Sharing is caring!

5 Expiring Items That Are Adding to Your Monthly Clutter

Expiration dates are a funny thing. They post those little hidden deadlines and then generally are forgotten about. That is, until someone takes a swig of sour milk or tries to run an expired coupon at the grocery store. Amazingly, the vast majority of expiring items hang around our homes, cars and lives for well past their deadlines. They keep piling up on top of one another until you have that dreaded word….clutter.

Here are five expiring items that are almost certainly causing you some monthly clutter problems as well as what to do about them:

Magazines

Magazine subscriptions are not nearly as prevalent as they once were, but it only takes one or two to start a regular clutter pile. Holding on to those old magazines is a surefire way to lose all organization quickly. If you must keep them, put them in storage in a sealed container. The best option is to put them in the recycling bin once you have finished the most current edition. Do this once a month and you will cut back on some serious monthly clutter.

Coupons

Coupons are notorious clutter monsters in many homes. If you coupon, there are all kinds of ways you can build up clutter. Trimmings from your coupons can pile up fast as well as the sneaky clutter monsters…..expired coupons. These can expand so fast you won’t know what hit you. Invest in a monthly organizer that you can place coupons in by date. This will allow you to cull out the pile every single month and stay on top of this monthly clutter problem.

Food

If you don’t have a monthly day that you clean out your fridge and cabinets, you really should consider getting one. The best way to do this is to pick out a day when you are going shopping anyway. This will allow you to replenish what you throw out and keep the sell by dates up to speed. Nothing is worse than a fridge full of expired items.

Medications

In the average household, there are tons of different medicines that might be used. Everything from first aid items to vital medications have expiration dates but few people pay attention to them the way they should. That is proven by checking out most medicine cabinets in the world. Go through your medicine cabinet and medicines at least once per month and make sure they are still viable and you will cut back on clutter too.

Mail

The worst expiring problem out there by far is mail. From bills to sales that were over months ago, mail can accumulate extremely fast and literally destroy a dining room table if you don’t control it. To truly keep mail under control, you should have a daily cull. Go through your mail by the trash can each day and trash the stuff you don’t need right away. Then, go through the existing pile quickly for the week and trash whatever is no longer applicable.

These are only a few of the expiring items that are creating clutter in our homes. If you dedicate a few moments to each, you will go a long ways towards knocking out monthly clutter in your home.

If you are in need of better organization skills in general, then we have some things here that will be sure yo help you out! Check out our guide to Getting Organized! If you find that you are still having organization problems, then you might want to try this book on organizing inside and out!