Here are ten of our favourite tips and rules for decluttering your home. By following these simple rules, you’ll soon have a neat, tidy and decluttered home, leaving your home looking great and you feeling more relaxed and in control of your life. It’s amazing what a decluttered home can do for your personal and mental health as well.
Lets get started…
1. Get Rid Of Duplicates
This rule applies throughout your home, wardrobe, garage and garden. Have a look around and decide whether you really need the duplicate items in and around your home, you may not even be aware that you have them. Think about your wardrobe, you may have numerous similar white shirts or multiple black cardigans. In your kitchen you may have a few too many pots and pans. You’ll be surprise how much extra space you have in your home when you get rid of all of the duplicate items, and because you have others, you won’t even miss them.
2. Get Rid Of Anything You Haven’t Used In The Past Year
While you’re scouting your home for duplicates, have a look at things you may not have used in the past year. This doesn’t really apply to decor but more to appliances, bedding, blankets, towels etc.. If you haven’t used in in the past year, going through all four seasons, then you likely don’t need it anymore.
3. Only Buy Covered Furniture
Covered furniture may be slightly more expensive to buy but it is way easier to clean and remove stains from. Even better is that when it starts looking shabby or needs an update, you just need to get new covers made, not replace the whole thing. If your furniture has covers on it already, you’re less likely to cause clutter by trying to protect it with throws, sheets and blankets.
4. Look For Furniture With Built In Storage
Furniture can be quite bulky and it usually has a lot of wasted space. Modern designs are making use of this wasted space for storage, this is great for decluttering. Look for modern bed bases which have pull out storage drawers or modern sofas, couches and ottomans which open up to reveal large storage boxes.
5. When Buying Storage Cupboard Or Drawers, Always Pick The Highest Ones
Have a look around your bedroom or your kitchen, the space above your cupboards is generally wasted space and stacking things on top of your cupboards looks untidy and adds to the clutter. When buying new storage cupboards or drawers, always pick the tallest ones on offer. This way you’re maximising the storage space available for a given footprint in your home.
6. Decluttering By Finding A Home For Every Item
If every item has a home, you won’t have anything lying around. Make a point of finding a space for everything which shouldn’t be lying around on a desk, counter or table. Also get into a habit of routinely wandering around your home and putting things back into their spot.
Also have a look at this guide on how to Keep your House Clutter Free with this One Item.
7. Sell Or Donate Your Old Items
Make a pile of all of the items you’ve collected from item 1 and 2 in this list and decide whether you can sell them for some extra money or if it would be best to donate them to your local charity shop. There’s no point in keeping them lying around gathering dust and using up space. Don’t keep anything in your home which you wouldn’t buy now.
8. Scan In Or Digitize Your Old Documents And Records
Decluttering can apply to your files and paperwork as well, don’t keep files of unnecessary documents and papers lying around. Granted, there are some documents which you are required to keep originals of but the majority of your household paperwork can be scanned in and kept on a backed up storage device or in the cloud.
9. Digitize Your Old Family Photos And Films
This may be a bit more involved than the previous item but there are a number of companies offering to digitise and touch up your family images and videos. It may seem pricey but you’re far more likely to use your images and videos if they’re available on your PC, phone or on the cloud. Just make sure that you keep a proper backup of them and potentially use a cloud storage or online backup service.
10. Set A Monthly Budget And Stick To It
Clutter of starts with buying things that you don’t use and don’t need. Set a strict monthly budget for yourself and stick to it, this way you’ll ask yourself twice before buying things you may not need, you’ll save money and you’ll avoid clutter in your home.
What are some of your tips and tricks for decluttering your home? Let us know in the comments section below.
