Today, I want to talk with you about decluttering your hot mess room. A hot mess room (HMR) is where we lovingly place (shove?) things we don’t know what to do with, can’t part with right now, are not sure about, or want to keep “just in case.” Depending on your home, an HMR can be a garage, shed, storage room, basement, attic, shed, or sometimes even a whole house.
If you are working through the rest of your home (like with The Productive Home Solution), you declutter your main living areas and end up dumping your extra stuff into an area that becomes an HMR. This area becomes overwhelmed as you put things into the space “for now” while you delay making a decision to actually get rid of the stuff. This is perfectly normal – it’s a rest stop for your clutter on the way out the door.
The Productive Home Solution members have a deep dive course to help clear out an HMR, but for today, I want to help you make progress simply by decluttering this space. Unlike a kitchen or a living room, HMR can be hard to clear out because they accumulate stuff from everywhere in the house. Today, I want to help you make progress decluttering this area so that it is more useful to you.
First – be realistic about any item you are considering continuing to keep just in case you need it. Remember that you have just lived through the ultimate just-in-case scenario – you were safe at home (sometimes for months) during a global pandemic. If you didn’t use the item (food, clothing, or hobby) during that time, you probably never will. Let it go. If you do keep just-in-case items, you should know what you have and how to find it when you need them.
Second – clear out the things you don’t need that will make the biggest difference in the space – empty boxes, broken items, orphan pieces of furniture, and household items you no longer want or do not use (vases & holiday decorations that do not fit your taste or style anymore). See if you can reduce the stuff by 25-30%. Send things to trash, recycling, or donation centers and reclaim your storage space for the things you do want to keep in storage.
