To begin cleaning your room: turn off your phone, make sure you will not be disturbed and put on some loud music that will get you into a cleaning mood. You’ll need a few garbage bags. Make sure they’re handy before you get started. Mess tends to accumulate in piles. Choose one of the piles to start on. It is a good idea to start on one of the more daunting piles. When you’ve defeated the big ones the others will seem like pushovers. Start at the top of the pile and pick up an object at random. Deal with this object before moving to the next. It needs to be classified and stored. Anything which does not have a normal place in your room which is its ‘right place’ is rubbish. If it is not rubbish, put it away. If it is rubbish, it’s time to decide what type of rubbish it is.

Lay out four of your garbage bags on the floor (or on the bed if the floor is not yet available). These bags will each contain a different type of rubbish. Put obvious ‘garbage bin’ rubbish into bag number one (to go in the neighbors bin later). Put gifts and useless nicknacks in bag two for regifting. Put stuff that you think may be useful or fashionable one day in bag three for Lifeline. Trust me, it’s better this way. Borrowed stuff goes in bag four. You really should return this stuff.