The Best Way to Declutter Your Home

Decluttering your home can be a big job depending on how bad you’ve let the place get. However, once it’s all over and done with, you’ll have a sense of accomplishment and feel like you’ve got a brand new place to live. Hoarding is a real problem and many people don’t realise that they are a borderline hoarder! This post is going to focus on the best way to de-clutter your home. If you know yours needs to be done, read on to get started:

Take Just 5 Minutes a Day

De-cluttering your home can be daunting, especially if you’ve let it get really out of control. So take just 5 minutes a day. Instead of scaring yourself out of doing anything by thinking of how many hours it’s probably going to take, take just 5 minutes. Pick a small job and do that. Maybe once you’ve done that, you’ll feel like doing another, and another. Before you know it, you will have got lots done! If you take just 5 or so minutes every day to work on the clutter, you’ll soon have a clutter free home to be proud of. Just promise yourself 5 minutes of work. It’ll make a big difference overall.

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Buy a Tray for Paper Clutter

Paper is probably one of the main culprits when it comes to clutter. We all do it; have piece of paper after piece of paper lying around with no real place to put it. Paper on the table, paper on the side…paper in the draw. Paper takes over our lives. You probably don’t want to throw it away as you might need to look back at it someday, so buy a tray instead. This tray is where all of the paper should go. This way, you know exactly where it is and it isn’t lying around all over the place. You’ll always be able to find that important bill or document with no fumbling! Ideally, you’ll go paperless and scan everything into your computer, but lots of people don’t feel comfortable doing that yet. Plus, some things still need to be kept physically, so don’t worry about that for now. Just pop everything into a draw. When you’re sure you don’t need a piece of paper, make sure you recycle it. You don’t have to recycle by putting it in the recycling bin – why not make your own wrapping paper? There are multiple things you can do with your old bits of paper!

Clear Your Counters

Clearing your counters is an important job in the decluttering process. If you like, start with just one counter. Make it clutter free and keep it that way. You can then move on to another counter, until the majority of your counters have very little clutter on them. It’s OK to keep things like microwaves and toasters obviously, but if you have a juicer you never use, put it in the cupboard.

Designate Good Spots for Things You Use

In every household, there are also things we use a lot that just don’t have a place. We end up putting these things anywhere, and we think it’s OK because we use them so often. Well don’t! try to designate spots for all of these things too, preferably out of sight where they’re not getting in the way or making a visual mess. Some people even become blind to the things on their sides, thinking it doesn’t look so bad because they use them so much. Please, be vigilant. Try to look at your sides from an outsider’s perspective. If you can’t do that, ask a trusted friend or family member to give you their advice.

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Make a Maybe Box

Now, we all have those items that we kind of want to get rid of but we kind of want to keep because we don’t know whether we’ll ever need them again. In this case, make a maybe box. The maybe box can contain all of the items you’re not sure of. Put the box away for a few months. You could put the box in the loft, or if you have a lot of stuff you can use storage units. If you never need to take anything out of the box in those few months, it’s unlikely you ever will. Give the stuff to charity or get rid. You’ll have peace of mind then too.

Give to Charity

Giving to charity can be very satisfying. Not only are you decluttering your home, you’re giving to people who need things more than you too. If you don’t need a perfectly good item, rather than keeping it, take it to your nearest charity shop.

Sell

OK, so you have some fairly expensive items that you don’t want to keep but you don’t just want to give away. Sell them! You could actually make quite a bit of money if you choose to put them on eBay or another popular selling site. You might be surprised. It all adds up until you have a substantial amount of money to do what you like with. This is where de-cluttering becomes the most satisfying job ever!

Make Use of Your Imagination

Studies have actually shown that using your imagination while de-cluttering can be a huge help. Start by imagining how you’d like your home to look, room by room. Then start picturing your life without certain items that you’re not sure about. This will help to detach you from certain things and you’ll feel more inclined to clean up properly. It really works!

Most of the time, we think we’re going to need things and we don’t need them at all. Be vigilant. The longer it takes you to get rid of something, the less inclined you’ll be to get rid of it at all as you’ll become mentally attached to it. Declutter your home using these tips and you should find the job really simple and wish you’d have done it sooner. Thanks for reading!