You go to IT seminar and they give you this bag with a lot of free stuff in it. Mostly brochures about products and a nice dvd with softcopy, and a t-shirt that write whatever. Then, some colleague just got home from his holiday and give you this small, cute, and useless scented candle. At night, you go to your friend’s wedding and receive a mini glass that has writing saying “As We become one forever”. Before go to bed, you chuck all this free stuff to a drawer with free notepad, free pen, and spiderweb. It’s a small thing if you’re an introvert but if you like social gathering, this free stuff thing has got to stop.

1. Just say no politely. Smile and tell your giver that you didn’t bring any bag. Or if he give you bag, tell him you didn’t bring any car or you should take public transportation.
2. Dump it. Say sorry to mother earth for this violation and dump the free stuff mercilessly.
3. Digitalize it and then dump it. Take a picture or get a scanner (for postcard, birthday card) and put it on flickr. If you want to reminiscence you can watched that photograph instead. It still can tell thousand words you know.
4. Don’t dump it, shred it to pieces. Time to use those nasty shredder in the corner of your office to clean brochures, free registration form, and thank you notes.
5. Give it to your friend that need that stuff. A friend maybe need a notepad to write her groceries, and another friend maybe need a scented candle for her bathtub.
6. Give it to your friend the collector. Believe it or not, there’s people out there that collected wedding souvenir. So give it to them to add their collection.

A little cold heart will be helpful while being sentimental doesn’t help at all. But I want a free space, instead of free stuff. How about you?

If you have too much stuff, but not enough time to tidy everything up, you will create a mess. That’s a 100% guarantee. The solution? Take a baby steps. Use five minutes of your time to tackle that pile of mess you’ve created. Some of the tips including schedule a decluttering weekend, spend a few minutes visualizing the room, pull out some clothes you don’t wear, and my favorite, put a load in your car for charity. Five minutes today and five minutes tomorrow and you’ll ckean your space in no time.

18 five-minutes decluttering tips [via Zenhabit]