How to Declutter Your Home – A Starter’s Guide

Having an always decluttered house is a habit you should be having now. That is among the very first and most important aspects of cleaning any home. The thought of dealing with all the clutter can seem overwhelming.

It never helps to think merely about it and fail to act. Eventually, you’ll always have too much to do. Almost everyone, if not all, tends to procrastinate when it comes to de-cluttering.

Why Should You Declutter Your House?

Before we dive on how to declutter your house, let’s see why decluttering your house is important. Event organizers say that, decluttering a space is doing justice it. When you declutter your house you’ll enjoy these benefits.

• It is easier to clean your house. You’ll agree with me that it will take you twice longer to clean cluttered space. First, you’re not able to navigate the house properly. Secondly, you won’t be leaving spaces unattended. Also, you won’t have a dozen objects to dust off.
• Decluttering adds to your house elegance. When a house is well organized, it looks nicer than when things are all over. So, when you want to make your living space look better, decluttering should be on your list.
• Decluttering your house offers you a perfect opportunity to find lost items. This may sound funny, but the only way to find the lost stuff is decluttering your house. The best part is that you’ll see even what you had misplaced, but you could realize. At the same time, you’ll come across your other assets. Hence, you will easily remember what you have and where they are.

• It becomes easy to identify where you have placed your items. Have you ever spent an hour looking for your home keys? While you can remember that you were holding them twenty minutes ago? The after searching for half an hour, you find them tucked in between some files on the table?  So, declutter your house to make it look good and make it easy to trace items.
• Your room becomes spacious. Decluttering works magic in making your space look bigger. Your house may look full when things aren’t in order, but when you declutter it, you’ll immediately feel the change. This way, you will get a place to read from or to practice yoga or meditation.
• It is a gateway to improved health. Many people don’t know this, but decluttering your house will influence your health. First, there won’t be much dust compared to when you have stuff packed in every corner of your house. That’s not all; when your house is well organized there will be improvement in air circulation, which ultimately impact on your health.
• Research also shows that since a decluttered house is easier to clean, the house becomes cleaner. Still on the issue of health, a well-organized house helps you relax and feel good when in the house. This means if you’re stressed the stress level goes down as there is a feeling of happiness and less distraction. So if you want to enhance your health and relaxation, start by decluttering your house.
•  Let’s face it; we were not born organized. That is why recent research shows that most of us are a bit disorganized. This is especially when we live alone. “I live alone; I’m not living to impress anyone. This is a statement we usually say when we’re comforting ourselves that decluttering your house doesn’t affect you. But the truth is whether you live alone, or you’re many, forming the habit of decluttering your house nurtures a very critical skill, which we can’t learn any other way. In fact, after some time, you will become organized in all aspects, from home to the workplace. You will start becoming allergic to disorganized place, and if you have kids, you will be teaching them a great skill.
• Finally, decluttering your house offers you a chance to take a stock of your assets. In fact, make it a habit that after decluttering your house, you will sell what you don’t need or donate to charity.
• As a rule of the thumb, don’t just declutter your house when there its serious. Sometimes do it even when the house is in good order. Have you ever noticed that even changing the curtains or relocating the coffee table makes the room change and creates a different feeling? So, declutter your house to give your house more life and introduce a new feel and touch. Sometimes, take it as an activity, do it as a form of exercise.

Guide to Decluttering Your Home

We’re compiling this handy guide to assist you in dealing with the procrastination, and de-clutter your house as timely as possible. In the end, you’ll feel great knowing that you’ve been able to deal with the distraction (the irritation).

It’s a short guide on how to get started. It isn’t as comprehensive. However, if you do everything right, the process will turn out to be fun, liberating, and empowering

Start Small

We put off mainly because clutter can be overwhelming. Try focusing on one small space at the very first. Case in point, that space could be the kitchen counter, a shelf, or a dining table. Ensure that you remain with only what you need. Afterward, put it back neatly.

Try Working in Chunks

You’re done with the first step. But, there’s still a whole house to deal with. One eats an elephant by taking a bite at a time. As you did with the one small area, keep doing that. Try doing some more if you’re feeling enthusiastic. If you’ve got a free day or a free afternoon, commit yourself to doing a huge chunk. You can spend the whole weekend i.e. if you feel like it. However, there’s no need to rush. Just ensure the progress is ongoing.

Follow a Simple Method

Simply put, keep your home in order. For every small chunk you do, make sure to clean out that area and place everything in one pile. Ask yourself, ‘Do I need this? Do I love this?’ Get rid of it in case the answer is no. If it’s a yes, find a place for it and call it its ‘home.’ Go to the next one and make the decision. Work quickly and make decisions to sort out huge piles in minutes.

Take Note of Your Resistance

There will be lots of things you won’t feel like tackling. It’s important that you watch this resistance. That is your mind trying to run from discomfort or rationalize things. See that it’s happening. Practicing tackling the clutter that you dread tackling will turn out to be quite an amazing process.

Things That Will Hinder Your Decluttering Efforts

There are five missteps that we’d want to include. Such will derail even your best efforts to conquer clutter. Read on to learn more about them:

Only Buy after Organizing

It’d be a bad idea to purchase tons of supplies before sorting through your home. Yes, those lovely boxes, bins, and baskets at your local stores can be enticing. However, they won’t be any good unless they’ll fit well in your space and hold what you’d require them to hold. Clean out first. Assess what you need.

Bite Off Only What You Can Chew

Don’t set aside a whole day to de-clutter your home. An infinitely few number of individuals have the energy and focus on spending eight hours continuously organizing. You’re more likely to get frustrated and less efficient as time progresses. It’d be wiser to spend 2-3 hours on a single project or space. You won’t get burned out by the entire process.

Complete Each Task Completely

Once you’ve decided where you’ll keep a particular thing, take it there. Simply put, finish the process. Take all the boxes out to the trash immediately. If you wish to donate anything, make immediate arrangements to have them dropped off. Also, you’ll find the whole exercise worth, as you will see some items you have lost. You’ve already done lots of work to sort out this stuff. Complete the deal!

You Won’t Be the First to Build Rome in a Day

Organizing your space doesn’t imply that you’re done. Keep in mind that, while you’ve created an efficient and logical system for managing your clean house, you’re not yet done. Additionally, expect regular upkeep and just be glad that your new system is more efficient than old ones.

Last, But Not Least

Enjoy the process. Don’t see de-cluttering your home as another chore on your to-do list. Otherwise, it’ll become something you’ll be putting off. Instead, consider it as a liberating practice. Hence, smile as you do it. In addition, make it a time to reflect. It’ll turn out to be quite an excellent practice. In fact, after some time, you’ll begin recommending it to others.

Perfection shouldn’t be Your Goal. Good enough is simply enough. Very few homes have drawers and closets that resemble those you’d find in catalogs. Even after de-cluttering your home, the chances are that it won’t look like the commercial ads you regularly see.