Everyone has a pile of junk lying around their living space, and some people even have more than a little.
While household clutter seems harmless, living in a disorganized and cluttered space can be stressful and overwhelming. It may even make it hard to find what you need and affect your overall well-being and mood.
One way to deal with your mess is to declutter and reorganize your living space properly. Even if it’s daunting, decluttering can be a transformative and rewarding experience, especially when you use the right approach.
If it’s your first time doing decluttering and you don’t know where to start, the guide below will help keep your house clutter-free and more organized for everyone.
1. Set Your Goals
Before you begin decluttering and reorganizing your home, it’s crucial to determine your goals. Ask yourself about the things you want to achieve.
For example, are you planning to reorganize your living space by incorporating shipping pallets in your décor? Or do you want to make your living space cozy and free from any pile of junk?
Answering such questions will help you set your goals and get a clear vision of what you wish to accomplish. It also enables you to stay focused and motivated to finish the decluttering and reorganizing process.
2. Make A Plan to Know Where To Start
When you know your goals, planning should be your next task. Without a proper plan, it may take too long for you to complete the task.
To avoid this, list areas in your home you wish to declutter and reorganize. Then, break down every area into smaller tasks you can do in a day or two. For instance, organize your accessories or shoes if you want to declutter your closet.
Additionally, most people are tempted to start their organizational and decluttering efforts by starting with the cabinets underneath the bathroom sink, drawers, and hallway closet. But it’s more effective if you begin with visible things. The following tips will help you plan and know where to start to make your home feel more comfortable and spacious:
- Determine the room you use often and start with it.
- Clear off the visible clutter, including things on the floor, putting away anything on tabletops, desktops, and countertops that don’t belong there.
- Think of the furniture you can dispose of without compromising your comfort.
- Once done, it’s time to move on to cupboards, linen closets, shelves, and drawers.
Do these steps for other rooms in your house. Nonetheless, remember to focus on one room at a time to help you declutter and reorganize properly.
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3. Gather Supplies
To reorganize and declutter your living space, you’ll require various supplies. Depending on how many items you have, here are the supplies you may need:
- Boxes: Whether you plan to donate particular items or store some of them, you’ll need boxes. You can purchase boxes of different sizes or stick to a specific size to ensure you have a place for objects of all sizes.
- Dust Mask: It’s optional, yet if you’re working in a dusty place, you might want to wear a dust mask. This is especially true if you have allergies or are sensitive to dirt particles. Wearing a dust mask can also help you declutter with ease.
- Markers And Labels: You’ll require markers or labels for decluttering and reorganizing your things. These will be used to make a list of things you store. Even if your memory is sharp, you may still need them to find items quickly. They’re helpful for your family members too. Moreover, you know where to go if something’s labeled rather than pulling every random box.
- Tape And Other Packing Materials: You’ll need tape to close the boxes. In addition, you’ll require other packing materials, such as old newspapers and bubble wrap, when handling fragile items and keep them damage-free.
- Timer: The process of decluttering and reorganizing can be overwhelming. That’s why having a timer may come in handy. It’ll help you focus and reset it when you need a break.
- Short Ladder or Stepping Stool: You’ll need to reach higher shelves in each room. In this case, you should prepare a stepping stool or a short ladder. Ensure it has skid-resistant legs for stability and safety purposes.
These are the different supplies you need once you declutter your home. Depending on your tactic or approach, you can get other supplies, including garbage bags.
4. Have A Sorting System
As you start decluttering and reorganizing, you must create a sorting system. As its term implies, it’ll quickly help you sort every item you find.
You can develop your own tactic or use the renowned Three-Box Method. It helps avoid making a bigger mess and forces you to decide quickly which items must be stored or donated. If you use the Three-Box Method, label storage bins or boxes as ‘Put In Storage,’ ‘Keep,’ and ‘For Disposal.’
Use the tips below for the best results:
- Put In Storage Box: If you have items that you can’t get rid of due to their sentimental value, this is the box you should use. And it can be a perfect place for seasonal items.
- For Disposal Box: It’s where you should put the items you want to get rid of. For example, it can be damaged items that no longer function.
- Keep Box: It’s the box for every useful item in your daily life. You can place this box anywhere accessible to you.
Sorting your items doesn’t need to be complicated. Use the abovementioned tricks to make the process less challenging.
5. Organize By Zones
When organizing your living space, think of how you wish the area to function and what activities you’ll be doing there. Dividing your room into smaller areas often makes decluttering and organizing process easier. It also provides a logical way to sort items quickly.
Case in point, in the kitchen, you can have particular cupboards or areas dedicated to baking supplies, kitchenware, basic pantry staples, and more. Linen closets may have separate areas for towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and linens. This way, keeping similar things together will be much more hassle-free, making your living space less cluttered.
