Spring’s coming around the corner, so seize this chance to declutter your home! Doing so will be beneficial to your mind as well as to your physical environment. Here are a few key tips to consider.
Keep the end in mind… before you even start
Sit down and visualise a clean and clutter-free home. This doesn’t mean an all-white minimalist’s paradise if that’s not your own style. Just think of your current place as space where you get to do what you want without the burden of unnecessary stuff.
By doing this before you actually start decluttering, you’re giving yourself a goal to aim for, instead of just randomly removing things. When you start feeling demotivated, think of this ideal home again. Then, push yourself to do just one more thing to make this vision come true.
Find a method that works for you
There are a lot of different organisational methods out there, so choose what works best with your available time and lifestyle. Here are a few ways in which you can declutter:
– Every time you bring one item into your home, take one item out.
– Put your stuff into four boxes: keep, donate, give away, and discard.
– Sort your items by room. Work your way from the furthest corner to the door and organise your stuff as you go.
– Follow the KonMari method: sort your things by category, place each one in front of you, and keep only the ones that spark joy.
– Do it all at once. Take a couple of days or more to organise your stuff in one go.
– Set a timer each day and organise your things until it rings.
Don’t let the things that you’ve discarded stay around
It isn’t pretty to have bags/boxes everywhere, full of stuff to donate or throw away. This may give you mental clutter because they’ll prey on your mind as something that you should do but haven’t done.
Take action and remove them from your home as soon as you can. You can do a quick trip to the tip or charity shop, hire a skip bin, and/or stuff your garbage bins full just before every collection day.
Find practical solutions to your storage needs
Don’t rush off to buy fancy organisers, shelves, containers, and gadgets. What you buy may not fit your lifestyle. Use what you have at hand to create a system that works for you and your home. Once you’re satisfied with this system, you can go ahead and make your space look more sophisticated with store-bought storage boxes.
Also, consider getting offsite self-storage at facilities — such as Fort Knox in Australia — for the essential things that you don’t need to access all the time. By putting these away elsewhere, you free up more space in your home — especially when you live in a place that doesn’t have a lot of built-in storage.
A decluttered home is as refreshing to the mind as the start of a new season. So, spring into action and take charge of your space.
