Although decluttering rooms in your home is an actual chore, it doesn’t have to be hard or impossible. Take your time and breath. Before starting a decluttering project, make sure you are aware of these 7 effective steps to declutter any room in your home.
Designate a Date & Time
Instead of randomly taking an attempt to declutter a room, actually designate a date and time for the project. Look at your calendar and block out a date that works best for you. Determine a date that allows you to donate items, throw things in the trash, and actually organize your items. If possible, allow yourself more time then you think you will need for the project. When I planned my garage decluttering project, I purposely picked my declutter date to be the weekend before my neighborhood’s bulk trash pick up. I was comfortably able to get rid of tons of trash by simply sitting it on the curb. So take time to actually designate a date and time that works best for you.
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Identify the Space’s Purpose
Before you physically start the decluttering process, identify the purpose of the space. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish in the space. It is perfectly fine to use a room for a different purpose than its intended purpose. For example, you can convert a closet into a small office. Once you’re identified the spaces purpose you can determine what items will need to be in the space.
Determine Categories
After you have identified the space’s purpose, you will need to determine the categories of the items you currently have in the space. Some of the obvious categories include trash, donate, and keep. But the more categories you add will make the decluttering process much better. For example, when I decluttered my garage, I used categories such as tools, materials, and recycle. This will allow you to identify the items you want to keep and where you will ultimately put them.
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Separate The Items to Declutter
This step is the most important step. Physically separate each and everything you can. Make sure you have plenty of trash bags for the items you are going to put in the trash. Put everything in the designated sections. Items that belong in other rooms should me moved immediately to the other rooms. Don’t feel obligated to keep each and every thing.
Ask Yourself Questions
A technique to decide on which items to keep is to ask yourself the hard questions. Do I really need these items? Are these items of good use? Will I ever use these items again? What is the purpose of this item? Will I miss this item if I never see it again? Can I repurchase this item for under $20.00 if I need to? Will these chemicals expire within a period of time? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself when determining if you want to discard some items. Sometimes we can easily kept unneeded or unnecessary items.
Put Things Back
During this stage you are going to only put back the items that you need to keep. Everything needs to be put into a home. Don’t casually sit something down temporarily. Put things back into a space it will live. All items kept should “spark joy”.
To avoid clutter, assign a home for all items in your home. Click To TweetDevelop Rules & Strategies to Avoid Clutter
Now that your space is finally clean and clutter free, it’s time to develop rules and strategies to keep it this way. These habits will help avoid having a decluttered room again. A major issue is not having a home for things. Establish a system which will allow you the opportunity to put things up. Don’t become overwhelmed. Designate a time to put things away. Don’t allow yourself to temporarily dump or drop things down.
I hope you found this post informative. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comment selection below.
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