Tired of the Clutter in Your Home? These Tips Can Help
Decluttering your home is not only a personally fulfilling experience but according to experts, there are several benefits associated with cleaning up the clutter and living in a more organized space. Unfortunately, you may not truly understand how to cut down on clutter.
It’s been proven that people who live in less clutter experience less stress. Even if you feel like you’re used to the clutter around you, it leads to over-stimulation, which causes you to experience stress, often without even realizing it.
Additionally, it’s much easier to be productive when you’re not living in a cluttered space. For those who work at home, this increased productivity also cuts down on stress.
There are also physical benefits associated with decluttering your home. When a cluttered home turns into a hoard, it’s unsafe to move from one room to the next. Additionally, having too much clutter in your home can actually lower your indoor air quality.
Finally, there are financial benefits associated with decluttering your home. When clutter becomes excessive, it’s hard to know what you have and what you still need.
This often leads to wasting money on items that you already have. Furthermore, one of the best ways to declutter is to sell some of the items that you’re no longer using, which is a great way to turn clutter into cash.
Decluttering your home can seem like a daunting task, regardless of how much clutter you’re looking at. Fortunately, these tips for decluttering can help you make the process easy. Let’s get started on your decluttering project!
Start Small
Whether you live in a relatively small apartment or a large home, the idea of working through all of the clutter can seem daunting. The first step is to not view the project as a large decluttering project. Instead, be ready to start small and work your way through the rest of your home.
If possible, start with a single room. If that still seems like it’s too difficult, start with a single section of the room.
For instance, if you’re decluttering your kitchen but it seems like it’s too much, start with a single cabinet. If decluttering your bedroom seems like too much work, start with your nightstand and the area around it.
One of the most important tips for decluttering is to remember that this is a marathon, not a spring. Break the project up into small parts if that helps you get through things.
One Room at a Time
It’s important to stay focused on a particular room or section of a room until you’re done with it. When decluttering, it’s easy to think about the enormity of the task and bounce from one room to the next.
This actually makes you less effective, as you’ll work the same number of hours on your project without actually getting anything finished completely.
If your goal is to declutter your entire home, make a list of every room. You can prioritize the rooms however you’d like.
Some people choose to start in the room with the least amount of clutter so they can feel accomplished faster. Others want to start with the messiest area of the home and then work toward the room that needs the least work.
Whatever strategy you choose, don’t let yourself start working on a second room until you’ve finished the first. Staying on track with your home decluttering project means that you get one room finished and then move on to the next instead of aimlessly bouncing from one room to the next.
Get Organized
You probably have more stuff in your home than you need or even want. Sure, at some point, you wanted everything that you’ve purchased.
However, you’re now dealing with too much clutter because you kept adding more stuff to the equation. Fortunately, there are several ways that you can thin out the amount of stuff in your home, and it can benefit others as well as yourself.
Every item that you have in your home fits into one of four categories. You have stuff you should keep, stuff you should donate, stuff you should sell, and stuff you should throw away.
As you go through the items in your home, classify every item into one of those four categories. Clothing items and shoes are some of the most needed items at homeless shelters.
Additionally, it’s often easier to donate some of those items to a local Goodwill than to try to sell them. However, other items have great resell value online. You can also schedule a garage sale so you can turn your unwanted items into cash.
Some of the items that are cluttering your home probably need to go in the trash. Whether it’s outdated food or some of your child’s toys that are broken beyond use, be willing to put some stuff in the garbage and forget about it.
Finally, be willing to keep the items that you regularly use or that bring you joy. These four categories allow you to view every item through the lens of where it fits.
Cleaning Out Your Closet
Your closet probably contains most of the stuff that’s become clutter in your home. Clothes are so easy to buy, especially on an impulse.
Over time, this leads to a crowded closet which means that you don’t have room to put other items away. The clutter that could be organized and put away neatly in your closet finds itself all over the house.
Go through your closet and pick up every clothing item. If it’s something that you haven’t worn in over a year, donate it. If it’s got holes in it or other signs of wear and tear, toss it.
While you’re evaluating each item, also spend some time organizing your wardrobe. Put the clothes that you wear to the office together, the clothes that you wear to the gym together, and your “around the house” clothes together.
This will help you see what you have which can help you avoid adding more clothes to an already-crowded closet.
Check Your Kitchen
When many people think of clutter in their kitchen, they think of kitchen utensils on the counters. While that can be a source of clutter, it’s also a good idea to take a deeper dive.
For instance, go through your cabinets and evaluate how many dishes you have compared to how many you need.
While there’s certainly nothing wrong with having multiple sets of dishes, if you have more dishes than you have storage space, it’s a good opportunity to scale back either by selling them or donating them.
Also, take the time to go through your cabinets and pantry so you can look for expired food. Over time, it’s easy to shuffle old cans to the back of your shelves. Toss items that are expired in the garbage.
Safely Dispose of Old Medicines
Your bathroom is an area of your home that’s prone to clutter. Not only do you have all of your personal hygiene items lying around, but you probably have medications, first aid supplies, and other personal items on the counters and in the cabinets.
Additionally, if your bathroom lacks ample storage, you may have your towels stacked up by the bathtub.
While you can’t fix all of those problems, you can thin out the medications in your bathroom. Whether it’s over-the-counter medication or prescriptions that have been sitting around for a while, getting rid of expired medicine is a great way to declutter. However, you’ll need to do so safely.
Many pharmacies allow you to bring outdated medication to them for safe disposal, so call around and find a place where you can drop off your expired medicines. This will create space in your medicine cabinet or on your bathroom shelf.
Invest in Multi-Use Items
Finally, let’s look at a decluttering tip that may seem a bit counterintuitive. Many people assume that decluttering their home means that they cannot buy anything. That’s not always the case. Instead, you may need to invest in some items that promote organization.
For instance, if you have a lot of shoes around your door, invest in a small bench that has storage built into it. If your living room has a lot of books lying around, consider investing in a coffee table that has drawers.
Adding multi-use items allows you to keep the things you need to keep without allowing them to clutter your space. It’s a good idea to look for these items after you’ve decided what’s staying and what you’re getting rid of.
Start the Declutter Today
Decluttering your home is a daunting task, but you can do it. By using these decluttering tips, you can take an organized approach to thinning out the amount of stuff in your house.