Minimalist living is a big trend at the moment. The idea is that if you declutter your home and clear out all of the stuff you don’t need, you’ll live a far more organized and happier life and the house will be more liveable. It has so many great benefits, both physically and mentally, and it’s definitely worth doing. But when you try to declutter your home, most of us aren’t doing a proper job. You can spend a day trying to clear stuff out, only to realize that the house is still as cluttered as it was before and you’ve only got rid of a couple of things. Here’s how to declutter your home properly.
PREPARE FOR RUBBISH
One of the reasons that people fail to get rid of a load of stuff is because they look at things and think it’s going to be a hassle to dispose of so they’ll just leave it for another time. If you have that mentality, you’ll never clear the house out. Before you even start, you need to prepare yourself for a proper clear-out. That means finding a skip bin hire company and getting a skip. When you’ve got it there and you know that you can get rid of that amount of stuff, you’ll be more inclined to throw stuff out.
THE 3 MONTH RULE
When you’re going through stuff and trying to decide what to clear out, there will be countless items that you’ll keep just in case you want to use them one day. The thing is, you’ll probably never use most of that stuff again, that’s where the 3 month rule comes in. Go through everything one item at a time and ask yourself whether you’ve used it in the last 3 months. If the answer is no, it can’t be that useful and you can probably do without it. There are some exceptions to that rule, of course; anything that has sentimental value can stay, even if you haven’t used it recently. The biggest offender is kitchen gadgets, there are so many that are basically useless but people are always reluctant to throw them away in case they need them.
ONE ROOM AT A TIME
Another thing that stops people from having a proper clear-out is the sheer scale of the job. It seems daunting when you look around the house and think about just how much stuff is in there. That’s why you’ve got to break it down. Nobody is saying you’ve got to do it all in one go. If you just do one room at a time, the whole thing seems more manageable. Start with the most cluttered rooms and once you get into the swing of it, it’ll soon come easy.
KEEP IT UP
Once you’ve spent all of that time decluttering, you need to make sure you don’t end up in the same position again. From here on out, you need to be mindful of your purchases. Whenever you’re out shopping and you pick something up, think to yourself, do I actually need this? A lot of the time you just buy something because it’s on sale and it might be useful in future. Most of that stuff goes straight in a cupboard and never gets used so just think about it before you part with your cash.
Follow these steps and you can successfully clear out the house and keep it that way.
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This has been a collaborative post. All thoughts and opinions expressed above are not my own
