There is no exact method or hard and fast rules.  This is supposed to be fun, remember?

That being said, there are a few guidelines I follow:

100 Things

It doesn’t have to be 100 things!  You might have less junk than me – or you might just be more comfortable getting rid of 1 thing, or 10 things a day.

The things can be anything and everything that you no longer want or need.  I generally consider a package of something (breath mints, bobby pins etc.) one thing – just to keep myself honest and cover more ground.  Likewise, I consider a stack of old documents one item or I’d be doing this for much longer than 100 days!

I try to stop at 100 things a day because it’s so easy to get carried away – and completely burnt out.  See my post Why Stop at 100 Things?

100 Days

Again, 100 days is not a hard and fast rule.  Please don’t do this when you’re sick or on vacation.  That’s no fun!  I try to keep the momentum going by keeping my days as consecutive as possible.

How I Do It

It isn’t very glamorous.

I hang three plastic shopping bags off my arm (toss, donate, recycle) and walk around the house putting items I no longer want or need in the bag.  I stack larger items in piles to gather later.

At the end of the day, I collect everything and take it straight to my car – or list it on craigslist – or put in the Friends and Family box by the front door.  Every few days I drop the bags off at various recycling, charity, and/or disposal sites in my community.  See the Community page for disposal resources.

No Organizing!

OK, if your idea of fun is organizing, by all means, have at it.  Personally, I hate organizing.  If you’re like me you will quickly see that the benefit of disposing of 100 things a day is that there is less and less to organize.  I’m going to put off my organizing as long as possible.

Watch Your Front End

Like me, you probably did a little shopping to get yourself into this mess.  Needless to say this whole thing won’t work if you’re bringing 100 (non-consumables) into the house every day.  You aren’t, are you?

I will be adding to this list as I go along.  If you have a technique that works for you, please share it in the comments. I would love to hear how you’re approaching the project!