80% vs 20%

This morning, as I was talking to my friend who is in the middle of organizing and cleaning closets in anticipation of new carpeting being installed in the too near future, I was reminded of the 80% vs 20% rule of home clutter:  We use 20% of what we own 80% of the time. 

That also means that we could all dispose of a minimum of 50% (there are a few things that really are necessary once or twice a year) of what we own and not miss it one bit.  For the past few years, I have adhered to an ironclad rule of cleaning–I clean as if I were moving.  That means if I were moving and wouldn’t take said object with me, it gets donated, recycled or tossed.  It is a very freeing experience. 

For those of you who have children in the house who have a penchant for saving scraps of paper with pictures of dinosaurs or tiny plastic animals, the rule is to clean the day before your neighborhood’s trash pick-up.  They never see what is tossed and you have a truthful response when 6 months down the road the one inch plastic horse or piece of paper comes up missing.  “Mom, have you seen my Tyrannosaurus Rex picture?”, you can honestly say, “No honey, I haven’t seen it in a long time.”