Too much "stuff"

I am a Type A personality and a bit anal about keeping my home clean.  Not as bad as Monica from "Friends" but I can't relax or be comfortable if there is stuff all over the floor or the carpet needs to be vacuumed.  Hubbster and I have always tried to keep our home as decluttered as possible to keep a clean fresh feeling.  Today I came across this article:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/04/22/earth-day-tips-less-wasteful/

Lots of great tips and hints.  My favorite part was this:

We’ve all heard that we should Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, but my favorite “R” is actually one I just learned about recently and that is to REFUSE. Say “no, thank you” to the free pen at the trade show or hotel, stop entering those raffle contests, and don’t buy any more cheap plastic toys that you know your child will forget about in 2.4 seconds! Already being a type-A “purger” at heart, this motto has really hit home with me. I strive to have all our rooms and closets clean and neatly organized, but guess what – I would have to spend a lot less time doing that cleaning and organizing if we had less unnecessary stuff! So I am doing my best to stop those garbage bags full of unnecessary trash and Goodwill offerings before they even happen.

I feel like I spend so much time "dejunking" but saying "no" to bringing that stuff in is a much better idea!  I am thinking of just starting a bin in the garage for stuff I need to take to D.I. (Deseret Industries, similar to Goodwill) and when we get the cheap plastic toys I'll let the kids play with them but just put them in donate bin that night (their short attention span will likely never miss them).  I have been getting a lot better keeping the amount of toys the kids have to a minimum.  I rarely buy my kids toys because they get enough from Grandma, birthdays, Christmas etc, and with four kids they add up fast!

How do you stay organized or declutter?



London holding a favorite toy (I got it from Hubbster when we were dating, it says "I love you" when you squeeze it)