What's Your Clutter Type?

Are you a collector or a concealor? An accumulator or a tosser? Find your pack rat style.

Do you still have your old prom dress--and the corsage that went with it? Is the ticket stub from your first date in your wallet? Take the quick, 20-question Clutter Quiz and identify your clutter style. Remember, no type is inherently good or bad. One person's disaster area is another person's creative personal space. 

For each of the following questions, write down the letter that best describes you and your behaviour. If you can't decide on a single answer, you may circle more than one, although that in itself probably tells you something about your Clutter Type. 

So grab a pen and paper and let's get started!

11. When your eyeglass prescription changes, you:

A have every yearbook from every year of school, but aren't certain about where any of them are; 

A keep the old pair "just in case"; 

B can quickly retrieve the yearbook from the bookshelf where all your yearbooks are chronologically arranged; 

B immediately donate the old pair to charity; 

C climb into the attic and are never seen again; 

C plan to donate the old pair to charity, and therefore carry them in your car's glove compartment for many years until they are too bent up and scratched to be used by anybody; 

D threw away your high school yearbook years ago. 

D throw the old pair away immediately. 

2. You've just received a get well card from Aunt Edna. You: 

12. In your house, magazines are:

A read it and drop it on the dining room table, never giving it another thought; 

A kept only if you think they'll be valuable someday; 

B read it and file it away under Cards, Get Well; 

B placed in specially designed holders in chronological order; 

C put it on display and find it 3 years from now, right next to the Easter greetings from Cousin Bert, who died 2 years ago; 

C often lost before you get around to reading them; 

D read it and throw it away. 

D thrown away immediately after reading. 

3. The local recycling center has a swap shop where folks can drop off unwanted items and pick up others free of charge. You:

13. The old saw "a place for everything and everything in its place" is:

A occasionally find objects of value there and bring them home; 

A something to be aimed for but not necessarily achieved; 

B rearrange the items on the shelves as you're looking them over; 

B the motto you live by; 

C are the first in line to check out the good stuff on Saturday mornings, and rarely leave without something; 

C a joke, right? 

D occasionally drop items off and never bring anything home.

D true; and more often than not, that place is in the trash. 

4. You have a two-car garage. You:

14. Your child has been assigned a craft project for school. You:

A can fit only one car in it, because the other side contains 10 lawn chairs, three ladders, two lawnmowers, and a dozen boxes of canning jars; 

A warn him not to touch certain items that, while appearing to be junk, are actually valuable; 

B have the same items as in the response above, but they are all neatly arranged; 

B direct him to the craft corner, where he'll find an ample supply of neatly organized materials; 

C aren't sure, but you think there may be a car in there somewhere; 

C can't find the craft materials, though you're sure you have them around here somewhere; 

D sold your husband's car because it was taking up too much space. 

D advise him to pick up his mess afterward or he'll risk having the project discarded along with the craft materials. 

5. You've just knocked down a wall in your home and have a pile of used lumber. You:

15. For you, the perfect storage container is:

A pull out the nails and save the boards; 

A already filled with your prized mollusk collection; 

B save the boards and the unbent nails, placing them in little jars, separated by size; 

B color coded, labeled, and stackable; 

C save the boards and all the nails; 

C one of those mini storage units you rent by the month; 

D the wastebasket. 

6. At a yard sale, you:

16. The main bathroom in your house:

A hope to find that missing collectible you've been searching for; 

A contains several antique grooming items (such as a shaving brush and dish); 

B move quickly, since you have a long list of yard sales that you plan to hit before noon and very specific items you're looking for; 

B has a place for each person to store his or her personal items; 

C would probably be condemned by the health department if you ever let them near it; 

D wouldn't be caught dead. 

D is neat enough to be used as a surgical suite 

7. For you, a clutter crisis would be:

17. You misplace something of value or importance in your house:

A misplacing that valuable, unopened can of Billy Beer; 

A occasionally; 

B running out of storage containers; 

B rarely; 

C a daily event; 

C daily; 

D finding anything out of place. 

D never. 

8. How many collections (seashells, rocks, baseball cards) do you have in your house?

18. Cleanliness is next to:

A More than 10 

A resale value, when it comes to flea-market purchases; 

B A few, all neatly arranged 

B clayware, in the dictionary; 

C Who knows? They're all here somewhere. 

C impossible; 

D None. 

D godliness. 

 9. The collection you had as a child is:

19. You videotape a television program. You:

A more than twice the size it was then; 

A add it to the other tapes of that program, hoping to complete the set; 

B on display in a tasteful, well-lit display cabinet; 

B label it and file it alphabetically with the others in your video cabinet; 

C at the bottom of a box, beneath a stack of other boxes, in the back of the attic behind other stacks of boxes, but, by golly, you could find it if you had to; 

C put it in the enormous stack of videos you intend to watch someday and never get around to; 

D long gone. 

D erase the tape after watching it and use it again. 

10. The clothes in your closet:

20. Your children are in college. Their baby clothes are:

A were borrowed by the local community theater troupe for its production of My Fair Lady; 

A packed away, accumulating value. 

B are neatly arranged by style and color; 

B neatly packed away, awaiting your grandchildren. 

C were moved out to make room for other stuff; 

C somewhere in the house, along with their baby toys, their baby teeth, and their baby blankets. 

D actually fit in your closet. 

D long gone. 

Once you have completed the clutter quiz add up the number of A, B, C & D responses, this is your clutter score. The letter with the highest score is your clutter type. Most people will be strong in one of the four clutter types, though some people may be strong in two and have a combination clutter type.

A - Collector A collector collects things. They may even have a collection of collections and most often are always incomplete.

B - Concealer A concealer has its stuff labled, neatly packed or hidden away and may even be color coded. They love storage containers.

C - Accumulator An accumulator is your basic pack rat. Stuff keeps coming in but nothing ever goes out.

D - Tosser A tosser doesn't let anything lie around for long. If there is no relevance to an item... it's out of here!

Source: Lori Baird is the editor of "Cut the Clutter and Stow the Stuff" (Rodale Inc., 2003) from which this quiz is excerpted.