The Six Week Box: It’s A Great Way To Reduce Clutter

I am definitely still in my post-holiday organizing mode. And although we’ve revisited the KonMari Method and some other clutter busting tips in recent blogs, my biggest problem still seems to be excess clutter. So I’m thinking about a method I written on before: The Six Week Box. I tried it a few years ago. It worked for me then and I’m implementing it again this month. I like it. I think most of you will too.

The background: As most of you are aware, I own a large, home consignment shop in Wakefield, Rhode Island. One thing I am continually amazed by is how quickly people forget about their stuff. Let me explain. We sell a lot of things at the store. As a matter-of-fact, we sell 93% of everything that comes in to the building (I know, it blows my mind too!). What we don’t sell, consignors can pick up or leave behind for donation. When people choose to pick up unsold things, it almost always happens that there is something, on their unsold items list, that they just can’t remember. They don’t know what it looks like – not even in the slightest. It’s theirs, but they haven’t seen it in 90 days, and it has gone completely and totally out of their minds. When I first read about the Six Week Box as a way to reduce clutter, the idea resonated. It’s because of this phenomenon that I witness on the daily at Consignments Ltd. that I know that this idea has legs.

How To Reduce Clutter: The Six Week Box

So this is how it works…

1. Go through your desk, your closet, a drawer or a room – wherever you are trying to reduce clutter.
2. As you go through everything, put things into four piles: Keep, Donate, Toss and Unsure.
3. The Six Week Box has to do with the unsure.
4. Put all your unsure Items into a box, date it for 6 weeks in the future and SEAL THE BOX. This is very important. You want it to be difficult, but not impossible, to go back to the box.
5. Put the box in an out-of-the-way location like the garage or basement.
6. If you find that you are in need of anything in the box, go ahead and take it out ANY TIME during the six weeks and move it to the area designated for items you are keeping (like back on the desk or in the room, the closet or the drawer).
7. In six weeks time, whatever you do not remove from the Six Week Box you must donate or toss – No Exceptions.
8. That’s it. It’s that simple. It’s based on the same concept that is going on with consignors at Consignments Ltd. – OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND and that equals unnecessary clutter.

This idea makes a lot of sense to me given what I have seen at my store. It’s worked for me before, so I am giving this one the old college try again in 2025. I think it has merit and I hope you do too. Let me know how it goes, will you?

For more on reducing clutter, check out: 5 Ways To De-clutter Sentimental Material and Objects and Get Rid of The Clutter With These Clutter Busting Tips.

And Now For a Little Music Before We Go….

Have a lovely day, my friends. Marianne