Dear daughter, now that you know the importance of decluttering, I want to give you a practical way of decluttering your home.
As you know, decluttering has physical, mental, and emotional benefits. To refresh on those benefits, you can read again this post.
In this post you will find a step-by-step guide on how to declutter your home.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: Set a goal
- Step 2: Choose a method
- Step 3: Start decluttering
- Step 4: Donate, sell, or throw away unnecessary items
- Step 5: Recycle
- Step 6: Take breaks
- Step 7: Celebrate
- Conclusion
- Additional Resources
Step 1: Set a goal
By now you should know how important is to set goals. As I recommended to you several times, most of your achievements will start by setting up a goal. You can check this book summary about setting goals to achieve things faster.
So, setup your goal or goals. Here are some questions that can help you with this step:
- Do you want to reduce clutter?
- Do you want to make more space?
- Do you want to get rid of things that are not necessary for you?
- Do you want to feel better, more relaxed at home? So, you can focus on what really matter to you?
Remember to be specific about what you want, and that goals are time bounded. Give yourself a specific date to accomplish your goals.
Step 2: Choose a method
As with most of tasks, there are different ways to declutter.
Here are two approaches you can follow (but they are not the only ones):
- Focus on a certain type of item. For instance, start with clothing, then move to shoes, then to jewelry, and so on.
- Focus on areas. For instance, start decluttering one room, then go to the next one, then to the kitchen, etc.
Whatever method you choose, I recommend you start small. So, you can have small victories as soon as possible. Having a huge task in front of you can be daunting and can discourage you to follow through.
Here is an example. A place that is usually cluttered in any home is the garage. You cannot imagine how many things are there. If you start there, it can take you several days to finish. A similar place for houses that don’t have garage is a storeroom. Everything you don’t now goes there. With time, guess what happens.
Step 3: Start decluttering
Now that you decided the method you are going to use, it is time to start!
Remember, it is of utmost importance to act! Don’t wait until tomorrow, don’t procrastinate, take action.
When looking at an item, you can ask yourself if you need it. If you don’t need it, or if you use it once in a blue moon, you should get rid of it.
Try not to get too emotional, otherwise you won’t get rid of anything.
The first time you try this, it is also fine if you start decluttering, take out a few things, leave, and come back a few days later.
If you do that, it will help you realize that some of the things you don’t want to get rid of, are not necessary, as you don’t miss the things you already got rid of.
Take your time, no one is pushing you. All that matter is that you be consistent over time. If you do it regularly, eventually you are going to have your home decluttered.
Step 4: Donate, sell, or throw away unnecessary items
There are different destinations for all those items that are not necessary to you anymore.
You can get rid of them on different ways:
- Donate to people that might need what you don’t need anymore.
- Do a garage sell or sell them online. This can help you with an extra income that you can invest in the stock market, or in any other place. It will be better to look at a “cluttered” bank account than looking at a cluttered room.
- Throw them in the dustbin.
You will feel great relieve when those unnecessary and unwanted items are not anymore on your sight.
Step 5: Recycle
Some things that you might not be able to sell or donate can be recycled. Some examples are:
- those plastic buckets that you don’t use.
- plastic bags.
- Card boxes.
- Etc.
By the way, make a habit to recycle things. We owe to ourselves and to the environment to be conscious about preserving the natural resources.
Step 6: Take breaks
You don’t need to finish decluttering the whole house in one day. I mean, not even a whole area in one day.
Take your time.
Start decluttering and take breaks. While taking a break, look at the area you already decluttered and picture your whole house being neat, visualize the benefits it will bring you. This will help you to relax while resting and will motivate to keep going until you achieve your goal.
Step 7: Celebrate
Here is one of the most important steps.
Celebrate your progress!!
Don’t wait until you finish the whole house.
Look at the place you already declutter, think on how it used to look, and enjoy the way is looking now.
As in the previous step, look at the area you already declutter, visualize the rest of the house decluttered, and visualize all the benefits that this will bring to you.
After this, look at the places that are decluttered, and celebrate your progress towards you goal.
Conclusion
Decluttering can be a daunting process, but if you follow the step-by-step guide I gave you, you will declutter your home “in no time”.
Keep in mind that goals are important, keep things simple, be consistent (by applying a certain method over and over again), take breaks, and celebrate.
See below some additional resources that can help you.