Along with that New Year’s resolution to “Get Organized,” have you set up a plan to clear out unused items that clutter your life? Chances are you received some pretty neat gifts for Christmas…along with some that might not be the best fit for your lifestyle.

If your spaces are already brimming with too many material possessions, what can you do to change that?

• For every new item in your life, let go of something of equal size.
• If you have multiples of one type of object, select the best and move out the rest.

When you “move out” older or unused items, do not just shift them to the garage or the storage unit, thereby postponing any decision on final disposition. Decide whether an object has enough value to donate or whether it should be tossed.

It can be very difficult to make that decision, and so clutter accumulates. Consider the following statistics and you will see why getting and staying organized has been an annual dream for so many people.

• The self-storage industry grew to 2.02 billion square feet in 2005.
• Between 700,000 and 1.4 million Americans may have computlsive hoarding syndrome, defined as difficulty throwing anything way because they “might need it later.”

If getting organized is on your list for 2007, choose to make a conscious decision on what you allow to remain as a part of your life. Clutter can be distracting at best and paralyzing over the long run.