03 Jan START 2022 OFF RIGHT!
HOW AND WHERE TO START DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS
If one of your 2022 resolutions is to rid your home of clutter, get organized and live a simpler life, then this blog is for you. You’ve seen lots of different tips and other articles but you just peruse over it and lay it aside. It’s overwhelming, I know. I’ve been looking around my home, seeing enough stuff to have a garage sale. Everyone has a bit of junk lying around the house – and the majority of us have more than a little. Household clutter seems relatively harmless. But many people feel stressed and they feel like life is out of control when they surround themselves with more things than they can manage.
Following an easy step-by-step process will build a healthy habit and get you moving toward your goal of a tidier home and less-stressful place for you and your family.
Where to start – I’m of the belief that it doesn’t matter where you start, but that you START somewhere! So, what makes a good place to start? I always start with the least cluttered and easiest spot. That will motivate you to move on to the area that’s been bugging you and stressing you out. It can go both ways as others might want to tackle the big pile first. Whatever you choose, the feeling of accomplishment will give you the motivation to keep on going.
Stay focused! Don’t get distracted, which is easy to do. In the beginning, you just want to develop a good decluttering routine. Remind yourself that decluttering your home and taking care of the mess is actually a way to take better care of yourself. When you see the results, it’s refreshing!
Tips for Success
Create a Sorting System As you go through the rooms in your home, you’ll need to set up a system for sorting the items you find. You can create your own method, or use the popular Three-Box Method. The Three-Box Method forces you to make a decision item-by-item and avoid making a bigger mess than the one you started with.
Gather three boxes or storage bins and label them as “Keep,” “Get Rid Of,” and “Storage.” I find that this system makes it a lot easier to manage.
Create an out of the way Staging Area This could be an area of your home or garage to place your items that you will donate or trash. Once it’s in that pile, do not resuscitate!
Use a checklist or not, it’s up to you A checklist is not a requirement to decluttering. Experts go both ways on this subject. A checklist can help you stay on track and motivated, but there are no rules to minimalism. Search the internet for decluttering checklists to get some ideas or create your own because only you know the hot spots in your home.
Get your family involved It might be hard at first getting family involved but once they see and feel the difference in certain areas of the home, that should inspire them to help. DO NOT Declutter for them!
The 15 Minute Theory The reality is, even if we have a pretty flexible schedule, we rarely have hours of consecutive time to work on a single project uninterrupted. But if you’re committed to the process, it’s rare that you won’t be able to find 15 minutes a day for decluttering. And if you can manage two sessions a day, you’re doubling your progress! The beauty of the 15-minute method is that it works for any room in the house and can be done daily, all you need is a timer. In fact, tidying experts recommend decluttering for 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for best results.
The 80/20 Rule 80% of the time, we generally only wear 20% of the clothing we own. This rule tends to be true for other things as well, such as video games, computers, electronics and books, DVDs, toys and more. Your mission is to get rid of the things you don’t use 80% of the time.
Does it Work? If a certain treasure you found stashed away doesn’t function properly, get rid of it. If you want to fix it, then fix it right away. Otherwise, it will continue to sit unused, collecting dust.
I Didn’t Even Know I Still Had That If you come across something you haven’t used in the last six months, you should probably get rid of it. If you pulled the item out and said, “I’ve been wondering where this was”, that is a very good sign that you should probably get rid of it. And if you didn’t even know you still had the item in question, definitely get rid of it. You didn’t miss it enough to warrant keeping it in your home.
Getting Your Kids to Willingly Donate Toys Involve your children in the process of donating their old, outgrown toys to charity or recycling. You can use this as a great lesson to teach them that not all children have tons of toys like they do and donating them could very well put a smile on another child’s face. Mattel actually has a new program designed to recover and reuse materials from old Mattel toys for future Mattel products, and supports the company’s goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials across all products and packaging by 2030. They will even send you a free shipping label! Link to program: PlayBack | Mattel Playroom
Organizing and decluttering relieves stress for many people by providing a sense of control and accomplishment. 61.7% of survey respondents said decluttering reduced their overall stress level. For others, getting rid of the junk frees up extra space in the home that wasn’t there before. While some may just need to purge their house of clutter before moving. Well, I’m off to do some decluttering right now – that closet definitely could do with some fast and ruthless tidying. Get started now and no excuses.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.