5 Simple Tips to DeClutter Your Home
Have you ever looked around your home and thought to yourself “where did all this stuff come from”? I’m pretty sure we have all been in that situation at one time or another. You can’t find anything in the kitchen or things start falling when you open the closet! When this happens it time to do some serious decluttering! For some reason decluttering a home is hard for people. My personal belief is that people don’t want to get rid of things. However, decluttering and getting rid of things isn’t scary, in fact it can make your life less stressful.
5 Simple Tips to DeClutter Your Home
Start Small
You might not want to start off by decluttering your entire kitchen or garage. Starting off with too much could end up feeling overwhelming. Start off with a coat closet or a bathroom. Make 3 piles one for things to throw away, another for stuff to donate and third pile will be things you are keeping and putting back in their correct spot.
Get Second Opinion
If getting rid of stuff is hard for you, consider getting a second opinion. Ask your spouse or friend to look over your keep pile. They will be able to objectively ask you if you really need certain items. Having someone available to give you a second opinion will make you rethink your decision to keep certain items.
Do a Daily Challenge
Every day give yourself a specific amount of time to declutter your home. Even setting a timer for 5-minutes is perfectly fine. During the designated amount of time try to locate as many items as possible that you can throw away or donate. You might be surprised at how much you can do in a short period of time.
Kids Projects
If you have kids in your home then you probably have art projects, report cards, yearbooks and anything else they have brought home from school. These items end up on the kitchen counter, in the closet, under the couch and anywhere else you can think of. You don’t need to throw these items away but you do need to find a system to organize these items. Consider creating a plastic bin that has the child’s name and school year. So it might say, John 2nd Grade. Have this bin available to put all documents you want to save in this bin. Once the school year is over place it in the garage, shed or anywhere else that is out-of-the-way. You will feel good knowing you have it stored away in an organized fashion.
Get more ideas on organizing kids rooms and lose the toy clutter!
Get Organized
The more organized you become the less “stuff” you are going to want to have around. Spend a day going through each room in your house and getting things nice and organized. Once you realize how long it takes to get everything organized you will quickly begin to realize you don’t need much. This is a great way to get your home decluttered!
Great tips. I really need to implement these. My house is overflowing with stuff. The worst is my kids’ toys. I have to go through them soon.
I’m glad you found the tips useful. If you need help with tips for the kids toys, check out this post on losing the toy clutter: https://www.momsconfession.com/organizing-kids-rooms-lose-the-toy-clutter/
I’ve GOT to get back into this! I was slowly going through my house, destashing every nook and cranny, but when the holidays hit, I took a break and haven’t gotten back in the swing of things. Thanks for the reminder!
You’re welcome Lauren…so happy to offer a little reminder! :) Happy decluttering!
One of my goals for this year was to declutter! Any and all tips help, thanks for these!!
You’re welcome Krista! Let me know if you need any other tips…I’m here to help!
These are some great tips to get organized! Organization can be a difficult task, but it is so rewarding. Knowing where everything is when you need it will be an amazing feeling.
#SITSBlogging
I love the 5-minute a day suggestion. So often I avoid de-cluttering because I don’t want to spend forever doing it!
Amen to that Kristen! Definitely set a timer for 5 minutes and you will be surprised how much you can get done! That tip has done wonders in my house. Let me know if you need anything to stay motivated.
I really like these simple tips! Especially “Get a Second Opinion.” Sometimes we can get so overwhelmed by the mess, we forget that we can approach it with simple steps and it will start to disappear! Pinning!
These are wonderful tips! I am working on decluttering our home right now. It’s a lot of work, but it’s so much easier to keep clean and organized without a bunch stuff we don’t need. Thanks for sharing!
Love your idea of getting a second opinion! That makes it much easier to make a decision and declutter.
Exactly Ellen! Getting a second opinion has helped me easily declutter more from my house than making all the decisions myself. As people, we generally like to memorialize objects as a way of remembering something such as a time or someone special in our lives. This makes getting rid of those items hard, but with a second opinion it helps. I’ve been able to figure out other ways to keep the memory alive while getting rid of the tangible item having someone else give me a second opinion. Thanks for stopping by!
I have 4 kids but none of them close in age to share clothes. When it is time for school or they tell me they need clothes because they grew. I make them go through their stuff and donate anything the can’t fit or don’t wear. This keeps down the clutter. Before I shop for them we will inventory what the have and what they need and only buy what they need. This helps control the spending. I also will let them know any coupons and I have and have them look online. This helps keep my sanity while I shop with them.
Some things are hard to let go of. I’ve got tons of my grandmas and my mommas old recipes…. Newspaper clippings, old papers, and books. I never use them. I’ve kept them for years just because they were theirs. One part of me says throw them away and then the other says no. The recipes that are of their handwriting will never leave me. So, I guess I’m looking for outsiders opinions…. What would you do with them?
I have the same problem with my mom and grandparents stuff. We are working on scanning them into the computer. Just make sure you back up your files on a separate site or a flash drive!
Take high resolution pictures of the recipes and make a digital album which will stay with you forever.
perhaps u can chose one particularly special recipe and frame it
I scan them and have a directory on my computer for recipes. Keep a backup of your files. Then you can dispose of all the paper.
I have 3 teenage boys. Which means I have lots of report cards and different achievement certificates, but how can I go about organizing those items for the boys? Needless to say I have them in boxes anywhere, from my bedroom, garage, their room, kitchen. Where or how shall I start?
Hi Patty! First of all, thank you for stopping by! This is a great question. I would get three separate boxes and label each one with your childs name. The box doesn’t have to be a full size tub by any means. You can pick up an underbed storage container or even a sweater box to store your child’s items in. Keep these boxes in a central location (your bedroom in a corner, under the coffee table in the living room, on a shelf, etc.). The main thing is to keep them in a central location so you know where to put the items you find as you find them.
After you have the boxes, I would start in one room and go through every single box, nook, cranny, you name it until you know for sure you have found all the items. Take it one box at a time, there is no need to overwhelm yourself! After you go through each box and locate papers for your son, put those papers in their box. It may take you a week or longer to go through one room and that is totally fine. It’s not about how fast you find the papers, it’s about how efficient you find them and get them organized to pass on to your sons. Best of luck and feel free to reach out anytime with questions!
LOVE these! – esp. the “start small” one – SO true…thanks for the well-written and inspiring post!