Do you feel your stuff is taking over your life or your home? You just want to get rid of it but haven’t got a clue how or where to start? Whether you’re looking to simply declutter your garage, or you’re looking to declutter your entire life.
Back in the day i used to be quite the hoarder – when it came to bulk buying items at least. Our garage would be full to bursting with boxes and boxes of toilet roll, cleaning products, bags of crisps, moisturiser…etc. However, i actually found we were wasting some of it due to use by dates, or simply changing food preferences. Plus, buying in bulk generally means you’ll be living in-amongst your ‘stuff’ due to a probable lack of storage space – unless you have a huge garage or loft space!
Fast forward a year or so and we now live in a VERY spacious, and clutter free home due to not holding on to unwanted or un-used items. Our loft is completely empty (apart from a few spiders) and the complete declutter of the garage has enabled us to use it as a utility room instead.
So, if you’re wanting to do a bit of a declutter of your home, here are 4 simple steps on how to declutter your home and your life.
Quick Declutter Overview
- Does it bring you joy?
- Holding on to unwanted items
- How to get started
- Declutter room by room, or section by section – life, job, garage…etc
Does It Bring You Joy?
If an item doesn’t bring you joy, have sentimental value or if you haven’t worn/used it within 12 months, get rid! Maybe it’s a piece of furniture you once bought that doesn’t ever get used. Or, a piece of clothing that you haven’t worn in years but keep saying you might wear it one day.
If you haven’t worn it in the last 12 months but don’t ever choose to wear it, why keep it? It’s obvious you don’t actually like it that much so what’s it still doing there? You could give these items to charity, sell them on auction sites, or even offer them to friends and family where they will get used.
Holding On To Items
Holding on to things you don’t actually use (clutter) is weighing you down. Maybe not physically but mentally. Think of your life or your home as a back pack. Everything you own is in this back pack. From your clothes, your furniture, your friends and family, your job, your kitchen utensils – everything. Weighing you down and holding you back. Just imagine what it would feel like not to have this huge weight of clutter on your shoulders. Take off your back pack and empty it of everything, right down to the last scrap of paper. How much better does that feel, all that weight, finally gone.
We’re not saying you should get rid of everything, but by visually re-packing your backpack, you can see what’s going back in it, and on to your shoulders.
Ask yourself every time you go to put something back in…
- Do you really need it?
- Does it bring you joy?
- Does it have sentimental value?
If the answer to ANY of these is no then why are you packing it back in? Everything that goes back in will be weighing on your shoulders so pack light!
Where To Begin
So, where on earth do you start when it comes to decluttering your home, or your life? When you look at life, or even your home as a whole it can be really scary and overwhelming so instead, break it down into sections.
- Job
- Home
- Friends
- Wardrobe…etc
For example, look at your job and ask yourself if you enjoy it, is it the career you dreamed of having. Or perhaps there was always something you wanted to do but never got the chance to. Maybe now is the time to start aiming for what you really want. If you can’t leave your current job, perhaps you could do things to get you going in the right direction – doing a course, online learning, practice at home, volunteer work…etc
Or perhaps you have a group of friends who aren’t really making your life better, or adding value in anyway. It might sound harsh but having a group of friends who you really value, and have the same morals and values as you is a great way to feel a weight lift off your shoulders.
Then there’s your home life. Is there anything you could improve on there? Perhaps you could go around your home, room by room with a note pad jotting down things you’d like to do. Declutter the garage, minimise the clothes in your wardrobe, empty the loft, throw out old toys…etc
Ask yourself those 3 simple questions again as you go around your home…
- Do I get joy out of it?
- Does it have sentimental value?
- Have I used/worn it within the last 12 months?
Room To Room
If you’re decluttering your home, as mentioned above, go from room to room jotting down things you would like to do in each room. Once you’ve done that, make a plan of action. Perhaps you want to minimise the clothes in your wardrobe, for example. If so, get yourself some large bin bags and label each one – keep, throw, charity and sell.
Once you’ve done that, take all of your clothes out of the draws, wardrobe and anywhere else you might have clothes and put them on a pile on your bed. The mountain of clothes you have in front of you might just make you feel a little sick – how can one person have that much stuff! Simply go through the pile of clothes one by one, adding it to the relevant pile you labelled earlier.
Once you’ve gone through everything and you have your keep pile, you could even go back through this to see if you can whittle it down a little more. You’ll be surprised at how much more you can get rid of second time around – and don’t forget to ask yourself those 3 questions as you go. If you don’t love it, get rid of it.
Another thing you could do after you have your keep pile is to put sticky notes on to each item of clothing. Every time you wear something, remove the sticky note. After 6 months of doing this, see what items still have the sticky notes on and consider getting rid of them as you haven’t worn them over that period of time.
However, when it comes to a declutter of the garage, the best way to do it would be to empty it, clean it, then start organising things as you put them back in.
After The Declutter
After doing this myself, i found i felt much lighter and less constricted in all aspects of life. My home felt cleaner, and more spacious. We now have a utility room after a declutter of the garage. Picking an outfit in the mornings is easy as i have less to choose from. I had more time to spend with real friends and family after decluttering those i didn’t have a true friendship with (harsh but i’m sure they felt the same about me). Plus, i have a job i love and get to spend time doing hobbies i love.
Since I did this, my whole outlook has changed. I don’t get the urge to go on shopping sprees, or buy things for the sake of it. It also made me question why I was buying things in the first place. Was it because I was trying to fill a void? To replace something I felt was missing to make me feel that surge of happiness. Life is now my happiness – however cliched that may sound.
I guess for some “stuff” is like a safety blanket. It’s what you know and letting go can be really hard. However, once you’ve made that jump, it will be so worth it. Declutter your life and see how you feel afterwards!
Where would you start on your life declutter?
This is so important!
Danielle | thereluctantblogger.co.uk