Spring has sprung, and let me guess, you’ve not actually started your clear out yet? It can be one of the most tedious chores, however it will be the one that makes the biggest difference to your life. If your home is full of clutter, you might not even notice it anymore, however it will affect you subconsciously. The clearer your living space, the clearer your mind is likely to be. Even if you’re a sceptic to the psychology of it, try some of these top tips to see and feel the difference it makes in your day to day life.
Acknowledge Your Clutter
It might sound silly, but if you live with something long enough, you begin to become oblivious to it. Maybe it’s not as extreme as one of those hoarding documentaries you see on television, but remember that these things start somewhere. Clutter can actually hugely drain your energy, and in extreme cases can cause feelings of depression. Not only does it make your home more of a fire hazard, but it can encourage allergies in an environment where there’s dust and mould present. By acknowledging what and where the clutter in your home is, you’re actually part of the way to solving the problem.
Set Goals
It doesn’t have to be one huge step. Several smaller steps are often the less overwhelming and more sensible way of approaching decluttering an entire home. Setting goals will help to ease the frustration of not being able to get everything done at once, and will make you appreciate the little victories along the way:
- Make a map of your home, and mark out the specific areas of clutter that you want to target. Even consider grading them in order of importance to you, which rooms are affecting you the most?
- Alternatively, grade each room on the severity of it’s clutter. For example, you could have each room graded on a one to three axis, where one is minimal clutter, three is maximum, and two is somewhere in the middle. This way you can plan each room you’re going to do depending on how much time you have.
- Don’t overwhelm yourself. Target one room at a time.
- Set yourself a completion date for this room. Alike to a deadline, it’ll give you enoughpressure to remain motivated in making sure you clear the particular room. Why not give yourself a target, for example, if the room you’re tackling is the dining room, arrange a dinner party for the evening of the completion date you set yourself. This gives you something literal to work towards, and will be all the more satisfying when your guests compliment your lovely, spacious dining area!
If you’re decluttering your home for the purpose of sale you’ll want to make sure it’s ready and picture perfect, especially for online websites such as https://www.readysteadysell.co.uk/we-buy-any-house/. Realistically, who will want to view a house that has cluttered pictures to advertise it?
Make a System
Once you’ve started the process of decluttering, seperate your clutter into three different categories:
Useful Clutter
Believe it or not, this is one kind of clutter you are likely to come across – clutter that you’ll actually use now you know it exists. It might be something you forgot you had, something that you can use again, or something that can be revamped and used for new (for example, an old table). Either way, there’s bound to be at least one thing you can use!
Recyclable Clutter
The expression, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” certainly comes into play here. If you find something that may not be useful to you, but could be useful to someone else. If some of your clutter is still good quality, donate it to a friend or to charity!
Actual Clutter
Of course, there’s bound to be some actual clutter in there too. Anything that’s non-recyclable or that you can’t use again, take it straight to the tip. There’s no use to hanging onto old rubbish!
Renew Your Storage
Finally, what makes clearing out and organising more appealing than finding a new and unique way to store the useful clutter you decide to keep? Below are only a couple of the easy and effective ideas you can use:
- Turning a metal basket on its side and attaching it to the wall creates a new and interesting alternative to shelving. These are great for books.
- If you don’t have under-bed storage – create it. Take old drawers from cabinets you don’t use anymore (semi-recyclable storage!) , put some small wheels on the underneath, paint them to your taste and place under your bed. You’ll be able to wheel them in and out with ease, and it’s a secret storage space perfect for personal nick nacks!Think creatively by using any of your old (useful) clutter to create new storage, it’s as easy as that!