Do you need to declutter your home? I’m sharing 3 simple tips that I recently learned that will make the decluttering process go much smoother for you!
Last week, I finished a 14-day declutter session and am happy to report that my house has been freed up of over 800 hundred items. 800 items you guys! (And that does not even include a couple bags of trash that we threw away!)
I’m amazed that I had that much stuff just sitting around collecting dust. All of those goodies have since been dropped off at the Goodwill and hopefully someone will find a new treasure from my trash.
As I share my simple tips to declutter your home, I’m going to be brave and also share some pictures of the stuff that I decluttered in hopes that it will encourage you with your decluttering!
1. Get Your Family On Board
Let them know that you’re decluttering beforehand.
My husband does not like to declutter…it’s like pulling teeth to him. He likes to hold on to things a bit longer than I do, and that’s ok.
A few days before I started I let him know that I was planning on decluttering. I knew there would be times when I needed his help going through items, and letting him know beforehand really made a big difference so that he wasn’t caught off guard.
You may have family members that hate decluttering too. Make sure to give them a heads up that you’re going to declutter your home and that you’ll likely need their help in certain areas. This will help them mentally prepare themselves for what lies ahead!
Let them keep some things.
There may be items that your family members want to keep that you feel are junk/trash (my hand is raised). Try to be sensitive to their desires and let them keep the things that mean a lot and are important to them! I promise that getting into a big fight/discussion is not worth it!
Use the right words.
Over the years I’ve learned that when I mention cleaning out or decluttering to my husband he automatically thinks I want to go through all his things and throw everything away. I have to remind him that this is not the case and that I just want a clean and organized area.
Maybe you need to use the same words with your family member. If there’s not enough room in their current “home,” ask if they can find new homes, be given to friends/family members or donated so that others can use them.
Every family is different so you’ll have to figure out the best way to get your family on board with decluttering your home.
2. Have A Plan
Set yourself up for success and have a plan instead of going willy-nilly through your house. I promise that without a plan you’ll find yourself on one rabbit trail after another which will leave you frustrated and ready to quit before you’ve even begun.
There are a ton of resources online that you can use to give yourself a plan. If you don’t believe me, just do a quick search on Pinterest! Here are a few resources for you.
- This 31 days of decluttering is a free printable provided by Simply Stacie.
- Clean & Scentsible has a 6 week decluttering challenge with a customizable plan to fit your family’s needs.
- Although I haven’t read it myself, I’ve heard fabulous things about The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Hands down, my favorite resource is the 14-day challenge, Kickstart to Clutter Free! Each day has a 3 minute video to watch where Kathi shares an area of the house to declutter and gives tips of items that you may not normally think of getting rid of (there’s also printables and other resources). The eCourse was perfect for this busy momma!
3. Just Do It
If you’re like me, decluttering doesn’t sound like something fun but it’s definitely something that needs to be done. You may dread getting started but I want to encourage you to just do it…just start!
It may take you the entire year to declutter your home. That’s ok!!!
If it takes you multiple days to do one area of your home don’t get frustrated or feel bad about. You’re doing something about your clutter and taking steps to make it better!
Starting is the hardest part of any project like this. But I can promise you that you’ll be super excited about it once it’s done!
I just can’t tell you how freeing it feels to walk by the areas of the house that I decluttered (my husband has a few areas of just his stuff that I didn’t touch) and know that they’re clean and organized. It may sound weird but you’ll understand what I mean once you declutter your home.
That stuff you don’t want, you don’t need and aren’t using – it’s time to get rid of them. It’s time to declutter your home my friend!
Great tips Tshanina!
I did a huge decluttering a few years ago in our home. I took a full year to go through everything. Boy was that a big job. Now we maintain our home clutter with a few systems. I regularly declutter areas that seem to be getting cluttered up. I also established a system to keep paper clutter out of our home. Which was a clutter that plagued us before. I couldn’t believe how much paper clutter we had.
Decluttering is hard worth but it’s definitely worth it. I love having systems in place to keep the clutter at bay…especially paper!
Thanks, Shelly!
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