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Spend a day sorting out items and then the next day, go through things in detail. Make some piles where you plan to discard, give away, and sell. If you sell some things at a yard sale or online, it will help reduce clutter in your home. As you go through each item, ask yourself: “Do I want this?” or “Do I need this?” If the answer is no, get rid of it.
Declutter as much as possible
The first thing to do is to declutter! This means sorting through all of your clutter and putting everything where it belongs. When you’re decluttering, it’s important to keep in mind that you want to get rid of things you don’t need or use, especially things with sentimental value but that is just taking up space. A good way to know if something has sentimental value is if it would hurt your feelings to throw it away. If it hurt your feelings to throw out something, chances are you should keep it.
You can sort through all of your clutter and decide what’s stuff you want to give away and what’s trash. Some items might be useful somewhere else – for example, a shirt that no longer fits but is perfectly good otherwise or has sentimental value can become rag cloth for making rags. Think about places in the community where someone could make use of your unwanted things. You can have a yard sale that will also help lighten your load.
There are many ways to go about decluttering. For example, one family member can start in the living room while you clean out your garage, dealing with everything in your path before moving on to the next one. Then there are methods that focus on one area of your home at a time, such as the kitchen or the bathroom. When you have decluttered all you want to, it’s time to put everything away in its place.
Get rid of anything not needed or wanted
This may sound obvious, but there will be things leftover from your clean-out session which just won’t fit any place in your life anymore. Toss them! When you’re deciding whether or not an item is trash, think about how often you use it, if it still works, and how much space it takes up.
Toss anything you don’t use, need, or have room for! If you haven’t used it in a year, you probably never will and get rid of something you bought because a commercial promised if you buy that one gadget your life would be perfect.
Get some help from friends and family if possible during this process. You can not only get free labor but also free help sorting out donated items to areas where they will be useful. Getting advice on how to make your house better to live in is also helpful – remember that organizing is an ongoing process, so getting the opinions of others may help the whole process go much easier, as well as give great ideas on what works with various organizational styles!
Organize what’s left
Now that you’ve gone through and gotten rid of things you don’t need or use – it’s time to organize what is left! If something doesn’t have a place for it in your house, then either get rid of it or make a new place for it. New storage containers can help with this process, but if they’re not enough, consider getting some professional organizing done. This can be an effective way to really get yourself organized and maybe even find a few extra items worth keeping around.
Organization is the key to living in a home that isn’t messy. There are many different methods of organizing things. These include drawer/cabinet organization, closet organization, and room by room organization (for bigger projects). If your house is so out of control that you can’t find what you are looking for – try doing one room at a time until it’s organized.
Make lists
Next, start making piles for donation, donation and trash, and trash only. After this, take the donations to pile out and start sorting them into bins for Goodwill, non-profits like Habitat for Humanity, food banks, churches, schools, and other places that can benefit from donating items. It’s a great feeling to get rid of the clutter in your own home and at the same time give items away that can be useful for someone else!
Give yourself an extra boost of motivation by listing out all the things you want your new, cleaner house to look like. Go through each item and break them down into manageable tasks, then start checking off your list as you complete each task – it will make getting everything done so much easier! You might even have fun with this process and enjoy caring for your home more when it is organized.
So there you have it! You’ve now learned the basics of decluttering your home, and have some ideas on how to do it. We know it can be a tough process at first, but keep trying to make a lifestyle change. Spend less time spending money on things you don’t need, and more time investing in yourself. If you’re still not sure where to start or what to do, try using some of the tips we listed above.
