Perhaps you've already decided where, because one area of your home is crying out for de-junking. No? Then consider which room gives you the most grief. Are you reluctant to let visitors in the kitchen or the living room? Is the back closet an avalanche in ambush? Do you need a backhoe to get to the far side of the garage or basement?

Your other option for picking a starting point, especially if you can only work in short spells, is to choose a small, contained area that you can finish fairly quickly and which won’t overflow into the rest of the house. One shelf, one drawer, one cabinet or one box might be a good target. You can also divide a larger room up into chunks or zones and tackle one at a time.

Once you’ve decided where to work, grab your tools. Most important are containers for the stuff you’ll be moving around. Sturdy cardboard boxes are great for things which will move to other places in the house, or out of the house for recycling or gifting. Big, tough garbage bags for the junk are another essential. You might want gloves if you’re working somewhere dirty or dusty like the attic or basement (and even a dust mask if it’s really bad). And once you’ve de-cluttered this area you’ll probably want to clean it, especially if there are places which haven’t seen the light of day for some time, so stock up on the cleaning tools and supplies you prefer to use.

Arm yourself with containers for these categories: