Want to learn how best to declutter your home? Well, you are definitely part of a crowd. The idea of living a simple life with less stuff sounds attractive to many. But often, they begin to feel overwhelmed, anxious, and defeated about the idea of owning less. That’s too bad. Learning how to declutter your home and (and as a result, decluttering your life) doesn’t need to be as painful as some make it out to be. And the benefits are numerous.
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The Benefits of Decluttering Your Life
There are many benefits to owning fewer possessions. Even then, it’s tough to move into action.
Less to Clean
Cleaning is already enough of a chore, but having to clean around things you have zero emotional attachment to (or worse, actively dislike) makes cleaning the house much more stressful.
Less to Organize
Finding things suddenly become easier. Things don’t just “disappear” anymore. You can actually move around your home and enjoy the space, instead of moving around things that are in the way.
Less Stress
Looking around at the clutter is a nausea-inducing sight once your home becomes cluttered enough. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look around and see a home you love?
Less Debt
Spending less time shopping for material possessions and adding to the clutter means your wallet and bank accounts remain fuller, your credit cards’ statements are lower, and your home doesn’t get filled with costly things you don’t need.
Steps to Follow to Declutter Your Home
Start with 5 minutes at a time
If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day.
Give one item away each day
This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. Increase this number once it gets too easy.
Fill an entire trash bag
Get a trash bag and fill it as fast as you can with things you can donate at Goodwill.
Donate clothes you never wear
To identify them, simply hang all your clothes with hangers in the reverse direction. After wearing an item, face the hanger in the correct direction. Discard the clothes you never touched after a few months.
Create a decluttering checklist
It’s a lot easier to declutter when you have a visual representation of where you need to get started.
Take the 12-12-12 challenge
Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home.
View your home as a first-time visitor
It’s easy to “forget” what your home looks like to a new visitor. Enter your home as if you’re visiting the home of a friend. Write down your first impression on how clean and organized the home is and make changes.
Take before and after photos of a small area
Choose one part of your home, like your kitchen counter, and take a photo of a small area. Quickly clean off the items in the photo and take an after photo. Once you see how your home could look, it becomes easier to start decluttering more of your home.
Get help from a friend
Have a friend or family member go through your home and suggest a handful of big items to throw away or give to someone else. If you defend the item and want to keep it, your friend has to agree with your reason. If they don’t agree, it’s time to get rid of it.
Use the four-box method
Get four boxes and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of the following boxes. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This may take days, weeks, or months, but it will help you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.
No matter which decluttering tip you choose to get started – whether it be one of these ten or one of countless others – the goal is to take your first step in decluttering your life with excitement behind it.
17 Quick Steps To Organizing Your Room
Below are easy and quick ways to organize your room;
Corral like items
Take your categorized items and find a way to store each category neatly and in a way that is easily accessible. This doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy a bunch of fancy bins. You can start with what you have in your house. Get creative.
Grab a cleanup bin
To quickly straighten up the house, grab an empty basket and put it near the base of the steps. Everything that needs to go upstairs goes into the basket, and when the downstairs is straightened, take the whole basket upstairs and put everything away.
Never lose socks again
“Get each family member a mesh lingerie bag and ask them to fill it with their dirty socks. Run the bag through washer and dryer then place each family member’s lingerie bag in their clothing pile to put away. With this trick, you can forget sorting, folding, or leaving a stray sock in the dryer.
Simplify linen storage
Store folded sheet sets inside a pillowcase and you’ll never have to guess if that fitted sheet works on the queen- or king-sized bed again.
Create extra space with hooks
Put hooks on the inside of low level cabinet doors for extra storage. Especially under the sink where you can hang wet wash gloves and wands to dry.
Sort shelves by size
To reduce digging and searching, keeping items in plain sight should be your priority. If you have shelves in your bathroom vanity, quickly reorganize it so top shelf holds large items and the bottom shelf stores smaller items, which is closer to eye-level.
Reduce cleanup before playtime
When your kids play with toys and other things, lay out a large blanket or bed sheet where they can play on. That way, when it’s time to clean up, you can bring the ends of the blanket together and quickly dump the toys back into their storage bucket. It also helps to give your kids a more defined play area to try and keep the toys within.
Clean up your space
Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better, that’s what they say right? That is often the case with organizing, it really helps to start with a blank slate. Clearing out the whole space will help you to see what you have, assess your storage needs, and also helps you make the most of the space. You can refill these space by starting with the items that you use most often and put them in the most accessible spot. Then from there, fill in the gaps until everything has a place. Once everything is organized and back in place, you will have to get in the habit of putting things back where they go immediately you finished with them.
Group your items
Group your items, based on similarities. When everything is divided out, it makes it easier for you to see what kind of organization systems you’ll need. You can also label the group of items for easy access.
Start A Clutter Collection System
Take a few minutes to address problem areas or items in your home. Anywhere that mess seems to accumulate can be a good candidate! Then put something in place to help control the mess. For instance, if you have throw blankets that tend to get left out, put a basket somewhere in the living room. You can toss the blankets into the basket each night before you head off to bed.
