Declutter for a Peaceful Home: A clutter-free space helps reduce stress and maximizes your living areas, creating a calmer environment.
Start with Small Areas: Break the decluttering process into manageable tasks by focusing on one drawer or shelf at a time, which will help you stay motivated.
Donate, Repurpose, or Discard: Clear out unused items by donating, repurposing, or discarding them. It will create additional space and improve the organization of your home.
Every home will have some amount of clutter, and the longer you live in the same place, the more things will build up.
What often happens is that you get blind to the clutter, and even things that just gather dust on a coffee table don’t even register as clutter anymore.
Before you know it, there’s nowhere left to keep stuff out of the way, and it looks like a huge task to tidy up again.
That’s why we’ve come up with the tips on this page so that you can take an extremely targeted approach to all your material possessions and create a far more enjoyable environment.
Most people simply think of it as a way to keep their home tidy and make it easier to find things. But there’s a lot more to taking a targeted approach and getting rid of the stuff you simply never use.
One of the biggest benefits of keeping your home decluttered is that it creates a much calmer environment, and that will have significant impacts on your stress levels and overall mental health.
If you’ve ever experienced an extremely calming space at a spa or vacation resort, it’s likely that these places had minimum clutter.
Secondly, you have a lot more living and usable space in a decluttered home. Just think of all those areas you don’t take advantage of because you have things you never use building up.
Even shelving space full of stuff gathering dust means you can’t store items you would actually use.
Let’s look at more decluttering tips that you can start implementing right away.
Here are 11 decluttering tips that will transform your home in a matter of a few days or weeks. Take it slowly and see how each step brings about improvements that you’ll instantly enjoy.
Before you start feeling overwhelmed about what’s ahead, simply make a list of the areas of your home that you personally feel are the most cluttered.
Maybe it’s the bathroom sink and cabinet or the kitchen cabinets. What about that entertainment center full of DVDs nobody watches anymore?
The idea is to simply come up with a list so that you know what’s ahead, and then you can work on a decluttering schedule.
Break down each area into multiple tasks and schedule one task per day. That way, it won’t feel overwhelming.
Another way to avoid being overwhelmed is to start decluttering small areas of a room first. If you look at your entire closet, it can seem too daunting to get started, and you end up pushing it out indefinitely.
Instead, pick one drawer and empty it. Sort through what’s in it and put those things aside that you didn’t even know you still had.
You can do the same in your kitchen and other rooms. Pick one cabinet or even a single shelf in a cabinet first.
The best thing about this approach is that once you get one small area done, you gain a sense of success, which helps to motivate you to keep going.
We all have those things that are simply collecting dust. Or even clutter that you keep moving from one place to another because it gets in the way.
Start by having a look around your entire home and see if you can find things that you haven’t used in more than a year.
Open drawers and cabinets to find these things as well.
You’ll be surprised how many you’ll find, like DVDs you no longer have a player for or charger cables for phones from 15 years ago.
Put these things aside and make sure that you keep only what you actually use. Maybe some of them can go to a charity, or you could consider a garage sale if there’s still some value in them.
This is another important tip, as completing the decluttering process in a room and seeing it tidy and way more livable are huge motivating factors.
Maybe pick a small laundry room first that you can complete in an hour or two.
This approach also makes more space available for things you actually need and use without causing more unwanted items to simply build up again.
Most people feel a little apprehensive about getting rid of stuff altogether. But taking a step toward the decision to remove stuff is critical.
Grab a trash bag and start going around your home and filling it with clutter. Even start with old junk mail that’s stuck at the back of a drawer.
Old magazines are another common thing that really should be in the trash.
You don’t need to hire a professional organizer to help you declutter your home. Simply ask some friends and family to help you through the process and be very objective about the junk.
You can even let them do the initial sorting for you based on their opinion and allow them to explain why you should get rid of more stuff.
Be open to their opinions and remember what your goal is. It’s not to convince yourself and others to keep holding onto stuff but to do the exact opposite.
One of the main reasons you might feel reluctant to get rid of stuff is because you remember how much you paid for it.
Yes, that DVD player may have cost $700 in 2002, but if you can’t even connect it to a modern TV, then there’s no point holding onto it.
The same applies to any kind of furniture, clothing, and even accent pieces on shelves or walls.
If there is still some possible value in the items, then consider donating them, selling them on eBay, or having a yard sale.
While your cabinets might be full of clutter and barely usable, the visible surface areas have the biggest impact when you clear them up.
Take a close look at coffee tables, shelves, nightstands, kitchen counters, and any other surface areas you can find.
Maybe there are things that you regularly use, but when you have too many of them in open sight, then it becomes an eyesore.
For example, if you have multiple remote controls scattered over your living room side table, try to find a drawer for them. Or better yet, buy a universal remote so that you only need one.
You have to be careful with this because it can cause you to add more storage space, which may encourage you to avoid decluttering.
What you don’t want to do is simply buy more stackable drawers that take up additional space.
You need to consider whether your existing storage furniture is fit for purpose. If you can introduce new or replace old furniture with options that will help you keep your stuff organized, then that’s a great step to improving your clutter problem.
You should have one simple rule for everything in your home: if it’s broken, get rid of it.
Unfortunately, we live in a time where things are made to be used and then thrown out. You’ll probably find an array of things that you know are broken but just haven’t got around to fixing.
If you haven’t fixed them in months or years, then you won’t need them even if you did manage to fix them.
Put them on the pile marked as junk, and don’t look back.
One area where you should avoid putting stuff in the trash is your closet. Unless you’ve got clothes with holes or stains on them, most items you no longer wear can go to a charity.
It’s also one area where you might end up spending the most effort on your decluttering timeline.
Pull everything out of wardrobes, shelves, and drawers and lay them out on your bed.
Find the things you never wear and put them straight in a bag. Then look for things you rarely wear and have other options to replace them. You’ll not only be surprised about how much you don’t wear but also how much easier it becomes to find outfits now that there’s less clutter.
All of these decluttering tips will help you improve your home and living space, resulting in a calmer and more enjoyable environment.
If you still find that you’re struggling to keep things tidy, then talk to one of our interior designers at a Woodley’s store near you.
We specialize in custom-built furniture suitable for all styles and sizes of homes, and our team can help you put the finishing touches on your decluttering process.
Visit one of our stores today and see how much you could improve your home storage furniture.
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