Decluttering Your Home The Easy Way
There are many benefits to decluttering the areas around you. Your spaces become easier to clean and easier to organize. It can also be very stressful to look around and see how cluttered your home has become.Once you purge the clutter and decide to live a clutter-free life, you may even notice you have more financial freedom. The less time you spend shopping for things you don’t need, the fuller your bank account remains. Then you can spend more time doing things you love, live traveling or taking some local cooking classes.So, where should you begin?
5 Steps to Simplify Decluttering:
- Set a time limit. Even one small closet can be overwhelming when you start to dig in. When you’re first starting out, go with just 10-15 minutes per area or per room. As you get into a groove you can add more time.
- Clear it out. Remove all of the items from the spot you are working on. This makes it easier to see everything you are working with, and leaves you with a big space to put back the things you plan to keep.
- Start sorting. Quickly grab all of the items and put them into 4 piles: Keep, Donate, Trash, Relocate. It is best to grab a few garbage bags for this step. Just because you have something that you no longer have a use for does not mean it can’t benefit someone else. If it’s a shirt you haven’t worn for months, donate it to your local Goodwill! If you’ve been saving those old tennies that you wore out, toss them in the garbage. You’ll quickly start to feel how great it is to remove these items from your space.
- Wipe it down. Clean up the dust and dog hair that’s been collecting under your piles and place all your ‘Keep’ items into the newly refreshed space.
- Step back. Take a look around and see if there is any other way to improve the organization of this area. If you had things in a ‘Relocate’ pile, put them in their new home. Finally, decide where to take your "Donate" pile. You may even be able to find a charity near you that offers pickup.
It can be difficult to take the first steps in decluttering your home, but you have to remind yourself that the end goal is to make your life less stressful. Behind all that clutter is a breath of fresh air!