Store A Collection
Do you have a stash of candles, water bottles, board games, or other items just sitting around somewhere? Find a place to keep them organized, like an over-the-door organizer, a dedicated shelf, or a storage container.
Declutter Your Desk
Take a few minutes and get rid of some of the clutter on or around your desk. Put pens and pencils in a pen cup, recycle unneeded paper, and straighten up stacks of books or papers.
Hang Up Hooks
Create more places to hang stuff like scarves, purses, or cords. Take some time to hang up a few adhesive hooks! They’re easy to install and will definitely help control the clutter around your house.
Clean Out Your Fridge
Take out anything in your fridge that is expired, past its prime, or smelling less than fresh. The main culprits are usually produce and leftovers, so check those first! And also go through your pantry and toss out anything that’s stale or past its expiration date.
Clear Out A Junk Drawer
If you have a junk drawer in your house, take a few minutes to empty it out. Group like items together, and toss out anything you don’t need or recognize. Corral similar items together in small plastic containers or drawer organizers before putting them back in the drawer. Take all of your old newspapers, junk mail, flyers, etc. and put them in your recycling bin.
Clear Out Cosmetics
Go through all your cosmetics, toiletries, and other personal care items. Toss out anything you don’t use anymore, and anything that’s past its expiration date.
Organize Your Wallet/Purse
Dump out the contents of your wallet or purse. Toss out any garbage, old receipts, and empty chapstick tubes. Put away any random items that have found their way in too. Once you’ve cleared out all the junk, put the important stuff back in an organized fashion.
Rearrange Your Closet
Rearrange the clothes in your closet using a more organized system. Use whatever system makes the most sense to you. Use trays to keep your jewelry organized, or hang it from an organizer or hanger. Just gets the jewelry up off your counter or dresser.
How to Get Organized Without Spending a lot of Money
Discover budget-friendly superefficient organizational systems. It is totally possible to get organized without spending a lot of money. Yes, it may take more creativity, DIY, and a little bit of extra searching, but that little bit of extra effort can turn into big savings in the long run, and you can still have those organized spaces you’ve been dreaming of!
Here are so many cool ideas for getting organized without spending a lot of money.
Purge
The less stuff you have, the less it will cost to get it organized! Start with one area of your home and be ruthless. Get rid of anything that is broken or stained. If there are things you don’t use anymore, throw them away. Only keep the items that you absolutely need and use. You can even sell some of those items and make some money.
Recycle some items
You can recycle everyday items rather than throwing them away. Some of the things you can recycle include; Shoeboxes, Diaper boxes, Cereal boxes, Glass jars, Cans, Scrap wood.
There are a million different things you can recycle and use for organization without spending any money at all! If you have an idea in mind but don’t have the item in your house, ask friends and family to save things for you.
Get Creative
Beyond recycling cans and boxes, there are some containers in our home that could be used for something else other than their intended purpose. You can use trash cans and laundry hampers in organizing wrapping paper. You can also use extra plates to help corral jewelry or hair supplies. Storage crates are another item that can come in handy. The same inexpensive crates can be used to hold binders, toys, shoes, beach accessories, and more.
Give things away
If you don’t want the hassle of selling things or having a garage sale, just give them away! Join a Swap/Sell Group in your area on Facebook or just post to your personal Facebook or Instagram and tell friends you’re giving stuff away! It honestly is possible to organize without spending a cent. You can even make money! You want a new closet organizer? Sell those things and you might just be able to do that! Re-use items around your home into containers for organizing.
Stash Canned Goods
Use empty soda can boxes to organize canned foods in your pantry. This is particularly helpful if you like to stock up. Just use one box to organize each type of canned good.
Free Drawer Organizers
Create free dividers for your drawers and storage bins by cutting up cardboard boxes. Unlike those store-bought dividers, these can be customized to fit your needs and your style. Wrap them to make them any color you’d like.
Wrangle Those Hair Bands
Hair bands seem to end up everywhere. The solution? Store them on an empty toilet paper roll. You’ll know right where they are–and more importantly, where they aren’t.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a professional organizer to help me get rid of clutter?
Absolutely not. Getting rid of the clutter in your home can be done by yourself. It can even be a fun family activity when using the decluttering tips.
How can I declutter quickly? Can it be done in a day?
Removing clutter from our homes and our lives doesn’t need to be rushed or done in a single day. It’s something that can be done over time and may even need to be done on a semi-regular basis. As long as you start the process today, you’re further along than you were yesterday.
When should I declutter?
This is a personal question. When you find yourself overwhelmed by your possessions and tied down, it usually means you’re ready to start making a change. Note that this feeling is just a broad litmus test. The feeling of being overwhelmed can be different for everyone.
And there you have it. A cluttered room is associated with stress and can go a long way to ensuring that your time is wasted on trivial things as little as searching for a pair of socks! Reduce this stress by using the tips we have outlined here to get your home decluttered and organized. Got any com ments or suggestions? Kindly drop them in the comments section.