How the "Pile Method" Can Help You Declutter Quickly

Dealing with a messy desk, home, room, or any other area can be, well, quite messy and overwhelming. It can leave you with the feeling of, "Where do I start? There's so much stuff."

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Dealing with a messy desk, home, room, or any other area of your life can be, well, quite messy and overwhelming. It can leave you with the feeling of, "Where do I start? There's so much stuff."

One way is handle the mess is to pile on, so to speak. You can employ what's been dubbed the "pile method" to quickly declutter the area.

It's not completely clear who originated this term. Regardless, the pile method is an appropriate moniker since it basically entails first quickly creating a separate pile of anything that is not yet already organized and then progressively breaking down that big pile into smaller piles.

This means that before you do anything else collect everything loose and not yet filed away and put them into one big pile in another room separate enough from the mess. This quickly declutters the offending area and can inspire a sigh of relief. Seeing the messy area now clear can help take away that initial feeling of being overwhelmed.

The next step is to go to the big ole pile and then quickly sort it into smaller piles based on where things are supposed to go. For example, all clothes that belong in the hamper can go into one pile. All clothes that are destined for the dresser can be in another pile. All furry boots, popcorn shirts, leg warmers, and man bun accessories can go in a third pile, one that's labeled "put in trash." And so forth.

All of this isn't exactly rocket science. The central tenet is that when you quickly isolate all the things that are causing problems and move them away, you immediately clear space for yourself to think and organize more. It is in turn easier to deal with the troublemakers and chunk them into progressively smaller and more manageable piles.

This approach is not limited to physical messes, either. It can apply to most other clutter in your life, too—you know, the ones caused by those messy things called humans. Say you are overwhelmed by what's happening in your job, your relationships, or your life in general. Well, one of the first things that you can do is figure out everything that's causing you grief and try to isolate them away from the happier aspects of your life. This then allows you to deal with these trouble-making parts separately and on your own terms.

When all kinds of stuff including the trash remain strewn about your physical, mental, or emotional space, it can be easier to overlook and ignore everything.

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You could start by identifying the people who are making your life difficult and causing unnecessary drama. Maybe it's that person who has self-serving ulterior motives when you are supposed to be working together towards a common goal. Or that person who is very inconsistent in his or her behavior is not being honest or upfront, or in some other way doesn't align with your values and principles.

You can collect such people like you would randomly strewn pieces of underwear and put them in a pile together (figuratively, of course) that's separate from the rest of your work and life. This can allow you to see everything more clearly, minimize these people's impact, and prioritize who you want to deal with, how, and in what order.

The alternative is leaving this trash along with other aspects of your life strewn about your physical, mental, or emotional space. That makes it a whole lot easier to overlook and ignore everything.—and can leave the resulting clutter unattended and allow things to mesh together like one big blob with all the parts negatively affecting each other.

The clutter can then grow and grow until it becomes one big monstrous pile. The difference with this pile that's not deliberately formed by you is that you become more and more an indistinguishable part of the pile.