Declutter by Returning Borrowed Items

Even if you don’t have time for an in-depth decluttering project, here is a quick way to cut some of the clutter in your house right now in under 10 minutes! Today’s quick decluttering tip is this: Declutter your house by returning borrowed items.
If you missed the beginning of our decluttering series, you can go read from the beginning now by clicking here: Declutter Your Home.
This quick 10 minute declutter will fit into your busy schedule and get some unneeded items out of your house without having to spend any thought on the decision-making process for purging.
Since the items don’t belong to you in the first place, it’s easy to bag them up and designate them to be returned to their owners. Let’s get started!

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What are Common Borrowed Items to Look For?

There are many typical items that fall into the borrowed items category. Here are some of the usual suspects. You might want to take this list with you around the house as you check each area for things you can return:

Video game discs and cartridges
CDs, Blu-Rays and DVD movies
Books and magazines
Dishes you may have borrowed, like serving platters, turkey roasting pans, punch bowls, etc.
Food storage containers you may have brought home from a dinner party or barbeque
Library items: borrowed books, CDs, DVDs
Maternity clothes, baby and kids’ clothes. This is a common borrowed item category since entire maternity and newborn wardrobes are usually passed from one mom to another. If you’re done with them, make sure you clean and pack everything up and return it to the original owner.
Tools

How to Declutter by Returning Borrowed Items

Step 1. Go through the house with a laundry basket and put everything you have borrowed into the basket. If someone lent it to you, do the right thing and pack it up!
Step 2. Remember to check kids’ rooms. They may have borrowed something from Grandma’s house, or even toys or clothes from friends. Look for anything that doesn’t belong to your child and put it in the laundry basket.
Step 3. Empty your full laundry basket onto the floor and get out a plastic or paper grocery bag for each person or place that needs an item returned.
Step 4. Put the appropriate item or items in each bag. Use one bag for each person or location so you can easily drop them off.
Step 5. Label where each bag goes. Take a small sticky note or scrap of paper, write the name or place on it, and staple or tape it to the bag.
Step 6. Once filled, tie up each bag and place them all next to the front door.
Step 7. The next time you go out to your car, take all the bags with you and put them in the floor of the front seat so they are ready to return while doing your errands. Important – don’t put them in the trunk unless there really isn’t room in the front of the car. Out of sight, out of mind! You don’t want to drive around with your returns in the trunk and forget to drop them off.
See, it’s easy to do a quick declutter by returning borrowed items! Chances are that you’ll be heading to or near the places you need to drop off during your normal errands anyway. If you just did this decluttering exercise, give yourself a big congratulations. You just got rid of some clutter and became a good borrower by remembering to return!