How to declutter your home – Where to start when you are feeling overwhelmed.

Life-Changing Decluttering Hacks

Are you tired of seeing a messy home no matter how many times you clean it up? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the clutter around you? Then mom, you need to declutter your home!!

Or may be you want to declutter your home (obviously that’s why you’re reading this article!) but not sure where to start, then this post can be helpful for you! After reading this post you’ll know how to declutter your home and where to start when you’re feeling overwhelmed!

After having kids, we get additional hands to create more mess whenever they see clean floor or room!! I’ve been there… sometimes I still find myself there! And if you are there right now, believe me I know how you are feeling right now! Tired of cleaning it all again and again and probably tempted to throw it all out of the window!! Yeah!! That’s how I feel almost every time!

But in real life we can’t do such easy things to get our home clean and clutter free! Instead there is a similar option to get it done and that is – decluttering!!

What is decluttering?

Decluttering is a process where you get rid of all the things that you actually don’t use or don’t need or haven’t used for a while!

For example: we all have drawers full of stuff that we never take out of it like paper bills or movie tickets or empty bottles of sunscreen or expired medicines and even we keep our wardrobe full of dresses that we haven’t worn in last 6 months or may be for a year!! Now such things , you don’t need them in your house and they are taking up space of your storage so need to get rid of!

If you’ll see, you’ll find such many things in your home and they are making your home a crowded place.

Removing all these unnecessary things from your home is decluttering!

So, let’s start the process. But first-

What do you need for decluttering –

You don’t need any fancy gadgets to declutter your home. It’s a simple process with simple equipment!!

Basically we are going to sort the stuff in three to four categories- Trash, Keep, Donate and /or Sell. So,

All you need are 3 to 4 bags or boxes to sort things out as :

• Trash
• Keep
• Donate
• Sell (Optional)

Grab the boxes or bags and label them as Trash, Keep, Donate, Sell to make it easy for you to recognize them while sorting the stuff.

Now let’s get started

Once you’re ready with the boxes/ bags, let’s start to declutter.

The first thing to do is :

1. Just start

It’s very possible that you might feel overwhelmed by the idea of decluttering!! Obviously you are already overwhelmed by the mess in your home and the last thing you want is to be surrounded by clutter!! I totally get it!

So, don’t think much, just start! It can be the most difficult step in decluttering that you need to take, but once you’ve started you’ll find the flow and get the job done!! Just start first!

2. Go slow

Now that you are starting to declutter, I would recommend you to go slow. That means you don’t have to cover your whole house in one day. If you are a mom, then you are already struggling for time and I don’t assume that you could get more that 1 to 2 hours for this task! And even in those 2 hours you also have to do other tasks or household chores.

So It’s hard for moms to get more time for decluttering and that’s why you feel overwhelmed by the thought of it! Because you don’t think you could finish the task once you’ll start and there will be more mess!! I understand and that’s why you should go slow!!

If you are struggling hard to find time for yourself to do all these things then check out the 10 ways to make time for yourself in your busy mom life or try these incredibly easy strategies to make more time to get things done!!

Start with one room or a cabinet or declutter just one drawer. Decide how much time you can give for this task and plan accordingly. If you have 15 – 30 minutes then you can cover a drawer or a cabinet. Determine how much time you have and plan accordingly.

3. Pick a room/ place

Once you know how much time you can have to declutter then pick a place or room according to the time in your hand.

You can start from wherever you want – your living room, kid’s room, bedroom or kitchen – pick any place and just start!

I would say set a timer for the time you have for all this work and then start. So that you can decide which place you can cover in that time. Or just start with the drawers in that room and keep going one after one everyday until you cover all the room!

You can start with the easy or less messy rooms like your bedroom and then move to the rooms where you have lot of stuff like kitchen or pantry or kid’s room. If you are too overwhelmed by the idea of decluttering then start with the easy ones so that you’ll do the task in less time without a lot of mess and it’ll also give you confidence to go ahead!

4. Sort things out and put them in corresponding boxes/ bags

Now that you have picked up a place, Let’s start the actual process.

Take a look

Now, take a good look at the stuff in your picked area. Take out the stuff and go through it to check if anything is expired or damaged or broken. See if you really have any use of it or you’re just keeping it in your home you think you might use it. Sort such things out.

