10 Tiny Steps to Declutter Your Home
Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of items, even though they do absolutely nothing but take up space and eliminate room for actual necessities. Here are 10 baby steps you can take to begin decluttering your home, to make things more organized and to free up some space:
1. Flip Your Closet Hangers
A very wise designer once said, “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes.” Organize your closet by having all of the closet hangers facing the same direction. Once you wear an article of clothing, flip the corresponding hanger to face the opposite direction. Once a month or two has passed, take a look at which hangers haven’t been flipped. Most likely, you can donate those articles of clothing, since they aren’t worn very often.
2. Check Expiration Dates
Do a quick sweep through your kitchen and bathroom and check the expiration dates on the labels. A lot of times, especially when it comes to medication, we’ll forget we even stored them in the cabinets, due to how infrequently we use them. This is a quick way to get rid of things you won’t be needing anymore.
3. Make a Misc. Box
Gather up all of the items you have just lying around the house, e.g., an old mason jar, and store everything in a box and set it aside for a week or two. Afterward, see if you can repurpose any of the items in there. If not, you can probably get rid of the items in that box.
4. Make Some Care Packages
Look around to see what you have available, whether it be a book or a candle. Write a well-wishing note along with it and give it to friends or family, or even donate it. Not only will you make a little more room within your home, but you’ll also bring a smile to someone’s face.
5. Reorganize Your Desktop or Mobile Device
Now that technology is more present than ever, it is important to make sure your desktop and phone are well organized. Sure, it might not have a big impact on your home, but with the amount of time the average person spends on their phone and computer, it’s important to also ensure that the mind isn’t cluttered and overwhelmed. You can easily create a new folder on the desktop to better rearrange files, or even organize the apps on your phone by grouping them in a folder, or by color.
6. Challenge the Children
If you have children with numerous toys, try motivating them to clean up or donate some of their toys by offering prizes. Prizes can be anything from allowing them a few more minutes on their gaming device, their favorite snack, or even just a good old bear hug.
7. Rearrange the Furniture
See what pieces of furniture are used and which aren’t. Sure, the teal accent table might look nice next to the sofa, but if it is used for absolutely nothing more than to brighten up the room with a pop of color, maybe consider getting rid of it.
8. Label Your Stuff
More often than not, closets and kitchen cabinets get extremely cluttered. See if you can sort that out by creating sections and labeling all of the items. Designate shorts, skirts, jeans, and slacks to separate drawers. Reposition the spices by how frequently each one is used. Even if you still end up with the same number of items you had at the start, at least it’ll be better organized and therefore seem less cluttered.
9. Create a Space
Identify a part of a countertop or a section of a room to always keep clutter-free. Once you’re used to having that one small space nice and neat, challenge yourself to choose another small area to keep clutter-free. Keep this process going as a gradual, surefire way to decrease cluttered spaces within your home.
10. Find Inspiration and Motivation
Sure, reading and thinking about reorganizing your home is easy, but it’s hard to get started. Read about the benefits of having a well-organized home to help motivate yourself to get started. Once you have started, take before and after photos to help encourage yourself to continue.