6. Keep Everything Accessible
If you have several items you use frequently, it’s essential to keep them accessible. Store these items at the front of your space and towards eye level. Objects used less often can be stored towards the back of your space or higher up.
If you have a deep cupboard, consider putting in pull-out bins or sliders to make items in the back accessible. Store the items as close as possible to the place you’ll be using, especially the ones you’ll use daily. Nonetheless, if you have kids, have a separate area where you can store all their items and ensure they’re easy to reach.
7. Use Different Storage Ideas
It’s simpler to implement decluttering, and organization hacks when you have more space to store items that could clutter up your house. Yet if you don’t have enough room for storage, here are some ideas you can consider maximizing the storage space in your home:
Use Baskets
Pillows and blankets are items that most homeowners use in their homes. Yet it can be challenging to know where to put them all. With that in mind, baskets may come in handy.
You can purchase oversized baskets if you have countless blankets, so your family members can easily throw in the blankets without the need to fold them. If you have children, you’ll enjoy the benefits of using baskets in your living space as they keep things accessible anytime.
Install Shelves
Another way to get extra storage to organize and declutter your house effectively is to install shelves. These provide storage for decorative items and books.
In addition, shelves may help you utilize the unused space on the walls. Once you decorate them well, they can be a great way to store board games or books. Additionally, you can make high shelves if you prefer to display other things like photos on the wall.
These are some storage ideas you can consider for your home. Regardless of your needs or goals, while decluttering and reorganizing your living space, choose the one that fits your home décor and budget.
8. Re-Evaluate And Make Necessary Changes
A well-organized space is much easier to maintain with only minor changes. If your living space starts to get cluttered again, assess and modify the problems. For example, are there too many items in the space, or do several things placed in the wrong spot?
Once you know the problems, you can do some tweaking to get things back on board. You could do a bit of decluttering, purchase a bin, or have designated storage areas, so everybody knows where the things go. Sometimes, a slight change can make a huge difference in effectively reorganizing and decluttering your home.
9. Get Professional Help
No particular decluttering hacks can make it easy if you aren’t one of the lucky people who enjoy organizing and cleaning. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t make the process easier. With a bit of help from professionals, you can make decluttering and reorganizing more convenient.
While it’s an additional expense, hiring professionals have complete tools and equipment to finish the job quickly. They can even give tips for keeping your living space clean and neat. So, if you’re too busy and don’t have much time to organize your living space, working with professionals is an excellent idea.
Benefits Of Decluttered and More Organized Living Spaces
A cluttered living space may cause stress, affect productivity, and make some household tasks more challenging. This is why it’s highly recommended to declutter and reorganize your home regularly. Doing so can offer you several benefits, which include the following:
Reduce Anxiety and Stress
A clean home offers mental health benefits. On the other hand, a cluttered house may wreak havoc on the mind. It may overwhelm your already overloaded brains with too much sensory information, increasing stress levels. To prevent that, spend time decluttering your space to clear out unwanted items and keep your space cozy for everyone.
More Space
A decluttered house’s primary benefit is to create more space. Since you’ll only be keeping what you appreciate, need, and love, there’s less clutter that’ll take up in your shed, cupboards, shelves, work desks, and drawers.
Regardless of how big or small your house is, you can maximize its space without clutter. You may even find ways to create more flow and ease of access in a room after reorganizing it.
Improve Creativity and Productivity
Most people find it hard to focus when surrounded by clutter, including trying to work at a disorganized and messy desk. Excess things that surround you may have a negative impact on your concentration because they’ll be competing for your attention. As a result, it’ll increase your stress levels and lessen your productivity.
Without clutter, you’ll be able to focus better. You can also improve your creativity since your head is cleared. Moreover, you can do your tasks without being distracted by the different things around you.
Eliminate Allergens
Pet hair, pollen, dust, and other dirt particles may accumulate in all types of places. Things that may sit around unused will just take up space and gather dust.
Although leaving your possessions that way is okay, it’s a bad idea for people with allergies. So, if you don’t want you or your loved ones to suffer from allergies, it’s crucial to declutter your living space.
You’ll enjoy better airflow and indoor air quality by keeping your home clutter-free and organized. As a result, you’ll protect your family from allergies.
You’ll have several belongings that you might want to keep. These may include your bedroom furniture, toys, children’s works, and school creations. Enjoy all the advantages of a decluttered and well-organized home without getting rid of them and putting them into proper storage.
Conclusion
Reorganizing and decluttering your living space can be difficult, mainly if you haven’t done it before. Use the above guide to remove any unwanted items in your house. When done properly, it can help create harmony and order in your home, offering various benefits, such as functional and more comfortable living space.
