10 Steps to Declutter Your Home
It’s a great time for home improvement and renovation projects. But before you think about what to add, it’s time to figure out what to subtract. That’s right, let’s talk about how to declutter your home.
People tend to feel like their life is out of control when they surround themselves with too many things. And for some people, clutter can be an energy-zapper. This is especially true when they spend time looking for things they can’t find. (House keys seem to always be number one on this list).
Let’s go over a few tactics to help declutter and organize your home. We will focus on your kitchen, closet, drawers, bathroom, bedroom, laundry room, and more.
No. 1: Set Your Goals
Before you decide to declutter your home, it’s important to ask yourself why you are doing it. For some people, they want to clear up space for a child or a pet. For others, they want to live a more minimalistic lifestyle or want to save money. It’s important to know why you are deciding to make this change. That way when you are halfway through and want to give up, you can revisit your goals to motivate you.
No. 2: Understand Your Personality
There are three different clutter personalities, according to the Huffington Post. Knowing which one you fall into will inform you of what hurdles you will have to overcome.
1. People who are too busy often have too many extra items. This is because they haven’t taken the time to figure out where to store their items. They also can’t find things when they need them (like house keys).
2. People who are constant worriers must save everything. They often have too many things “just in case” something was to happen.
3. Overwhelmed people who often don’t know where to begin, so they live with the chaos/mess.
Now that you know which one you are, let’s go on to the next step.
No. 3: Understand Your Sunk Costs
Along the way, you will most likely hold onto things that you don’t need because you paid good money for them. To ensure that you will be clutter-free, though, you will have to make the hard decision to part ways. When you get stuck or held up on certain items, ask yourself these questions: “Would I buy this item again?” “Does this item reflect who I am now?”
If the answer is no, you can always resell on Facebook Marketplace or check out some of the best apps for buying and selling used stuff. If you have sentimental items, then you can keep them. But most items will be “out of sight, out of mind,” as soon as you get rid of them.
No. 4: Don’t Buy More Stuff
Buying more stuff while you are trying to get rid of things will only make it hard to declutter. We recommend that you make a list of the things you want to buy while decluttering. And then separate them out by needs and wants. Only buy needs during the time you are decluttering.
No. 5: Get Rid of Expired Perishable Goods
Every few months or weeks you should do a sweep for anything expired, like food and medicine. Check-in your kitchen, bathroom, medicine cabinets, refrigerator, and other places. Remove expired food, pills, and other perishable items. This is the fastest way to make space for items you’ll eventually use.
No. 6: Split Up Your Time
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same goes for decluttering. Too many people try to organize their entire home in one day. While this can be an amazing feat, we would recommend that you go room by room and take your time. We also recommend that you invest a certain amount of time per day into decluttering your home. And start with the least-organized area first.
No. 7: Invest in More Storage Space and Space-Saving Items
Investing in more storage space and space-saving items can also help you make do with less space. Some ideas for extra storage space include bins that you can put under your bed, in your drawer, or in your closet.
You can get vacuum-sealed bags to make sure your out-of-season clothing doesn’t take up unnecessary space. You can also get spice racks to help organize your kitchen cabinets.
No. 8: Use Wall Storage
Many of us use dressers and storage bins to make space for knick-knacks. But one thing that often gets neglected is using wall space. In the kitchen, there is often space for you to hang up utensils on the wall using utensil racks. In the bedroom, living room, and home office, you can use command strips and adhesive hangers to hang up little things like your phone and wallet. Using wall storage will help take some pressure off of your shelves. It’ll also allow for easy access to your most-used items.
No. 9: Create a Variety of Bins
We recommend that you have five different bins that you use to put stuff in as you go room by room. You can also use trash bags if bins aren’t handy. Create one bin for trash and another for recycling. Then another donation bin for things that you will give away. Then have a bin for things that you will need to fix. And one more for things that are in the wrong room. At the end of your decluttering, you can fix the broken items. And put away all the objects in the wrong place at once, rather than item by item.
If you are looking to make extra money, then also consider a bin for things that you will sell at a garage sale or yard-sale.
No. 10: Digitize Everything
It’s very easy to have hundreds of papers that end up everywhere. One of our best decluttering tips is to get a file organizer or a system for organizing all the papers you have. You can start small by creating a place for all your mail. A quick eco-friendly win is to opt for paperless billing, rather than physical mail. Most banks and utility companies should provide you with the option. After all, one of the best ways to declutter is to prevent the paper from coming in the first place. Also, consider using an app like Evernote for your to-do lists rather than pen and paper.
All in all, there are many different ways to declutter your home. While there is no one size fits all approach, you can use the tactics listed above to get started. Focus on a few things at a time, and before you know it, you will be a pro at decluttering.