only tool you will need in your search for riches.

Croz is a speaker and mentor. You can sbscribe to his free news letter on http://www.croz.com.au