Decluttering is something that every household will have to face at one point in their lives, and especially if you’re a large family household with years and years’ worth of memories (and therefore belongings). Decluttering is an essential task for many reasons. Not only can it help you to feel more relaxed and less stressed, but it can also be a health improvement if it means your home is cleaner, tidier, and with fewer items to provide trip or fall hazards.
Knowing that decluttering is needed is one thing, but attempting a huge decluttering job is another. There’s nothing more daunting than the prospect of having to declutter your entire home, so here are seven tips to help make it a lot easier.
Be Absolutely Honest About What You Really Want and Need
One of the main reasons for clutter getting out of hand and why many people choose to keep a large amount of items is through the guilt of throwing certain items away or the worry that they may one day be able to put an item to good use. Especially if an unused item is in perfect working condition, it can be difficult to justify why you should get rid of it.
However, the truth is that you don’t have to keep an item you don’t want or don’t use — and never will — due to guilt or because it’s in good condition. In fact, all this means is that these items will be perfect to donate for good causes or to other people who can make use of them.
Being brutally honest about what you want and need in your home is the only way you’re going to be able to declutter successfully. When presented with items you’re considering during your declutter, think about how you feel about the item, when the last time you even thought about the item was, whether you really like it and whether you need it. If you can think of no reason to keep it and know that you won’t in the future, then it’s the right time to let it go!
Make a Plan
Decluttering your home can be a monumental task, so any extra organization is going to help. You may want to declutter room by room or have specific areas in mind, such as decluttering all the clothes and shoes in the house first. Making a plan will help you to stay on track, as well as helping you make lists and points about specific items.
Invest in Storage
A good declutter doesn’t have to mean that you throw everything out. If you have a lot of clutter based on items that you absolutely want to keep, then good storage is going to be essential for maintaining a clean and tidy home. Think about the areas and rooms of clutter that you have and how you can implement storage into these areas.
A few ideas include:
- Multi-purpose furniture so you can save room on extra furniture items
- Furniture with extra storage, such as footstools with lids and storage
- Storage boxes for shoes
- Wall shelving which can eliminate the need for items or furniture to be taking up floor space
Organise a Waste Removal Service
One big area of decluttering which can put many people off is the prospect of then having to get rid of large and bulky items or a build-up of items to get rid of. This may mean simply moving it from one place to another (such as leaving it outside in your yard) and then be unsure how to get rid of it. A waste removal service can be a huge help in collecting all your decluttered items all at once when you have gone through everything and know what to get rid of. This is especially helpful if you’re decluttering large and bulky items, such as old pieces of furniture. Rubbish Cleared are waste clearance experts that cover the Croydon area and are an example of the service you can use to make sure your decluttering effort isn’t all for naught.
Check Expiration Dates
Some items which can easily cause a high amount of clutter in your kitchen and bathroom are items that expire. It’s very easy to get a build-up of bottles, tins, and other items which have long since expired if you haven’t been checking them. It’s a good idea to go through all items like this to clean out your kitchen and bathroom cupboards. You can then start a proper rotation system to make sure you only ever have what you need and have the items which expire sooner at the front and not hiding at the back.
Find a Place for Everything
Take this decluttering as an opportunity to make sure everything has its place in your home. Clutter that has gotten out of hand is often due to items simply being placed or dumped, such as clothes piled in the wardrobe instead of properly arranged.
When you’ve cleared out your rooms and storage areas and know what you’d like to keep, you can then implement a system for how you’d like to store and place items so that you always know where everything needs to go. Take this time to think about how you prefer to have access to all the items in your home and how you’re most likely to want to store items.
A well-organised wardrobe, for example, doesn’t have to mean everything neatly folded if you know that you hate folding and are likely to throw your clothes down. Therefore think of easier solutions which work for you, such as standing rails and hangers instead of drawers.
Organise Items into Piles
Final tip: make your yes, no, and maybe piles! This can make it a lot simpler for knowing what to keep and organising what you need to get rid of. There may be some items which you do need to think about before getting rid of, so having a designated ‘maybe’ pile to then concentrate on when you’ve finished all the rest of your decluttering can help for a successful organisation.
Use these seven tips to help make your decluttering a whole lot easier!
