Have you ever looked at a pile of random nonsense in a drawer, or on a desk, picked something up to take it where it belongs, and realized that the place it belonged is *also* filled with random nonsense? And then too quickly given up on the mess and started doom scrolling?
I’ve tried the KonMari method, I’ve read the Minimalists, but the actual practice of going through everything as a working parent was so daunting I’d tackle a small corner and then BAM it was like I hadn’t cleaned mere hours later. There was a headlamp on my desk, legos under it and little squishy mochi toys basically everywhere.
Noodling on this challenge one morning, I had a revelation: my problem was decision fatigue - I needed to reduce the number of choices.
Enter: Binning
A tool is only as good as how it fits into a real world process. In this case, the tool is a clear plastic bin. And the ‘Binning’ process is simple:
Get a trash bag and a clear plastic bin (with a lid) for each room.
Go through every drawer, shelf, desk, etc., and put anything that does not belong in that particular room in either the trash or the bin (exceptions: dirty laundry, kids toys).
Rearrange the bin until everything fits.
Seal the bin.
Put it in a closet or basement.
Set a deadline to find a place for everything in 2-3 months.
As you need something from your bins, go get it! Find a place for it! If you haven’t used something in the bin in a couple months, you should probably just take the whole thing to your local donation center.
The Test: Room One
I started by picking up three large Target storage bins with the plan to do my bedroom, the living room and the dining room. One bin, one room.
Starting in the bedroom I was *amazed*. In under an hour (childfree) I had emptied every drawer and shelf and random bit of floor nonsense and everything had found a place in either the trash bag, the bin, the laundry chute, the kids room or on my bed where it could be sorted and put back in a Good Place. Forty five minutes more and everything was wiped down and in its new home.
This. was. a. miracle.
The real kicker came later that evening. One shelf in my room has card games (we like to play before bed most nights). My kiddo found one game under a bed and held it up - “Do you want to play a round?” I asked. “Not right now, I’m going to put it with the rest of the games” my six year old said - and opened the cupboard and put it on the shelf. I nearly died.
And while the whole room felt lighter immediately, the incredible mental lightness of being and waking up in a room where everything has a place and every drawer and shelf and space is clutter free - it’s completely mood altering. It’s like I’m not suffocating any more - I can breathe deeply and notice more of the world around me because I’m not surrounded by clutter and *stuff*. And the speed of the change. That was critical.
Test one: victorious! Under two hours and completely successful.
The Test: Room Two
This room would be trickier. The living room includes ‘the dump’. The entry way area that becomes a catch-all for well, everything. I’d also be doing this one with the kiddo. A challenge!
First, I resolved that it would not be done in one go. Because basically nothing with kids ever is.
Second, I wanted to include him in the process! I called it a game, the Binning Game.
We started with about 30 minutes where he filled a bin with all of his toys that should be moved to his room and I filled a bin with all the random junk that would be lidded and moved to the basement. I grabbed about 20 minutes later in the day to add more junk to the bin and make some progress on the entryway area. The next day, I finished filling the bin in about 30 minutes. Bin in the basement after about an hour and a half of actual filling and sorting work!
Day 3 and kid free, did the final clean in about 45 minutes of wiping everything down, vacuuming, swiffering, deciding what should go where, etc.
And oh my goodness. Things have a place! The clutter is gone! I can find stuff!
Test two: a winner! Under three hours!
Next Test
The next part of the test will be making sure the bins get completely emptied by the two month deadline I’ve set for myself. When that timeline is hit, I plan on doing another round of Binning - but this time because everything has a place, I’m hoping that I have substantially less bin-space to fill!
My dream: I get to a point where one plastic bin is all I need for all the clutter for all the rooms (minus the kids room).
FAQ
A big reason Binning works is that it is *fast*. You constrain your options to ‘does this belong in this room?’ and if no, two options: bin or trash. No waffling about does this get donated or not. No figuring out which room it goes in. Bin. Or. Trash.
But what if I don’t have space to store a large bin for every room?
I’ve lived in tiny tiny apartments where Binning would have been a big challenge. But I also had a *lot* less stuff.
You could have a smaller bin for each room, so that each room has its own bin but they fit in your closet.
You could do one large bin, and fill it with everything for all your rooms.
You could also shorten the time from Binning to clearing out the bin. You don’t need to wait two months, but the trick is to create mental space from ‘this doesn’t belong in this room’ to ‘what do I do with this thing?’ For me, anything less than a week is not enough mental space. If its less than a week I would be trying to figure out where everything should go during the Binning process, which defeats the purpose.
How would this work for cleaning out, say, a closet?
I don’t think binning would work well for closets or kitchens. In those situations, most stuff, at least in theory, belongs in those spaces. The problem is there’s too much of it! I love using the KonMari method on my closet and doing regular purges to clear out what I don’t love. My kitchen is a different sort of daunting monster.
But won’t you wind up just filling your basement with bins?
The regular clean out is critical! I really like the idea of not ever buying another bin after these three. I’ve set a calendar reminder for two months, and when those two months hit there will be a big donation to Goodwill. Woohoo!