Not to be dramatic, but this basket saved my life.I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions (read more about that here). However, I do love any attempt at making your life happier, healthier and less stressful. My beef with the New Year's thing is that it's focused on one day. Why not resolve to make your life better whenever you're feeling motivated? For me, that time is almost never New Year's Day. But I digress.

If you've been reading Hey Eleanor for awhile, you know that I'm constantly battling crap.

I feel like my house is full of crap, I have too much crap in my closet, our drawers are full of kitchen crap, office crap, linens crap, and just more and more crap. I know I'm not the only person with crap/clutter problems. Here's the proof: this is by far the most popular post on my entire site. By tens of thousands of visitors. I kid you not.

If I was a truly smart business person, I'd only blog about de-cluttering.

Or as I like to call it, de-crapifying. But instead, I'll stick to writing about what I love: facing fears, travel, adventures, trying new things and how to make the most out of this whole life thing. This post is about that last one. It's a simple idea. Stupidly simple.

This is probably the best thing I did for myself last year.

I've always had a clean clothes problem. Not a dirty clothes problem. Dirty clothes are easy. They go in a hamper, to be forgotten about until laundry day. But clean clothes! Ugh. Putting them away after they've been washed? Easy-peasy. It's the clothes I've worn once and can be worn again, or the clean clothes that I've tried on and decided not to wear that are a problem. Does this look familiar to you?

I'm sure you're familiar with this scene:

You're getting ready for work (or a date or dinner with friends or the gym or whatever). You try something on and it's just not right. You take off said item, throw it on the bed and try on something else. Then, something else. By the time you're ready to go, you're running late and it looks like your closet barfed on your bed. But you don't have time to pick everything up, so you leave it for later. And when you get home at midnight, you're too tired to put stuff away, so you just throw it on the floor. The next day, you wade through your clean clothes to get to the shower, thinking "I'm 33, dammit, when will I start feeling like an adult who has their shit together?!"

My friends, the time to start feeling like an adult is now.

And it's so easy. Stupidly easy. Here's what you do:1. Buy a pretty, large basket. I got this one from World Market (aka The Basket Store) and I love it.2. Put it in your room (or if you're lucky enough to have a big-ass closet, put it in there).3. Throw your clean clothes in it when you don't have the time or energy to actually put them away. Basket of wonders.This one simple trick has kept our room mostly clutter-free for months. Sure, my clothes sometimes end up a little wrinkly (honestly, they're usually fine), but not more so than how they'd look if I just left them on the floor. It's a stupidly easy trick, and for those looking to de-clutter and de-crapify in the new year, I can't recommend it enough. Airing my CLEAN laundry.

You could use a similar tactic with these common clutter-y culprits:

1. Designate a decorative mug or small container for change, bobby pins (<<< also a problem for me!), hair bands or small jewelry.2. Find a pretty basket or container for all the GD cords and chargers that come with your electronics. Keep those eye sores hidden away where they belong!3. Designate a basket for magazines instead of letting them rot on your coffee table (or dining room table if you're me).Feel free to share any other stupidly easy de-cluttering techniques in the comments. Here's to a crap-free 2016!

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Are you looking to de-crapify in the new year? Here's 7 Ways to Get Rid of Your Unwanted Crap, what happened when I got rid of 90 percent of my clothes (with before & after pics!), plus my foray into the world of KonMari.

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