We’ve establish Aunt Lucy is the reason why your home is so cluttered, but we now need a solution to the years of mess that has stacked up in your closets.
Here are 6 great, simple ways to declutter your home.
1. Closet Hanger Technique
The idea is to hang all of your clothes hangers in the reverse direction (so that the open side of the hook is facing out.) After you wear an item of clothing, you put the hanger back but the proper way around. After 6-12 months, you should have a very good idea of what clothes you haven’t used. It’s safe to say you can box these babies up or fill up a bag and send it to Goodwill.
2. Make a list.
As always, lists can be extremely helpful. Write out a list of areas in your home that need to be decluttered. This takes the huge task of decluttering your entire house and breaks it up into small, manageable tasks like cleaning up your desk. That’s much easier to swallow, isn’t it?
3. Pull it all out.
A great strategy for decluttering is to simply pull everything out of a drawer or cabinet and go for gold. While this may give you mild anxiety for a little while, when you start rearranging things, and putting things into boxes, you’ll know that you’ve taken care of everything there is without leaving little Tommy’s Lego collection behind.
4. Schedule it in.
One of the most daunting things when it comes to decluttering is the monstrosity of the task it is. When you think about it, you can often imagine being stuck cleaning a room for the rest of the month, but if you break into say, 5 minute blocks every day, you’ll make significant progress without being emotionally scarred from your excessive cleaning experience.
5. Storage. Storage. Storage.
Now, we're not just talking about hiring a storage unit from Ten Oaks, which you should still do anyway. But, go out and find some great home storage solutions. Hiding paperwork under your jeans is not a sustainable storage solution. Go buy a nice small cabinet that you can not only just store things in, but nicely organize them so you know exactly where to find what you need.
6. Communicate.
The key to life. Without communicating to your roommates, children or your significant other, there won’t be any level of understanding for your desire for a simple, uncluttered lifestyle. Once you have communicated your value for simple living, fall in love with the idea of a clean house, and let that drive your decluttering, so it becomes less of a chore. Plus, it’s always nice to have extra pairs of hands when it comes to getting things done around the house!
Decluttering your house can be a simple thing if you let it be. I would have to say the best way to live a lifestyle of simplicity is to let it become your normal. It’s much easier to live in a habit of organization than to realize you’ve lost literally everything you need and then try to take action when you’re in a rush on your way to work.
Schedule some time, organize some great low-cost storage solutions, maybe even look into a small storage unit, and you’ll be amazed at how you feel, when you have peace of mind knowing everything is in its rightful place.
