Imagine this: you come home after having a long day at work, and the first thing you notice when you walk through the door is the total mess you have around! Not a place on the sofa to sit, impossible to find a bill you were supposed to pay that day…
Doesn’t this sound stressful? If you are currently going through a stressful time, having lots of clutter in your home won’t help. Living in a disorganised space can make things much worse. If you are ready to give yourself some space, these easy techniques to declutter your home are for you!
Start with a list
Put together a list of the specific places/areas in your home that make you feel upset because of its disorganisation. Once you have a whole list, start with the easiest. Achieving things quickly will give you a boost and will keep you motivated to do some more!
The 5-5-5 challenge
Easy to remember, even easier to do! Each day during your challenge, find 5 things you’d like to give up for donation, 5 things you can live without (to dump them!) and 5 things to organise. You will need to find a proper space for the last 5. If you can’t, maybe you need to reconsider whether you want to keep them or not.
Question yourself
If you are finding it tricky to get rid of some of the objects you have lurking around your house, try to be imaginative. Ask yourself questions like, ‘When was the last time I used
it?’ or ‘Would I buy this in the shop today?’ If that one is too easy for you to try with, ‘How much would I be willing to pay for it’? Give yourself a range of prices for what is worth keeping and what is not and then decide based on the answer you give to this question.
Have a garage sale
Many items in good condition that you don’t know what to do with? Organise a garage sale and earn some extra pennies for all your hard work! You can also check if there’s a neighbourhood or homeowner’s association with a designated garage sale date and then put together enough items for you to participate.
The 80/20 rule
Remember that we only use about 20% of the items we have. If this seems hard to believe, think of your wardrobe. Do you really wear all the clothing you own? Set yourself some rules like, if I haven’t worn something for a whole season maybe it means I no longer need it.
This whole process is about getting rid of that 80% of things you don’t need to organise those that you really use in a better way.