Throw damaged or broken things (which can not be fixed) immediately in trash

Next, throw everything – that’s damaged or broken or expired- in the trash immediately! Like expired medicines, or broken ear rings that can not be fixed can go to the trash box!

Get rid of everything you haven’t used for last 6 months or a year

Now take a good look at the stuff you are holding. If you haven’t touched it for last one year or even 6 months then you really don’t need that stuff! If it’s in a good condition then you can donate it or sell it.

Decide what you want to do with that stuff and put it in the corresponding box (donate/sell).

Sometimes it becomes tricky. Like if you’re holding a dress you like but haven’t worn in last 6 months then it’s probably the time to get rid of it – donate it. It can be a tough decision for you but think, are you 100% sure you will wear that dress or use those shoes in next one month? If not then don’t think much and keep it in the donate or sell box! By keeping such things you’re just engaging the space in your storage unnecessarily and increasing the clutter!!

So Be a little harsh on yourself and donate the stuff that you don’t use.

Sort things out that should be fixed or cleaned

There might be some things that needs to be fixed. keep those things in a separate box and label them as ‘to be fixed’. Same ways you’ll find things that needs to be cleaned or washed, keep such things in another box.

Put all your documents in printed form in one secure location

Documents and papers create a lot mess when they are not organized neatly. So check all the documents and keep only those that are important and you’re gonna need in future. All other documents can go to the trash box!

Keep all the important documents in one secure place in printed form. Create a binder or file to organize your documents and assign those binders/files a permanent secure place in your home so that you can find them every time at the same place!

Put items in their proper places

Now all the items you are going to keep should go to their proper places.

Every item in our home should have it’s own home i.e. a place permanently assigned for that particular item!! And we should always place each item at it’s assigned place after use. Because of this habit you’ll find any item in your home with ease and you don’t have to remember all the time where did you put the item.

So keep all the items at it’s proper places!

Use storage bins or shelves to organize your storage places

After sorting out the stuff in categories – trash, keep and donate/sell, comes the stage where you need to organize the stuff you are going to keep in your home.

you can keep it all back where it was but sometimes it’s become messy, like your kids toys can look a little messy even after you’ve put them in the cabinets neatly! To avoid that you can use storage bins to organize your storage places.

It’s a great option to keep things in one place and also looks neatly organized and hides all the clutter perfectly! You can label them so that you won’t forget whit’s inside the bins!!

5. Take care of the boxes/ bags

After sorting out and organizing the items that you’re keeping, it’s time to take care of the other boxes. Keep the items in the trash box in the trash immediately. And keep the donate box in your car so that you won’t forget about it and it will help you to get rid of those tings as early as possible.

Also moving it out of your home will make your home look more clean and you’ll be able to see the effect of decluttering your home – a home that is much more clean and clutter-free!

6. Repeat the process after few days for the same place!

Once you have covered all your home and decluttered every single room then you must be proud of yourself for such a great achievement!

But still we have to admit that after having more space in our home we occasionally fill up that space with new items!! And after a few months we are at same spot with all newly added clutter as we were before we started decluttering!!

To avoid that Keep watch on what you buy. Ask questions to yourself like

• Do I really need this or need this at this moment?
• Do I have something similar or can I borrow it?
• How often will I use it?
• If the item was full price would I still buy it?

Ask such questions to yourself and decide if you still want to buy that item. This way you can control over the clutter you’re bringing to your home.
Even after thoughtful decisions about buying things , we gather clutter in a few ways, like – medicines that get expired, or paper bills of stores, hotels or a few things get damaged or our kids loose interest in their old toys!!

That’s why it becomes necessary to repeat the decluttering process after a few months to check on the unnecessary things and get rid of them! So repeat it all after a few months and keep your home clutter-free. It’ll be more easy for you every next time as there will be less clutter for you to deal with and now you’re familiar with the process!! You can keep your house clean and tidy in almost no time check out the simplest way for moms!

So, Declutter your home so that you can enjoy a clean neat and tidy home. Once you’ve decluttered you home, your every day cleaning will become easy-peasy as there be less clutter and you’ll be able to save your time!

When are starting to declutter your home?