Clutter. You probably have it, and you’re not alone. A whopping 89%of Aussies have unwanted items in their home, according to Gumtree’s Second Hand Economy report . But decluttering your home doesn’t just magically happen – you need a plan. Want to know how to declutter your life and reduce stress? Where here to help, with our 7 top tips for a clutter-free home.
1. Get the right mindset
Most of us accumulate clutter, but for different reasons. Perhaps you’re too busy to deal with your things and they just ‘pile up’. Maybe you’re the type who likes to keep things ‘just in case’. Or you might tend to get sentimental over the little things and just don’t want to ‘let go’. Whichever type you are, the clutter probably gets to you. But doing something about it can be hard.
Think about why you want to declutter and how it can have a positive impact on your life. Are you overwhelmed with just having too many things? Are you tired of never finding what you’re looking for? Do you waste money buying things you know you already have somewhere? Will you be moving soon and you want to reduce what you take into your new home?
Thinking about why you want to declutter helps give you motivation and purpose. It also helps you focus on what you’re gaining rather than what you’re losing. Imagine having less stress, more time and saving money, and suddenly decluttering feels like a really good thing to do.
2. Set some ground rules
There’s no avoiding it – decluttering your life can be a big job. Make the process easier for yourself by setting some ground rules. Decide ahead of time what makes something worth keeping or why it should go. It takes both the thinking and the emotion out of decluttering and helps you just do it.
Before you get stuck in, set up some criteria that suits you. If you’re a Marie Kondo devotee, you might ask yourself if it sparks joy? Or if you’re pragmatic, think about how long it’s been since you’ve used something. If it’s, say, more than a year, it goes. Pick what makes sense and works for you and stick to it.
3. Divide the work into manageable tasks
It can be daunting to look at a house full of things and know where to start. Break the job into bite size chunks, choosing a way that suits you best, to tackle one at a time. Perhaps you might want to work room by room. Maybe working by type is easier, like all the paperwork in the house then everyone’s clothes together or clean out the linen cupboard and so on. Then you can pick a smaller job to complete, rather than worry about the big picture. And it will help you choose what to do next, as you’ll already have your list of things to do.
Sometimes, decluttering can feel overwhelming because there are things you want to keep, but you just don’t have the room for. That’s where self-storage can help. You pack up the things you don’t use every day, and we’ll bring a storage module to you and load it for you. That way, you get to de-clutter without chucking everything you value.
4. Think about your space
Whether you’re decluttering by room or by category, there’s one thing that’s unavoidable: how much room do you actually have? Having too many things for the space you have is the very definition of clutter. So it’s important to only keep as many things as you can actually fit in your home.
That means thinking how to use your space the best. And then give everything a home. Not only will it help you get your things in order, it’s much easier to keep things tidy when you know where everything needs to go.
5. Give yourself a deadline
Even with good planning, your mission to declutter can all fall apart if you don’t give yourself a timeframe. Life gets busy and you might start to prioritise other tasks. Suddenly it’s been six months and those piles of papers are still sitting on your kitchen bench. Give yourself a realistic deadline and work to it. Time pressure is a great motivator and it will also help give you a sense of achievement as you track how you’re going against your goal.
Booking one of our storage module units is a great, practical way to set a deadline. That way, you know we’ll be coming to load the module – so you know that you have to get your declutter on before that date.
6. Get the ball rolling
The last piece of the puzzle is simply to roll your sleeves up and get on with the job. But there’s a trick here too. Set yourself up for success by tackling some easy jobs first. A few early wins will help you get underway and see pretty quick results. Use these achievements as a launchpad to the bigger, trickier jobs. You got this.
7. Reap the rewards
Living in a clutter free home is a reward in itself. But you might want to sweeten the pot a little. Finally, the kitchen cupboards are tidy and spacious, and you want to keep them that way. So why not treat yourself for a nice dinner at your favourite restaurant as a reward for all your hard work.
And for those things that you know you want to keep but don’t need to access for a while that you just can’t find a home for? They’re the perfect contenders for storage. But be smart about how you use it. Don’t just box up whatever doesn’t fit in your home and put it into storage – have a plan for that too. And then we can help, with easy mobile storage solutions delivered to your door. Talk to us today about what will work for you.
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