Donation Hamper

Peter Walsh, Oprah’s resident organizer and author of the bestselling book, Clutter Makes Your Butt Look Fat, has the great idea to keep  a hamper in your closet, desginated JUST for clothes you need to donate. One of the tenets of home organization is to make sure that whenever you bring something new into your home, make room for it by throwing out something old (and unworn/used). When it comes to your clothes closet, this is a great idea for pretty much any personality type. Plus clothing is completely recyclable. Anything that your local Goodwill can’t resell they will sell to a fabric recycling company.

So why is this a good solution for everyone? Because the first way to prevent clutter is to have a home for everything in your home. The minute something is homeless? Clutter begins. Detail types like Funs and Classics excel in putting things away and giving them homes. Funs will relish the ongoing process of putting things in the Donate Hamper and could easily become addicted to the “daily dose” game (throwing away something unused in your household everyday) and while Classics might like this game too, you might tire of the ongoing nature of it and prefer some finality. Give yourself a schedule to go through your home each quarter or solstice, find stuff to put in the hamper and then you can check off the donation line on your To-Do list.

Smart Freedoms and Organic Freedoms will also love the process of this solution and will feel accomplished after they initially install the Donate hamper — yes, let yourself feel accomplished with the first action (and any time you remember to put something in it). Smart Structure and Organic Structure will also benefit from the hamper as it breaks down the sometimes overwhelming task of donating clothes into bite-size, doable tasks. See something in your closet that you never put on because you hate the way you look in it? In one fell swoop of your hand, it disappears into the donate hamper. Just make sure that everyone in your household KNOWS this is a donation hamper. Label it, AND verbally tell everyone or they might lose their favorite t-shirt, shoes, sweater, jeans, etc.

BEST FOR EVERYONE

Originally published on January 4, 2010.