When a new year comes around, it seems that everyone is rushing to
declutter their homes. Which is just fine, we all need those moments of
action - I can totally relate because I've been doing a lot of decluttering myself.
But in order to be successful you need to turn decluttering into more than a spur of the moment inspiration – or something you’re doing just because everyone else is.
1. Take your time
A huge part of success comes from careful planning. This is true for many things in life, not just for decluttering, of course, but the truth is that rushing things doesn't always work well in the long term.
So it’s better to take some time and think things through. Tackle one room at a time, make a list of what you really use and need, and then everything else can be discarded.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed just thinking about it, start with the usual suspects:
- the medicine cabinet, where you can get rid of everything past due date or that you don’t need to use anymore
- the pantry – again, stuff past the use by date or those things you got on clearance but turns out no one in your family really likes to eat
- the kid’s toy binds – discard everything that is broken or that they’ve outgrown. Try not to keep a lot of these as mementos. My mother did this with a lot of my toys, but by the time I had kids myself most things were just old and in bad condition. Save for the Legos, some of which still live today, almost everything else ended up in the trash.
For a more detailed list of the best places to start decluttering, you can click the image below to read the complete post:
2. Decide what to do with the things you discard
The worse thing that can happen is for you to take stuff out of your closets or cabinets and then let things lying around in bags or piles waiting for a solution. After a while you forget about them and they’ll live in a corner somewhere forever. That’s equivalent to just moving clutter from one place to another.
If you really want to declutter, then those things need to go once and for all.
There are three main ways to get rid of the stuff you don’t want or need anymore.
You can just toss things into the trash can. It’s the quickest and most efficient method, but it doesn’t work for everything, and most especially doesn’t work for things you may have an emotional attachment to.
You can donate. This is what I prefer, because I find it rewarding: it means that things I no longer want will be useful and loved by someone else. You can look for local shelters or social institutions that collect clothes, furniture, small appliances, etc. The clothes that no longer fit your kids can go to friends or family with smaller children. The books you’ve read and will never find the time or will to re-read can go to friends or co-workers, or to the local library. Just make sure whatever you are donating is still in good condition to be used properly by someone else.
And you can sell things to. I’m not really into this, to be honest, but my husband will do it in a heartbeat. So when I decide we should get rid of something, I usually ask him whether it’s worth to consider selling it second hand or just donate. Depending on the items, it may be worth looking into it.
Note that the above methods are not mutually exclusive either – let’s say for example that you decide to sell a certain item. If after some time it’s just not selling, then you can change the strategy and see if it can be donated instead.
The key thing here is to have a plan to get the clutter out of your house before you start decluttering – and no taking too long to punt it into action either.
Here's a useful printable to get (and keep you on track) with your decluttering:
3. Make it permanent
If you’ve just gotten rid of half a dozen coffee mugs you never used, don’t go and buy three or four more just because they’re cute, cheap, or whatever. The important message here is that you should actually cut back on what you own and actually live with less. The less you bring home, the less clutter you'll have to deal with in the future.
My parents and grandparents were hoarders, and I've been struggling with clutter for most of my life. While I still have a lot of stuff at home that needs to go, I've been cutting back on buying new stuff and it has made a huge difference already.
In the post below, I've discussed this further. Click the image to have a look:
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