Toss, Toss, Toss

The busiest time for home sales starts early in the year – right after the holidays, to be precise. So if you want to sell your home next year, get busy and start clearing out the clutter right now. Here are some organizational tips to help you keep your sanity:

*  Order a dumpster. Trust me, you’ll have a lot of junk and you’ll save time by just tossing it into a big dumpster outside your garage, rather than making endless trips to the town dump.

*  Buy sturdy clear plastic storage boxes. Costco and Staples have good ones with attached lids. Being able to see what’s in the boxes will save time later. Don't buy those giant boxes -- you'll never be able to lift them when they're full.

*  Remember this mantra: “One room or closet at a time.” Don’t flit from room to room, doing a bit here and bit there. You’ll drive yourself nuts.

* Thrift store and consignment shop items go into two separate boxes. Move the boxes around with you. When a box is full, put it in the back of the car and start another. Next time you’re in town, drop off your goodies for others to enjoy.

*  Kids’ memorabilia. If you’ve got boxes and boxes of nursery school paintings, do yourself AND your kid a favor -- toss them. Well, maybe keep a couple. But not the macaroni collage.

*  Sports trophies. If your kids have gone to college, they will probably never look at those trophies again. Line them all up and snap a couple of photos.

*  Stuffed animals. Sad to say, you can’t recycle these any more, so get your kids to pick the really special ones and dump the rest.

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