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 1. Lifestyle
 2. Organizing
 3. 11 Things to Throw Out ASAP, According to Professional Organizers


11 THINGS TO THROW OUT ASAP, ACCORDING TO PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZERS

Are any of these items cluttering up your life?

By Lesley RotchfordPublished: May 23, 2024
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Every item on this page was hand-picked by a House Beautiful editor. We may earn
commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Everyone has clutter, and professional organizers can suss it out as soon as
they step into a house. These pros will help you decide (with some gentle
prodding) whether to discard, donate, or sell things you aren't using, before
neatly corralling the rest of your items into user-friendly, clearly labeled
containers.

According to experts, this process can usher in all kinds of positive changes.
"People don't realize how much clutter is weighing them down," says professional
organizer Bridget Urgo, co-owner of the home organization and relocation company
The Settler. "When they start to declutter, they can find things more easily,
think more clearly, and spend less money because they aren't buying duplicates
of things that they already own." If you don't want to hire a professional to
thin out your unwanted items, you can do it yourself—starting with these
notorious sources of clutter.

MORE ORGANIZING TIPS

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 * How to Organize a Junk Drawer

Tetra Images//Getty Images


THE VASES YOUR FLOWERS CAME IN

After someone sends you flowers, you're left with a utilitarian-looking vase
that inevitably gets stashed in a cabinet or closet with all the others you've
ever received. "You are never going to use those vases—when you're arranging
your own flowers, you'll use the nice Tiffany vase that you got for your
wedding," says professional organizer Maura Fitzgerald, founder of Fitz Just
Right, who just removed two huge bins of vases from a client's home.




Solution: Florists will happily take these back, so upcycle your vases by
dropping them off at your local flower shop.

anela//Getty Images


KITCHEN GADGETS

One reason we all have so much clutter is we have too much stuff in
general—especially in the kitchen. "You don't need an apple corer and a mango
slicer. They are too big and take up too much space in kitchen drawers. Just
grab a knife when you need to cut fruit," Urgo says. Fitzgerald feels the same
way about trendy unused appliances. "Instant Pots…who is using those now? I see
a lot of Instant Pots and Vitamixes collecting dust in storage rooms or taking
up space in cabinets," she says.

Solution: Donate or discard appliances that you no longer need. Many public
libraries have programs that allow members to rent appliances; it's worth
checking to see if they might want yours, especially if it's unused.

hxyume//Getty Images


OLD ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND THEIR BOXES

We all have this drawer or cabinet: the one where we hoard cracked phones,
outdated laptops, and cords and boxes that go with electronics that we no longer
even use. We hold onto this stuff because we think we may need it someday—but no
one ever does. So get rid of them! But do so only after you've wiped them clean;
before discarding old devices, Urgo urges clients to clear the memory so no one
can get ahold of their personal information.

Solution: After you reset your device, recycle it or sell it back to the
manufacturer. You may be able to get a credit toward a brand-new phone or
computer.

ondacaracola photography//Getty Images


TOTE BAGS

Organizers say it's astounding how many canvas tote bags and reusable grocery
bags they find hanging in mudrooms, stuffed into hall closets, or lying around
musty garages. "You just don't need that many bags—edit them down so you are
left with under five bags," Fitzgerald says.

Solution: Use your surplus bags to carry other items on this list to Goodwill,
or call a local food pantry and see if they could use them. The bags may be
helpful to people who are picking up their groceries for the week.

fermate//Getty Images


INSTRUCTIONS MANUALS, RECEIPTS, AND OTHER PAPER

According to Urgo, this is a big issue for Baby Boomers. "They have so much
paper—old files, receipts, junk mail, instruction manuals—clogging up their
homes and offices," she says. Young families have a lot of paper clutter too,
but it's in the form of school art projects and homework. Your children's
masterpieces are admittedly hard to part with, so professional organizer Nikki
Boyd, founder of At Home With Nikki and author of Beautifully Organized, A Guide
To Function and Style in Your Home encourages clients to have their kids pick
their favorite pieces to keep.

