Cash is in your closets, greenbacks in the garage, dinero in the dining room, moolah under mattresses and almighty dollars in an attic.

And it’s not buried. It’s sitting right in front of you.

It’s in all that stuff you comb through every morning to find your favorite pair of pants.

And in the junk piled up in the garage making it impossible to pull the car in at night.

And in the stacks of unopened mail on the dining room table.

And among the outgrown children’s clothes and toys stored under beds.

And in the inherited keepsakes languishing in boxes up in the attic.

Cash lives in the clutter you’ve accumulated over the years. And now, at the start of this new year, is the time to claim it.

You can sell items you no longer use or never wanted. You can donate things to charitable causes you want to support and claim a tax deductions for the good deed.

You can reduce your monthly expenses by clearing out a storage unit and canceling the rental contract. Or you can simply inventory what you have so you don’t waste money buying duplicates.

But to claim the value in what you already own, you have to get organized.

Yep, there it is. The dreaded phrase you knew was coming.

“Getting organized is always one of the top three New Year’s resolutions,” said Ellen Delap, a certified professional organizer and owner of Professional-Organizer.com.

And many people fail to accomplish that task because they are not really prepared to do what it takes to downsize their possessions.

“Sometimes it takes something catastrophic to happen for you to realize your stuff is not as important as people,” said Delap, whose business is based in Kingwood. “Or there is so much stuff in your space, you get to the point of frustration because you have to keep moving things to find what you need.”

Attack the extra stuff.

But intention is nothing without action.
Whatever drives you to the point of no return, commit to a clutter-free environment and take steps to live up to that promise:

1. Start in a small space that frustrates you the most.
   That can be the closet, the linen cabinet or the kitchen cupboards. Evaluate honestly. Do you really need 10 pairs of black pants? Why are you keeping the extra-long twin sheets you used in college? When you bought the replacement can opener, why did you keep the old broken one?
2. Define what is important and prioritize.
   What are keepsake items that hold special memories although you no longer wear or use them, and what are lifestyle items that you reach for every week? When you try something on in the morning and it looks icky, put it in a donation basket immediately.
3. Divide the work into manageable time frames.
   If cleaning out your closet scares you, don’t commit an entire day to the task. Work on it for 15 minutes every day until the job is done.
4. Dispose of discarded stuff as soon as possible.
   The longer the stuff lingers in your house or car, the longer you have to regret your decision to get rid of it. Ideally, you should take the stuff to a donation store, consignment shop or recycling center within 24 hours of deciding to let it go. If you plan to sell it through newspaper classified sections or online, place the ad immediately.

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