I’ve developed a very simple system to edit out the stuff in my home – why a cardboard box is my secret weapon to a clutter free and orderly home

Amanda Jones is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on sustainable living and decorating a home in way that is good for the environment. See the rest of her articles here.

For over a decade now, I’ve kept my home clutter free and orderly, my secret weapon, a cardboard box. Seems impossible, let me explain.

I write a lot on here about how I decluttered my home, and how I’ve learnt to curate an intentional space, for my family to live. To achieve this I needed to declutter everything from our home that we no longer needed or loved. A previous article of mine explains how I did this in more detail, you can read it here

After decluttering, it’s essential you then PREVENT more stuff from entering your home. Stopping impulsive spending is so important to how successful you are with this. My article here describes how I managed to rid myself of my own impulsive spending habit.

Even a home that’s decluttered and has a determined gatekeeper ensuring not too much enters the front door, (that’s me by the way!) can still produce some odds and ends that float around the home unused and unloved, and this is where my secret weapon comes into action. An ordinary, bog-standard cardboard box.

Placement of said box is key. It needs to be strategically placed, not where your family will trip over it, or where it becomes an eyesore, but in a place, it can’t be forgotten either, as that can be fatal.

My box is strategically placed in our small box room (pun intended). The room is used daily, so the box can’t be ignored or forgotten. I see this box as an essential part of my kit to keeping my home manageable, and clutter free.

So how does just an ordinary box work its magic, you ask? Well, it’s a catchall, a net to scoop up all the odds and ends that find their way into my home, my first line of defence, so to speak. There might be less clutter in my home than in most homes, but we still manage to produce some.

Living successfully with less, doesn’t just happen. There’s a constant filtering process that occurs. It’s not the same as the determined, organised decluttering process, I undertook in 2015, this is more an act of maintenance. To be honest, it’s in my DNA now, I’m intentional by habit, so it takes very little effort or time.

As I go about my week, cleaning and tidying, and I come across something I think we no longer need, I’ll pop it in the box. It could be a book I’ve just finished that I know I won’t read again, it could be an item of clothing I no longer wear, or something from the kitchen that we haven’t used in a while.

My box is a holding place, which allows myself a ‘pause’ ensuring I make the right decision. I rarely let go of anything I later regret.

When I started my huge decluttering challenge back in 2015, I quickly developed my Exit Strategy because I was acutely aware of the waste I could potentially be sending to landfill. I’ve written about it here Whilst it's inevitable some items we no longer need will end up in landfill, I try my best to dispose of stuff responsibly.

I don’t think everything should automatically be sent to the charity shop; they are already overwhelmed with our unwanted stuff.

So as the item sits patiently in the box, my Exit Strategy is activated. I’ll ask myself; does the item really need to go? Have we finished using it? If the answer is yes, then I ask myself where I can dispose of it responsibly. Is it something I could sell, or should I give it away.

My first choice is usually to ask friends and family if they want the item. If the weather is good, I might put the items outside the house with a “please take’ sign on them, or pop on Freecycle, although any ‘buy nothing’ group would be a good option. Once I’ve exhausted these options, and if there’s no local organisation that I could donate it to, then my last option is a charity shop.

How many of us have decluttered our homes, only to find very quickly, the clutter levels start to rise again very quickly? How many of us still have boxes and bags ready to donate, still in the hallway 6 months later? It can be so demotivating and frustrating.

Establishing effective methods to stop this happening is literally life changing. Over the years, I’ve developed this very simple system to edit out the stuff in my home, it’s straight forward, effective and takes very little time.

Who would have guessed, just an ordinary cardboard box is all it took, to keep my home clutter free.