Are you a multiplier? It’s easy to find out. Just glance around your home and see if you own excessive multiples of common household items. Common culprits include little things like calculators, staplers, pens, scissors, hammers…Bigger signs of multiplier issues are having more than one blender, coffee maker, air compressor… you know… big stuff in multiples.

Multiplier clutter is wily. It sneaks in when you’re not looking. When you have too much stuff it’s easy to forget what you already own and accidentally buy a duplicate. Another way multiplier clutter commonly develops is if you’ve got way too much stuff and you own something, but just can’t find it when you need it, so you go out and buy another because you really, really need it now. Yes, you have two box cutters. Yes they are good ones. No you can’t find either of them. So, yes you bought another. The same trap befell you with rolls of tape, scissors, and all kinds of handy household tools.

The clutter chaos in your life causes you to create even more clutter chaos because you just couldn’t find what you need when you need it. Sound familiar? Here’s our quick guide to getting a grip on multiplier clutter. Best thing is, it’s only three steps and it can be done in less than thirty minutes.

1. Roundup the Clones: It’s time for a clutter round-up. Gather up all your clones, every multiplier item in your house (that you can find). Look for duplicate lotions, household supplies, and the big multipliers if you’ve got them, like five roasting pans, four rakes, fifteen serving platters, one hundred plus mugs, etc…

2. Choose the Best and Banish the Rest: Look through your multiples. Choose the best from each multiple type and toss the rest in a donation bag. With the small clones, we know this is very challenging. Why get rid of seventy-five perfectly good pens? “They’re useful and I’ll absolutely use them some day…” This is why ~ you will never use seventy-five pens before at least that number of ‘free’ pens (with a company’s advertising on them) enter your home yet again, and ‘someday’ never comes. This we know for sure.

3. Boot Those Clones Out of Your Life:  Next time you run errands, take your dreaded multiplier clutter donation bag out with you and drop it off at a charity. If it’s a small bag, stick it in your trunk now, otherwise let the bag hang out near the front door where it will remind you. Better yet, if you’ve got time, do the drop-off right now. There’s nothing like dropping off a bag of donations for feeling lighter, happier, and free!

Does it make you feel nervous to dig in and start tossing extras? Ready to go into attack mode if anyone so much as glances at your spare sewing machine, pen ‘collection’ or your ‘back-up’ microwave? Here’s a little something to ponder about how clutter multiples hurt your life.

Multiples Make it Hard to Find Things: You may be keeping your multiples so you can always find one when you need it, but let us tell you from experience, they make it even harder to find other things. You’ll run across eight flat head screw-drivers looking for a Phillips head. Then when you’re looking for a flat head screw-driver you’ll run into a dozen Phillips head screw drivers. Too much stuff = chaos. Drop the multiples and you’ll be able to find everything more easily.

Multiples Create More Clutter: Look around your house. Whatever multiples you’ve got are just clutter keeping you from living the life you want. They are clutter. They’re not a back-up computer for spare parts. They’re not in case you can’t find any other scissors, scissors. They’re not so you’ll never run out of moisturizer again. They’re clutter and they’re hurting your life. Just think about releasing some of your multiples. We absolutely, solemnly swear you’ll love it once you dive in and take the risk.

Be mindful about acquiring new items, rather than simply bringing them into your home without noticing about whether they enhance your life or simply add to your clutter. You will be amazed at the freedom that comes simply from deciding how to clear clutter by setting limits on ‘useful stuff’.