6 Ways To Declutter Your Home

Every day you unknowingly accumulate clutter in your home. When you’re too busy with your new job, or too wrapped up with learning a new recipe in the kitchen, or you’re busy taking care of your newborn, clutter sneaks into your homes.

Unfortunately, a cluttered house means a chaotic and untidy place, and cleaning it becomes increasingly difficult each day. The sight of the mess surrounding you can already drain your energy and make you feel stress. Household clutter may seem like a harmless matter to handle, but in reality, it can make you feel anxious, like you’ve no control over your life and anything that’s going around it.

The thought of decluttering your entire house may seem like a massive project that will take forever, but don’t worry, as there are numerous ways to make the process easier and quicker. Here are six ways to declutter your home successfully and properly.

1. Make A Plan

Just like how you do other home projects, decluttering your house needs to be planned too. When you have a plan, you won’t miss any spot in your home during the process. In creating your plan, list down all the rooms that you want to declutter, and make sure to write them down in an order where you’d like to start first. It’s often best if you start at the upper floor rooms then work your way down to the first floor (e.g., living room, kitchen).

You can also put a timeline on each room, and this will serve as your guide if a particular spot needs more time for decluttering than the rest. Make sure your timelines are challenging yet attainable and realistic. For many, the most achievable timeline is working on one room every weekend. But if you can do more than that in a short amount of time, the better.

2. Establish A Sorting System

As you go through every room in the list, you need to establish a sorting system for every stuff you find. The best method you can apply is the four-box method, wherein you need to prepare four boxes and label them with the following:

• Useful:
• Seasonally Useful
• Recycle/Donate
• Trash

These boxes will force you to decide on each piece of item and evaluate how useful they are in your life. If you use these things daily, you can put them in the “Useful” box and make sure to return each item in its original placements at the end of the day. For the things, you’ve put in the “Seasonally Useful”, make sure to store them properly in their containers to avoid mess and disorganization. For the items you placed at the “Recycle/Donate”, you can either choose to give them to a local charity, recycle them, or use them for your garage sale. Finally, for the items you placed in the “Trash” box, you can quickly get rid of them by having them picked up by a rubbish removal service like this website, and you won’t have to worry another day about trashes lying around the house.

3. Get Rid of Duplicating Items

While sorting out your items individually, you may come across some items that are duplicated. For instance, you found out that you own four can openers while sorting out in the kitchen. Ask yourself if all these items are useful all at once. If not, resolve this issue by keeping one can opener, and the rest shall be donated or be include in your garage sale.

4. Get Help from Your Family

As mentioned earlier, decluttering your house can be a massive project, and the more it’ll take longer to finish if only one person does it. To make the job easier and done faster, don’t hesitate to ask for your family’s help. Together you can work on decluttering the house by dividing each room to each family member. Besides your family, you can also call on your friend’s help to assist you in sorting out your items in the four boxes. For instance, if you start getting sentimental and hesitant over letting go of some of your things, your friend’s opinions will help you get rid of stuff you’re reluctant to discard.

5. Keep Flat Surfaces Clear

The flat surfaces in your house refer to your countertops, coffee tables, nightstands, home office desks, and dining tables. As much as possible, keep these flat surfaces clear, or at least, almost clear. While it’s alright to have a few decorations, picture frames, or lamps on some of these surfaces, make sure to limit each surface to a maximum of five items only. These flat surfaces are one of the most at risk of clutter since you can easily use them as storage spaces.

If you’ve noticed that your flat surfaces are always cluttered, it’s time to change up your habit and avoid putting anything on these surfaces. The lesser things you place on your flat surfaces, the more calming and peaceful your spaces will be.

6. Reorganize

Finally, you’re able to sort out all the items you have in the entire house and successfully get rid of the excess items. It’s time to reorganize your space and the things you have left. For your clothes, fold them properly and organize them in your closets. For your kitchen tools and utensils, make sure to group them according to their type or use and keep them in one container for a more accessible location.

For the remaining furniture you have, you can rearrange them in a way that creates more space, or at least an illusion of more space. When you’re done, you’ll realize the essence of owning less and how calming and peaceful you’ve turned your house to be.

Wrapping Up

Homeowners like you need to declutter your home every chance that you get. Decluttering isn’t only about keeping your house clean, but it’s also about taking care of yourself. When your house is clutter-free, you and your family will feel less stressed, more comfortable, and more in control.

After all the time and effort you’ve spent on decluttering your house, keep these tips in mind to prevent clutter from sneaking again in the future. Remember that you’re in control of how much clutter you bring into your home, so make sure to keep it that way. Before you think of buying new things, ask yourself how much you need them. Unless they aren’t an immediate need, then don’t bring them home. Most importantly, strive to declutter a little bit every day. The more this becomes a habit, the easier it’ll be for you to keep your home clutter-free.