8 Expert Tips for Decluttering Your House
With the rising trend of minimalism and experts exposing the dangers of hoarding, you might have considered decluttering your home as well. Unfortunately, there are many dangerous aspects of excessive consumerism. What buying and hoarding habits may start to make your living more comfortable will eventually end up causing more stress. For this reason, people are jumping on this trend train and working towards decluttering their homes to make their living space cleaner.
Decluttering the house can also make your humble abode more spacious. Apart from that, downsizing and decluttering your home will save you money and rid you of unnecessary possessions. Hence, it is a gratifying practice with many benefits, but only if you do it right.
For this purpose, we will share some professional tips for decluttering your home.
- Visualize your goal
Before you start your downsizing and decluttering journey, it is essential to visualize your goal and results. This step is undoubtedly crucial because if you don’t know what you want, you can’t achieve it. Therefore, before you start hauling stuff in the bin, take a moment to imagine your dream space. Once you have, you can answer questions like: How is it different from the current condition? What is functional about my dream space? Will it uplift the overall appearance?
Once you answer all of these questions, you can start focusing on things you need to store, throw away, and donate.
- Consider the things you need to store
Apart from the everyday essentials, we all have things that we can’t throw away. It may be because you spent a lot of money on them, or they are hereditary belongings that hold sentimental value. Either way, they are still hogging space in your home. When it comes down to such possessions, you can opt for a third way by renting a storage unit. For example, suppose you live in Texas near Amarillo. In that case, you can rent a storage unit with temperature control and affordable rents. The storage units Amarillo provide monthly and yearly rental options with a secure facility. So, if you plan to keep your belongings secure until further use, renting a storage unit will prove worthwhile.
- Avoid buying more till you declutter
The main reason why your home is a cluttered mess is that you possess more objects than you need. Shopping for more stuff during this time can bring you back to the starting line. Therefore, only opt for essentials and organization accessories till you have your home decluttered. Once you have space for things you want after throwing away, donating, and storing your belongings, you can shop and organize regularly.
- Prepare yourself mentally
People create a sense of identity and associate sentimental value with the objects in their homes. But the fact is that they are non-living, tangible things. While your sentimental association matters, hoarding them will only have adverse effects on your mental health. Hence, you will have to prepare yourself mentally to part with the things you have accumulated over time and let them go. But remember that you don’t have to throw away or donate everything at once. Taking one step at a time towards attaining your goal is good enough.
- Create a schedule
Decluttering will take more than a few days to complete. After all, you have spent years shopping and hoarding to make your home look the way it does. Therefore, it is an unrealistic wish to believe that you can declutter your entire home in a matter of hours. You will have to spend many days making strategies, creating spaces for proper storage, and sorting through your stuff. In such cases, it is best to make a schedule that will fit your work timings and allow you to spend a few minutes decluttering each day. Fixing a half-hour session after you come home from work in your schedule will allow you to declutter while managing your daily affairs.
- Begin with places that stress you out
Part of the reason you embarked on the fruitful journey of decluttering is that some spaces in your home were affecting your mental health. A cluttered and messy space can stress a person out and make them feel claustrophobic. Hence, when you start the decluttering process, begin with areas that stress you out the most. For most people, it is usually their kitchen or office space. Once you fix that space, it will motivate you to finish the whole house and bring you mental satisfaction and peace.
- Declutter from top to bottom and inside out
You might have heard the phrase “working from top to bottom.” Well, this strategy also applies to the process of decluttering. When you declutter, you must eliminate all the trash, dander, dust, webs, etc. You will also have to reorganize your belonging in each space all over again. In such cases, it is best to start by decluttering your bedroom and kitchen, the most used rooms in your home. After completing that task, you can move towards the living area, garage, garden, and basement. Additionally, while decluttering the rooms, move from the center towards the outer boundaries. This technique will help make more space for decluttering and allows you to track your progress.
- Designate a spot for every item
There’s a good chance that you probably don’t have a hoarding area, and the reason your home looks like a mess is that everything is scattered here and there. Having no specific space for every item can make it easier to misplace stuff. Therefore, an excellent way to start would be to group items together and designate a particular spot for them that is easy to access. For example, medicines need to go in the medicine cabinet in your bathroom or a specific drawer in your living room. You can group medications with a first aid box and designate an easy-to-access spot for these items. Just following this strategy will have your home looking clean and organized in no time.
Conclusion
Having a clean and organized space is necessary for peace of mind and living a meaningful and manageable life. A cluttered home is a bane to that peace. So, if you find yourself in a position where your home starts feeling messy, it is time to declutter. But remember that organizing everything is not the answer to your hoarding problems. You need to throw away useless items, donate whatever isn’t necessary, and store what you need.
