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5 Common Space Bandits

by Maria Gracia Updated October 13, 2023 Join our newsletter to be notified when new content is added to our website. Seeking less stress and more space? Here are 5 common space bandits that can take your space captive. Rally today and get that space back! 1. Clothes: If you're like most people, the clothes you wear on a day-to-day basis come from a mere 20% of the clothes in your closet. In other words, 80% of those clothes are just taking up space and never worn. Go through your closet and remove jeans, sweaters, blouses, skirts, dresses, shoes, and coats that you never wear. Donate them today. Your closet will be ready to store any outfits you feel wonderful wearing and you'll be helping out someone who could be making use of those unused garments. 2. Appliances: Bread machines, juicers, griddles, air fryers, crockpots, mixers and other similar appliances are wonderful…IF you use them. However, if you have some of these appliances and you haven't used them in a year or more, chances are, they'll never be used in your lifetime. Say goodbye to them today and you'll be freeing up cabinet and counter space. 3. Magazines: Do you keep every single magazine that enters your home? If you do, you most likely have a few piles growing throughout your home or office. Go through your magazines and tear out and file only the articles or recipes, etc. that most interest you. No sense in keeping the entire magazine. Once you've read through it and have chosen those pages that you'd like to keep for future reference, recycle the rest. ALSO, consider switching to digital magazines through a service like Apple News. 4. Mementos: While it's fine to keep some very meaningful items stashed away in a mementos box, if you've accumulated more than one or two boxes of these treasures, you may be going a bit overboard. Being sentimental is wonderful, but not when it's at the expense of your living space or storage space. Go through these boxes from time to time and weed out the things that no longer have significant meaning to you. Commit to 1 to 2 boxes at the most. You'll have lots of memories to look back on in the future without taking up a whole lot of extra space. By the way, do you treasure something that’s simply too large to keep? Take a photo of it and then donate the item. You’ll be capturing the memory without taking up the extra space. 5. Furniture: Is your home or apartment filled to the max with furniture you never use? Perhaps it was passed down from a loved one? Or maybe you recently made a move to a smaller place, but brought all of your big furniture with you. If it's not functional or you truly don't have the space for it, consider letting go. Imagine all the free space you'll have when it's gone. Back to Organizing Strategies Index