“If I had a nickel for every lidless storage tote that I have come across, I would have at least $100.” That is the claim from Maryanne, a professional organizer behind @maryannker2998.
Over the past four years, she says, she and her team have decluttered and organized over 40 basements. They have learned what almost everyone gets rid of, and she boils it down to 14 things, with tips to make the job fast and painless.
She means basements, but also attics, garages, spare rooms and “anywhere where your clutter sort of just goes to die.”
Lidless Totes Are Number One, But They Leave The House Last
When a space gets overwhelming, keeping bins and lids together becomes a low priority, so they get separated and the bin becomes useless. Her team also purges broken or damp cardboard boxes, bins with cracked corners, containers too small to be useful, and simply too many.
Even though containers top her list, they usually leave the house at the very end of a project. By then so much stuff has gone that many containers are no longer needed.
Old Home Decor Waits In The Basement Until It Is Forgotten
When we get a new chair, cushion, rug or lamp, we are almost always replacing something already there. We tend to want to try the new item first, so the old one lands in a basement, under a spare bed or in the attic.
She says this holding place is fair for a short time, and that the category is more common with younger families still figuring out their style. Her fix is to bring in things she will love until she moves out or “for the next 20 years.”
A Set Of Luggage Passed Down From Aunt Gene Is Proof Somebody Wants Yours
About 12 or 15 years ago, her Aunt Gene decided she was done with international travel and offered Maryanne and her husband Scott a beautiful set of luggage. They used it on their honeymoon, their babymoon and trips with the kids.
Every time, she thinks of her aunt and feels grateful. If you are hesitant to let luggage go, she says, “I am proof that somebody wants your luggage.”
Her Old Riding Gear Went, And Now Her Daughter Rides In A Whole New World
As a kid, horseback riding was her main sport, and she kept her riding pants, boots and helmet for five or maybe 10 years. Her youngest, Annie Rose, just started riding this summer, and Maryanne has not for a second wished she had kept the old gear.
Grooming kits are better now, stirrups on saddles have a safety band that did not exist when she rode, and helmets have a completely different style. If you go back to a sport in 5 or 10 years, she says, the gear you kept probably will not even be relevant.
A Cricut You Are Saving For Someday May Not Connect To Tomorrow’s Computers
Hobby tech is even more urgent, she says. If you are hanging on to a Cricut in case you start making custom t-shirts again, there is a very good chance that if you wait five more years it will not connect to the computers of the future.
There is no point holding gear when someone else could be using it right now.
Two Or Three Old Vacuums Went Out During One Friend’s Basement Project
This past summer she organized a friend’s basement, and her friend had at least two, maybe three vacuums that no longer worked or suited the family. Swiffers, old brooms, steam cleaners and pet-specific cleaners turn up all the time.
Her reminder is that the less clutter we have, the easier our homes are to clean.
Nobody Declutters A Basement Without Facing The Paint
She says her team has not decluttered a basement without reviewing this category: paint that has gone bad, colors from old houses, leftovers from unfinished projects or old homeowners. People avoid it because it is heavy, awkward and dirty.
Her trick is to grab masking tape and a Sharpie and commit to labeling what each can is, where it came from and how old it is. Once you see the paint is from your old house, the purging “will just happen naturally.”
Old Computers Sit For Years Because Nobody Wants To Wipe Them
Clients tell her they keep old computers and tablets to erase passwords and data, or to pull off old documents and photos. Both are legit reasons, she says, but if they have sat for five, six or seven years, it is time to ask for help.
Invite the tech-savvy cousin or take it to an expert, which might cost maybe $100 and be worth every penny. The longer you wait, the harder it is to connect old tech to new devices.
CDs, DVDs And VHS Tapes Are Getting Harder To Judge Lately
This category used to be cut and dry, but over the past year or so more clients are keeping DVDs and canceling streaming to save money or go anti-tech. She suggests not deciding on the whole box, and instead getting rid of titles you will realistically never watch again.
Her husband Scott loves rewatching shows, so he culled his collection and moved the keepers into binders, one for series and a bigger one for movies, kept where they are easy to grab.
Books And Magazines In A Tote Are Probably Never Getting Read
If books have sat in a box in the basement for a decade, she says, we are probably not reading them. If they really matter, they should come upstairs to a bookshelf or bedside table.
If there is no room upstairs, it may be time to edit the collection so the favorites can have a home.
Costumes Pile Up For Fans And Non-Fans Alike
Maryanne admits she is not a costume person, joking that she declutters for fun and is not that fun. Over four years, though, she has learned she is not the majority.
Costume lovers keep outgrown outfits, ones they will not wear again or ones with missing pieces. People who are not into costumes just have them shoved in a box and forgotten.
She Bought New Winter Boots Days Before Finding Last Year’s Pair Still Fit
About a month or six weeks ago she bought Annie Rose new winter boots as part of back-to-school prep. Five or six days later she found all their winter boots lined up in the crawl space, including a pair from last year that still fit her.
“Do not be like me,” she says. Keep outerwear together if it must live in the basement, and if you do not need it, fall is the perfect time to pass it on to someone who can use it this winter.
Bedding Gets Banished Downstairs For A Reason
For quilts, duvets and sheets, she asks one question: would you use this for guests? If it got messy, has a tear or lost out to five better quilts upstairs, it probably will not return to the normal rotation.
In that case, she says, it can just go.
A Year Later, The Same Tote Of Paperwork Still Had Her Labels On It
Her team once sorted a client’s kitchen paperwork into categories with sticky notes, then left it for the client to review. A year or two later, in the basement storage room of the same house, there was “the exact same tote full of the exact same paperwork with all of our little labels on it.”
The client decided it could all go, which she says happens constantly. If boxes of paper in your basement have no plan and no labels, there is a very good chance you do not need any of it. She adds she could have made the list 50 items long.
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