Decluttering Tips

I have found that the more space a person has available to them, the more stuff said person will accumulate until said space is completely overflowing with crap. Is this your experience as well?

About ten years ago, my husband and I made the insane decision to build an addition onto our home. Why? I guess we must have thought this was a good idea at the time. We did add some very usable space to our home, such as a 3-plus-car-garage. Lucky for us, we now have ample storage space for tons of trash, a year's worth of recycling including myriad cardboard boxes from Amazon, the wheels from every lawnmower we have ever owned (removed when each lawnmower died because those wheels could be useful), one of our cars, and a few other odds and ends.

After we put the addition on, we stopped using most of the rooms in our original house. Why even visit those dreary sections with all these brand new rooms to use? There are closets I haven't peeked into in ten years. And yes, those old closets are still stuffed with the accumulated junk of our early years in this home. I didn't need to use those closets anymore since I had MANY brand new closets to fill with fresh crap.

Are you tired of your piles of junk? Do you ever plan to sell your house? If the answer is YES, you might want to start decluttering sooner rather than later. Although the process doesn't come naturally to me, I have found that with persistence (and threats from my husband) there is an eventual sense of joy and freedom in getting rid of stuff I no longer need.

In case you have no idea where to even start, I will walk you through some simple steps to declutter your home in as pain-free a manner as possible.

STEP ONE: Assess what you actually own. Take a walk through your home and peek into every dark closet and dingy corner. Yes, you must even enter the basement and the garage. If you have a shed, you better look in there, too. I know this is overwhelming. If you can't handle so much at once, just look into one room per day. Remember to take a lot of deep breaths.

STEP TWO: Throw out all the trash. This step seems simple, but it is sometimes tricky to determine what is trash. Is it broken? No longer usable? Would someone else want it? Can it be recycled? This brings us to...

STEP THREE: Gather everything that can be recycled. This includes all those cardboard boxes from Amazon, glass containers, magazines, old newspapers, etc. Once you remove all the recycling, you can move onto...

STEP FOUR: Decide what to donate. Some thrift stores accept only clothing while others take furniture, books, pots and pans, toys, and sports equipment. Anything that is in decent condition can be donated instead of trashed.

STEP FIVE: Pass along those family heirlooms. I am foisting off a bunch of antiques onto my oldest daughter. Sometimes we hold onto things just because they once belonged to our parents, grandparents, or someone who meant a lot to us. But there comes a time when those items are just collecting dust and no longer inspiring joy. If you love something, by all means, keep it! But it's also fine to let it go and move on. If no one wants it, review STEP FOUR.

After completing the above steps, everything left should be the stuff you really want. The clothing that you love. The books you will read over and over again. The kitchenware you use every day. The things that make you happy.

If you struggle with letting go of stuff, join the club. I've found that I need to declutter in stages, moving through the same rooms again and again, culling more with each pass. Sometimes I'm in the right mood, and sometimes I just can't do it. If this sounds like you, be kind to yourself. Take breaks. Come back again when you feel ready.

Do you have more tips for how to successfully declutter your home? Please share!