Ask and It is Given. That is the title of the book I am currently reading; a book by Esther and Jerry Hicks on the teachings of Abraham, a non-physical being. They explain all in their book and on their website.

Abraham understands about clutter. He understands how humans like to gather things around them and how difficult and painful it can be to get rid of it.

Not only does Abraham understand, he knows what to do about it. He knows how to de-clutter and organise in a hassle free way; quickly and painlessly. Bring it on! I have been looking out for just such a system!

Here it is: Abraham’s process for clearing clutter, easy as one-two-three!

1.      Gather the tools

You’ll need

• Several sturdy boxes with lids, the same size and colour, so they are stackable and look reasonable when stacked. A suggestion is to get about twenty. Flat-packed, they won’t take up much space and you just make them up as you need them.
• A handheld recorder. Check your smart phone; it most likely has one.
• Alphabet index cards.

2.      Clearing the Clutter

Prepare about 5 boxes; give each box a unique number, 1 to 5 in this case and put them in the middle of the room you want to de-clutter.

As you work through the room, focus on each item individually and ask yourself, ‘is this item necessary for my immediate experience?’ If the answer is yes, leave it where it is and focus on the next item. If the answer is no; put it in one of the boxes. As you put the item into the box, speak into your recorder naming the item and the number of the box you put it in.

For example: Perhaps you have been collecting walking magazines for the past few years. You decide to put them in box number 1. It really does not matter which box; they are all empty when you start. So you speak into your recorder saying ‘walking magazines, box one’.

Next you might focus on an electrical cable for your laptop. As this is a spare, you decide to put it into box 2, so you speak into your recorder, saying ‘electric cable for laptop, box 2’.

Next you might come across an interesting article on an alkaline diet you have been keeping for years. You decide it can go with the magazines, after all it is paper, and again you record the information in your recorder, saying ‘alkaline diet article, box 1’.

Work your way through the room, focusing on each item in return. Pretty soon you will only have those items you use regularly on hand. Everything else would have been placed in one of the boxes and the item recorded with the number of the box in which it was placed.

Next, find a spot to stack those boxes: in a spare room in your house; in the garage; wherever it will be out of the way but still accessible should you need anything from there.

Take minute to savour your accomplishment:

• You have thrown nothing away, so no need for the excuse ‘I cannot throw that out; I might need it next month.’
• There has also been no emotional wrangle about getting rid of great aunt Charlotte’s silver plated tea pot, I-love-you-Mommy-letters or whatever triggers your emotional buttons when faced with a clear out.
• And thirdly, you did not get bogged down in a big sorting process only to end with a bigger mess than when you started.

3.      Finding what you need

When you have a spare hour, go back to the recorder, get your alphabet index cards out and start writing down the information you recorded as you put each item in a box. So on A, you write Alkaline Diet Article, box 1; on E you write Electric cable for laptop, box 2; on W you write Walking Magazines, box 1 and so on until everything is transcribed.

As you have a physical record of where everything is, when you need that electric cable for your laptop, it is a matter of tracking down the item on your index cards to check which box it is in and then going to the specific box to get it.

After some weeks or months when you realise you have not used anything from a particular box, you could then move the box out of the house, perhaps even an offsite storage facility. You may even be willing to discard its contents altogether and free up the box for another round of de-cluttering.

Hmm… Simples don’t you think?