De-clutter Your Home

When you begin the journey to de-clutter your home, you must keep in mind that it took a long time to become this cluttered. Expecting instant results in not a reality. It may be an undertaking that will take several days, or more, so be patient and maintain your motivation. Having a plan of action is essential. With a solid action plan in place, accompanied by perseverance, success is definitely possible. Read on to discover the best approach.

Begin the process by getting three boxes. Label them “give away”, “throw away” and “put away”. Put an open garbage bag ready inside the throw away box in order to put a sense of finality to items you toss inside. Aside from providing you a sense of release, this also facilitate disposal. Adopt this ‘three box process’ for each room of the house.

Tackle your home, concentrating on just a single room at a time. This ensures that your cleaning and organizing is done in a focused and systematic manner. Begin at the door working clockwise, making sure that you do not overlook anything. Yes, it can be a daunting task deciding which box to put the items in. The finality of the decision stops some people in their tracks. However, this step is essential. To help ease the process, simply ask yourself a few questions about the item concerned. How do you feel about it? Do you love the item or does it have a sentimental value to you? Is the presence of the item good or bad for you? After all, it does not make much sense to hold on to an item that evokes feelings of guilt or sadness. Have you used the item recently, or at all? Is it defective or beyond repair? Have you acquired a newer and better version of it? When you answer these questions honestly, they can provide you with the motivation to finally part with them. You may even realize that you have been holding on to something for a silly reason. This can honestly be an illuminating and liberating process.

Once you have created your “give away” box, you can decide just what to do with it. You can donate the contents to a local thrift store or anonymously place it in one of the many charity bins strategically located in most cities. If you’re adventurous, have some spare time on your hands, or want to make some extra money, you can consider selling them on eBay, Craigslist or have a yard sale. The only hesitation I would have with this solution, however, is that you need to make sure that the process happens quickly. You don’t want to collect your “give away” box, then have that sit in the garage, waiting for you to take action. It is best to get it sorted, then out of your hands.

Next, look at your “put away” box. You might be surprised to see how much of your stuff has been misplaced. Make sure that once this box is full, stop your classifying, and put the items away properly. This ensures that you don’t misclassified items just because the proper box is full. Never fall prey to the urge to just dump the box somewhere first, like the attic or basement. We both know that you will probably not get back to it. Keep the momentum going and complete this step thoroughly.

Be sure that you include shelves, drawers and furniture in your de-cluttering process. Remember, de-cluttering involves organization as well. If the room contains a desk or bureau, then look through the desk and evaluate the contents. Ensure that your essentials like envelopes, pencils, stamps, stationery and bills are organized properly. If you have important papers, financial and otherwise here, process them as well. If any of them are over a year old, remove them and create a place where you can archive the older stuff. A filing cabinet or document box would be ideal for this purpose.

Don’t feel intimidated at the tasks confronting you. It truly is easier than it looks. Just ensure that you maintain your motivation, be thorough, don’t rush, and be tenacious about completing the process properly. You should clean as you go, so be sure to have cleaning rags and other cleaning items at hand. Once you are finished de-cluttering the room, you can go through it once more, rearranging or prettying up the room to suit your aesthetic desires.

So, there you have it. A simple, straight-forward process to follow to successfully remove clutter from your home. Following this process, while keeping the provided strategies in mind, you soon will find yourself much happier and content in your newly-organized home.