Do you know that you rarely use over 70% of the things you own in your house? This leaves you at the risk of living in a house with a lot of clutter.
Stop making excuses for all that unused stuff in your home and declutter your apartment once and for all. To make things easy for you, we will focus on breaking the process down into 4 easy parts. We begin with your living room, move to your kitchen, your bedroom and we wrap up with where all the clutter will go.
Decluttering Your Living Room
- Consider living room furniture that has storage space to store items
- Have a small container or basket to store similar items like remotes
- Use wall space to get items (like your TV and headphone) off the floor
- Develop a daily pickup routine for your living room
- Keep all entertainment units in a central position, against the wall and close to the TV
- Dedicate a spot with a chair, good lighting, a little bookshelf and a table for reading
- Keep flat surfaces clutter free
- Take pictures of receipts and important paperwork
- Get rid of anything you have not used in one year
Instead of storing paper files and old documents all around the living room, consider digitizing them; scan documents and take pictures of old receipts and store them on a single flash drive. This saves you lots of space.
The idea is to have only things that you find useful. Don’t hold on to items simply because of their sentimental value. When you declutter your living room, it saves you a lot of time that you would have spent on housework.
If the only thing holding you back from getting rid of any item is the fact that you don’t want to let go of the item because you have had it for a long time, please get rid of it.
Decluttering Your Kitchen
- Test your appliances and gadgets to see if they still work
- Use small tools instead of appliances; a knife instead of a fruit slicer
- Unless you always host lots of friends, reduce your tableware
- Keep bigger pots and pans for versatility instead of having all sizes
- Don’t duplicate your utensils. Get rid of items you own in 2s
- Take out anything in your kitchen you have not used for one year
- Go for multifunctional utensils
If you ever find that you have two items in your kitchen that serve the same purpose, you should get rid of one of them. Rather than bulk up your kitchen with a gas cooker and an electric cooker, why not just get one with both functionalities. Better still, stick to one and get rid of the other.
One way to help you declutter is to look at all the items in your house and ask yourself: “If I was shopping right now, would I buy this?” it’s time to stop making excuses for the clutter in your kitchen. If you stumble on any utensil or item that you’re struggling to remember the last time you used it, get rid of it.
Decluttering Your Bedroom
- Use bowls to contain small items
- Have a beautiful laundry basket in your bedroom
- Take out clothes you have not worn in 9 months from your wardrobe
- Spend 30 minutes every week decluttering your bedroom
- Use a dresser as your nightstand
- Have a little basket for your throw pillows
- Drill hooks into the back of your wardrobe door to hang stuff
- Have a little trash can close to your nightstand
- Have a multipurpose headboard to store items
One your bedroom begins to feel small and untidy, it’s time to take out the clutter. The moment you get the clutter out, you’ll find your bedroom feeling more open, spacious and relaxing.
You can dedicate a day to get this done or work on it over a weekend. First, take out the garbage, then move to anything that doesn’t belong in the bedroom. Items like dishes and food flasks don’t belong in your bedroom.
Clear out areas in your bedroom that are out of sight. Such places include under the bed, your wardrobe and your drawers. Take a hard look at your wardrobe. What’s the point if keeping clothes and shoes that no longer fit you? You’ll be fine without them. They are just clothes and you’ll be buying more in the near future.
Consider rearranging the room when you’re cleaning what is left. For instance, instead of having your bed against the wall in a corner, centralise it with just an end against the wall.
How to Get Rid of the Clutter
- Get an Empty Boxes
Pick up things that you are not sure about trashing and put them into a box
- Put a Date on the Box
Write or paste a date on the box. Make sure the date is a year away from the date of putting the items into the box
- Ignore the Box
Resist the temptation of writing a list of items inside the box
- Will You Pick Anything From the Box?
If you pick out anything from the box within a year, find a place to store it
- Time to Get Rid of the Box
Any item that you do not take out of the box within a year, get rid of it
- Resist the Temptation
Don’t look inside the box before you get rid of the items in it
When it becomes clear to you that there are items that you have not used in a span of one year, cut out your sentimental attachment to such items and get rid of them. You’ll be glad you did.
Where is Your Clutter Going?
- Online Marketplace
There will be items that you do not need that you can sell for cash. How do you sell them? Sell them on an online marketplace
- Charity
There are charity homes that will be more than glad to take your unused items
- Social Media
Take a picture and share the picture with friends who might be interested in buying
- Family and Friends
You might not need your clutter but people close to you could need it. Why not ask?
- Thrash it
If your clutter is something no one wants, trash it
One way to get this done is to have four different boxes and label them ‘Keep,’ ‘Donate,’ ‘Sell’ and ‘Trash.’ Make sure all the items in your house fall into one of these boxes. It also gives you options of getting rid of your clutter instead of just trashing them.
Most of the items you’re going to get rid of are items that you seldom use, those that are old and those that serve a similar purpose with other items.
Benefits of Decluttering
- Extra living space
- Reduce the burden on your spouse
- Opportunity to repurpose certain items
- Donating items you no longer need
- Extra cash from selling items
- Helps you feel relaxed
Decluttering helps you deal with the temptation of overbuying. When you declutter your home, you will realise that you need to cut down or stop impulsive buying.
Before you buy anything, ask yourself exactly where it fits into your home. Is the item something you already own, or does it serve the same purpose as another item? If so, you know what needs to be done.
