Decluttering your home seems to be very fashionable at the moment and there is a reason for this. If your home is less organized than you’d like, it can have a knock on effect for other areas of your life.
Creating a life that is free from mess and chaos isn’t as difficult as you might think even if you have little ones to factor into the equation. Decluttering is a must for a calmer, less stressful life. It is all about filtering out needless distractions so you have more time to focus on the things you love. These tips should help to declutter your home!
Go For Small, Quick Wins When You Declutter Your Home
Think of decluttering as a work in progress. Sure, you want everything to be streamlined and organized but it doesn’t have to happen today. Focus on small wins that you can tackle each day. Over time, they add up to a less cluttered, calmer and more organised home.
Adopting this mindset can be super important for making decluttering a big part of your life going forwards and creating a life that is calmer and less chaotic.
Choose one area to take on at a time. I recently (with some help from my very organised son) decluttered my wardrobe. I must confess it took a couple of days but now I can find things I had long forgotten. It is also a pleasure to choose an item to wear rather than it being a very stressful exercise trying to find something.
How to Choose What Is Going When Decluttering Your Home
Some of what looks like clutter is actually rubbish that no one has gotten around to throwing away or recycling yet. If you move around your home looking for items that fall into this category, you’ll probably be surprised to see how quickly you fill a rubbish bag.
Ask yourself what do these items truly add to my life? Do you need or even really want them?
Once you have chosen the items that are going take the time to dispose of them mindfully and responsibly. Is a friend after a particular item? Do you feel that others will find value in it? If so recycle.
Set Up a Central Communications Point
In a cluttered home, lots of things can slip through the cracks and get lost. Prime candidates? Important bits of paperwork that you can never seem to find amongst general clutter.
Keeping paperwork together in a central place that can be a game changer for keeping stress to a minimum. When you know you need to access this kind of paperwork, just head for the place you’ve chosen to store it. This can be as simple as a basket or collapsible folder.
Do the 12-12-12 Challenge to Declutter Your Home
Try this challenge. For every 36 items you come across, aim to throw out 12 of them, donate 12 of them and put the other 12 where they “should” live in your home. Not sure what should fall into each category? Think about how much you really love and need a particular item. What do you actually gain for keeping it in your life and would it make any difference to your life if you parted with it? Asking these kind of questions can help you to see if you’re holding onto items because of past attachments or because of genuine need.
Another trick is to think about how much you’d be willing to pay if you were you bought that same item today.
This challenge has been known to add a very competitive element to decluttering and you can even get the rest of the family involved to get organised in super quick time!
I would love to hear how you got on. Did decluttering areas of your house also help your mind seem calmer? Now you have your home in order what about some tips to declutter your mind. Read my blog ‘ Helpful ways to Cleanse Your Mind’ to help you on your way. https://www.lynleyclarkwellness.co.nz/helpful-ways-to-cleanse-your-mind/