Solution: Take pictures and store them in a digital folder for safekeeping. For
example, in the case of instruction manuals, snap a picture of the model number
on the dishwasher manual so you can reference it if you ever need to call the
company to have it fixed. "All the other information in those manuals you can
get on the company website or YouTube," Fitzgerald says. The same goes for
archiving kids' artwork. Aside from your all-time faves, "the other artwork can
be photographed with a phone and curated in a beautiful digital photo collection
that can be enjoyed at any time," Boyd says.

SolStock//Getty Images


GIFT WRAPPING SUPPLIES

Organizing expert Shira Gill, author of Minimalista, says it's not uncommon to
walk into a house and find entire closets filled with wrapping paper, tags,
tissue paper, boxes, ribbons, and bows. "I find that people love buying gifting
supplies simply because they are cute, and they like the identity of being a
gifter," says Gill who notes that actual gifts with no destination are another
common form of clutter.

Solution: Gill suggests investing in an Elfa Utility Mesh Gift Packaging Over
the Door Rack and narrowing down your gifting inventory into just what fits in
that station.

Gege Gatt (www.gegegatt.com)//Getty Images


COOKBOOKS

With so many of us getting our recipes online or via social media, those
beautiful cookbooks don’t get much use anymore.

Solution: Hold onto three or four that you love and have room to attractively
display in your kitchen and donate the rest. Gill uses this strategy all over
the house when trying to thin out extra items. "Good editing is as simple as
clearly defining your limits (ie, what you can fit) and then selecting your
favorites," she says.

Kevin Trimmer//Getty Images


ANYTHING THAT’S PAST ITS PRIME

Old toys. Your teenage son's size 4 hockey skates. Broken crayons and capless
markers. Expired spices and beauty products (did you know you're supposed to
discard mascara two to four months after purchase?) This all has to go. "My rule
is, do you eat this or use it? If not, toss, it," says Urgo. Old cans of paint
also fall into this category. "Paint expires pretty fast, so you’re never going
to end up using the rest of what’s in those cans," says Fitzgerald. "Take a
picture of the cover so you remember the brand and the color if you need to
touch up a wall in the future."

Solution: It depends on the item, but there's a sustainable and eco-friendly way
to get rid of pretty much anything. For old paint, contact a local paint
recycling or disposal company to help you throw away the paint in an
environmentally responsible way.

RELATED STORY

 * How to Get Rid of Paint Safely

jirkaejc//Getty Images


TEA

When Gill starts organizing a house, she is often surprised to find loose tea
bags and boxes of tea jamming up drawers, stuffed in cabinets, and tucked away
in the pantry. "It's truly staggering," she says. "I have no idea why, but
people seem desperate to fill their homes with every imaginable type of tea."

Solution: She urges her clients to pause on the tea purchases until they've used
up their existing supply, and she limits volume by ditching all unnecessary
packaging and using a tea organizer.

Kinga Krzeminska//Getty Images


EXTRA LINENS

According to Fitzpatrick, linen closets are an unexpected but significant source
of clutter. People store extra sheets, pillows, and blankets that they really
don't need. "Adults only need one pair of sheets because you're washing and
changing them once a week," she says. "Kids may need two in case of
accidents—but that's it." Pillows collect dusk mites so shouldn't be stored at
all.

Solution: You can donate sheets and blankets in good condition to a women's
shelter. For items that are past their prime, check in with an animal shelter or
look into textile recycling in your area.

highteaforalice.com//Getty Images


GRANDMA’S CHINA (AND OTHER SENTIMENTAL ITEMS)

In this case, organizers recommend only holding onto the pieces that are most
important to you. "It's always struck me as strange that most of us store the
items we deem the most precious in dusty attics, basements, or garages," says
Gill.

Solution: Turn it into art or use it. "My father’s favorite mac and cheese
recipe is framed in our dining room and it brings me joy every time I pass it on
the way to the kitchen," says Gill. Her clients have turned childhood
collections into art installations or framed a single item in a shadow box frame
to display in their home. (For hard-to-frame items, she suggests using The
Heirloomist, which is a service that turns your most precious memorabilia into
modern art.) Fitzgerald applies the same logic to Grandma's fine china and
silver. "I tell people to pull it out of the boxes and use it as their everyday
dinnerware and flatware. Who cares if it gets dinged or tarnished? At least you
are using and enjoying it," she says. "These nice things can elevate everyday
life."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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