Are you overwhelmed with your “stuff”? Do you find it harder and harder to find important useful things in your home? Are your closets overflowing?
You may feel overwhelmed and you are not alone. There is a reason that professional organizers are one of the biggest growing careers in North America today.
If you can’t afford a professional organizer here are 10 tips to help you with your decluttering.
- Take a quick look around your home and make a list of the most needed areas to be decluttered. If you have become “clutter blind”, move a pile of things from one room to the same place in another room. This will help you realize that a space is indeed cluttered.
- Pick one area you can declutter quickly and with minimal stress to get you motivated. If a room is too cluttered, don’t get overwhelmed. Grab a bag and start removing things. Even if it feels like you have made no progress always keep in mind that every little bit you do is a little bit closer to being done.
- Purchase a few plastic containers and boxes to get you started and always have bags at the ready to get rid of items.
- Declutter one area that you can use as your “declutter zone” as you work through other parts of your home.
- Make piles – The absolute must keep, the maybe, and the get rid of for sure pile. Go through your maybe pile and be ruthless. Your goal is to unclutter. If it is something you forgot you had then there is a good chance you can live without it. Pack up the things you have decided to get rid of and remove them from your home as soon as possible. Then you can organize the remaining things you wish to keep.
- Use idle time to go through drawers and boxes. While watching tv at night grab a drawer or box from the closet. Dump everything on a sheet on your floor and start cleaning it out.
- As you go through your belongings, take inventory of what you are keeping. You may want to get a storage unit for those items you cannot get rid of but don’t need on a regular basis. Storage units are an economical choice for your seasonal and seldom used items.
- Consider selling some items for extra money. If you don’t need it someone else may want it. Donate what you can and recycle what you can.
- Take your time. You didn’t amass this amount of possessions in one day and you will overwhelm yourself if you think you can organize it in a day.
- After you have decluttered your home don’t wait for the perfect time to do it again. Your home doesn’t need to be chaotic to make a decluttering plan. Set a small amount of time every week to continue to organize your space.
With a small amount of time set aside and a little motivation, you can achieve your goal of maintaining a clutter free home.