Decluttering your home can feel like a huge task, and especially if you’ve got quite a lot of stuff, it can feel near impossible to decide where to start.
I know how daunting it can be, and I wanted to help – which is why I’m sharing this simple guide to decluttering, made by the team at We Buy Any House, to keep you motivated and help you see results as quickly as possible!
The Ultimate Guide To Decluttering Your Home
1. Start small
A lot of the time, starting a task is the hardest part, especially when you’ve got a lot of work to do.
Starting small is the key to making good progress – too many people make the mistake of throwing themselves in head-first and then losing motivation and never finishing up.
If you want some inspiration before you start, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo is a best-selling classic that might change how you see your stuff.
Decide on an amount of time – 20 minutes is a popular option, but you can increase or decrease this to suit you.
Dedicate that amount of time a day to decluttering.
Focus on one location at first, pick a drawer or a cupboard, and stay in that area for as many days as you need to for it to be done. A makeup vanity is a lovely first spot, and my vanity organization guide walks you through it.
Once that first drawer is clear, a few drawer organizers can help it stay that way, which feels so satisfying.
It sounds like a small achievement, but when you finish that area, you’ll see a big difference and can start on the next place.
Decluttering your house doesn’t need to be a race, and you can take as long as you need to get to where you’re happy with it, so celebrate the small victories and see how much of a difference you make after just one week!
2. Get rid of one thing a day
When someone says clutter, you can often picture lots of things that are waiting to be thrown out, but a lot of the time, it’s the opposite; it’s items that need organizing and still have plenty of life in them.
If you’re a bit of a collector, you’ll likely find that while you don’t really need the things that you’ve got anymore, they will be helpful to someone else.
Setting yourself a task to get rid of one thing a day can be a great way to build up a donation pile for charity.
Put aside a box, and choose something each day to go in it.
Something like a collapsible storage bin works perfectly as a donation box, and it folds flat when you don't need it.
After a few weeks, you’ll have a good collection that you can give away to someone in need, freeing up space in your home and helping someone else at the same time, which is an incredibly rewarding feeling.
P.S.
If you have a large amount of broken stuff to get rid of, it might be worth looking for a dumpster rental (learn more).
3. Clear out your closet
A lot of the time, people don’t realize how few of their clothes they actually wear compared to what they’ve got hanging up!
Most people have their favorite outfits that are their go-to choices, and the rest gets forgotten about until the closet is overflowing and they want to buy new bits but just don’t have the space anymore.
The best way to work out what you wear and what you don’t is to turn all of the hangers in your closet one way, and as you take things out and put them back, turn the hanger.
While you're at it, switching to matching velvet hangers saves space and makes your closet look so much calmer.
After a couple of months, you’ll notice the items that you’re not taking out and be able to go through them – often, after realizing that you don’t wear them anymore, it makes it easier to part with the item so you can either donate it or throw it away guilt-free. I often hesitated to let go of items myself, but I forgot about them the day after discarding them.
The best part?
You’re staying only with the pieces you like.
4. Before and after photos
Everyone loves a good before and after, and taking them throughout your decluttering journey is a great way to keep your motivation up and remind you just how far you’ve come.
It’s incredibly easy to lose your drive and a lot of the time, you might start this job a few times and end up having to come back to it after a bit of a hiatus, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It took me about three rounds of decluttering to reach a stress-free home.
Taking before and after photos will allow you to look back and help you when you’re feeling uninterested and losing sight of what you’re working towards.
It will also encourage you to keep going – if one room looks perfect, why wouldn’t you want the rest of your home to look the same?
5. Set yourself boundaries
This one is important.
If you know that you’re prone to keeping things that you don’t need and that most of your clutter is things that you’d be tempted to keep, rules need to be put in place.
It’s hard to set yourself boundaries which is why you shouldn’t rush yourself through the process but making sure that you know what you can keep and you can’t, will help you make progress.
If you don’t do this, you’ll probably end up rearranging your things rather than clearing them out, making yourself more work in the long run.
Try to only let yourself keep a certain amount of things that are really important to you.
It’s often easier to dedicate a space for them, like under a bed or in a set of drawers to keep your most valuable items.
If you go this route, under-bed storage containers keep your treasures tucked away, dust-free, and easy to find.
This way, it’s easier for you to declutter your things and you’ll see great results, allowing you to feel much prouder of the work you’ve done.
With these top tips, you’ll find your decluttering journey much smoother than before and make much more progress!
