Tips For Decluttering

Tips On Decluttering and Keeping Your Space Clear

Clutter builds up everywhere and if it’s not dealt with immediately the task of decluttering only gets bigger.

Clutter around the house or the office can even take up space in your mind, so it’s important to keep on top of things. There is a snowball effect when clutter is left for too long with the initial cleaning becoming a much bigger job. The more mess there is the more this will weigh on your mind.

If you’re looking for some tips for decluttering then you’ll find some excellent advice here. This post aims to help you declutter, organise and save time in the future. After all, re-decluttering will be inevitable.

Be Honest About Your Decluttering

Before you get started with decluttering you need to figure out what’s worth keeping and what isn’t. Author Marie Kondo who writes about minimalism suggests you ask yourself ‘does it spark joy?’

Regardless of an item’s practical use, when you hold the item, does it make you happy? If it does, then it’s worth keeping. If it doesn’t, consider donating it or throwing it away. You don’t have to throw away everything that doesn’t have a practical use, but you need to make a distinction and stick to it.

Decluttering Tips

Over the years you’ve probably been gifted a lot of things, treasured memories, and you wouldn’t want to offend anyone by getting rid of them. Instead, take a picture of their gift and put it in a scrapbook. Then you can be free to donate the items while retaining the memory you share with your loved ones. You can also bring out the scrapbook when they come over!

Empty The Room

You may have multiple rooms on the to-do list, but the best way to start is by doing things room by room. You can break it down further by choosing sections and focusing on one at a time.

When you get started it will be most useful to try and empty the room as much as you can. This will help you envision how you want the room to look, reorganise, and give everything a thorough cleaning.

As you empty the room of its belonging, do the spark test and then you can bag up anything that’s being thrown away. Once the room is empty you will have a blank canvas to work with and you can reintroduce elements in your desired way.

Make Sure You Have Enough Time

One of the easily overlooked tips for decluttering is making sure you have enough time to complete the project. Working up the motivation to get started can take a while so the last thing you want to do is have to work it up twice over.

This is another reason breaking things up room by room or section by section is important. You will be able to schedule your time to complete the project one section at a time and avoid leaving a job half done.

It’s also perfectly okay to declutter and leave the cleaning for another time. Depending on how much you have to do, decluttering can take a long time. Although cleaning at the same time is beneficial, there’s nothing that says you can’t just declutter.

Remove all potential distractions so you can really maximise your productivity. This includes your phone and the TV. If it’s distracting you from decluttering then it’s better off being avoided until you are done.

Homes For Everything

Having a home for everything will help you avoid clutter in the future. Invest in some containers that can serve as a living space for your bits and bobs. One of the reasons clutter begins to build is that there isn’t a place for it to go.

Blankets could go in a basket, toys can go in a box, and the various other things that don’t need to be displayed could go in an ottoman. A good storage setup can end visible clutter before it has a chance to build. With a clearer space, you’ll have a clearer mind!

Rebuild For Access

Once you are on to the rebuilding phase make sure to focus on accessibility. Anything that needs to be accessed, you should be able to access easily. This includes areas that house your belongings. For example, if you can’t reach the container that stores magazines, you’re more likely to leave them lying around.

Design the room with the end of your workday in mind. How much effort are you going to want to put into tidying up during the week? By making your storage areas easy to get to you’ll decrease the amount of effort involved in maintaining a clean area.

Mind Over Clutter

Once you’ve finished decluttering and your room is looking clean and tidy, take a moment to appreciate your efforts. Now the focus needs to turn to maintenance. You need to avoid the mindset that allowed the clutter to build up in the first place. And ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

The room has been remade and organised with storage in mind. Everything has a home and that home is easy to get to. So a quick tidy up is all that should be required going forward. Whenever you notice clutter building ask yourself if that item still brings joy. If it does, where is it’s home?

By making it easier for yourself to tidy up you will inevitably be more motivated to keep on top of things. This means that clutter is less likely to build up in the first place. So we’ve changed the cycle from leading to more and more mess. Now the cycle leads to better maintenance.