The Messy Corner
Raise your hand if you have a space in your home, whether it be a corner or a room, or multiple corners or rooms (don't be shy) that catches everything and is constantly a “mess.”
It's the spot where all things end up. Whether its things that you have tried to donate or throw out, but someone in your house (or you) were CONVINCED it was super useful and they would use it for AB&C. Not surprisingly, it ends up in the messy place and it haunts you every time you walk by it because you KNEW they (you) would never actually use it and that it should just be thrown away.
In this instance, most of the stuff that is piled up is actually empty, so that makes it a little easier to clean out. Your situation could be different, it could be boxes and boxes full of stuff or just stuff minus the boxes. This will be a little bigger project for you.
My advice:
Find a place near the messy corner where you can sort your things
You should have at least 3 piles: Keep, Garbage, Donate
Your messy corner is now clear. But now you have to go through and reorganize
IMMEDIATELY throw away the garbage.
IMMEDIATELY donate the donate pile - at the very least: bag it and list what you have (for your taxes). And then put it by the door, in your car, and put a reminder in to drop it off. Otherwise your car may become the messy corner, or right next to the door. And then that negates what we are trying to accomplish here.
All you have left now is your keep pile, and your clean corner. Is it actually just a random corner in your house that shouldn't normally house these items or is it a desk or a shelf that became overwhelmed with things?
If its the former: sort your keep pile into rooms it should be in (office, kitchen, books, bedroom, etc.), maybe you get really lucky and you even start to sort that keep pile back into a donate or throw away pile. You are a PRO!
If its the latter: envision the space. What do you want for it? Does everything in your keep pile actually belong?
As you sort through and plan your space, it is very personal. I can't tell you how to organize it, I could tell you how I would use it but that won't necessarily work for you.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help guide you:
What do I want to use this space for?
How can I most effectively make it useful for that?
What do I need to have in order to make that happen?
Go from there. See what happens. Make it yours!