How to declutter
Whenever I start to declutter, be it the garage (aaaggh!) or a kitchen drawer, these are the basic steps I follow. You will find much the same steps in any decluttering guide but they are worth going through again.
1. Get your equipment
Decluttering equipment? Isn’t that more clutter? Hopefully not – just use whatever you have to hand. You need either a bag or box for each of the following:
- rubbish
- recycling/giving away
- stuff that belongs elsewhere
2. Decide how much time to spend
Only take on what you can do in the time available; if you only have 15 minutes, do something small; if you have a day, think about doing something larger but do it in sections; you do NOT want to have yet more stuff lying about than before you started. For example, I really need to declutter our loft, but I will do one box at a time rather than taking everything down, running out of time and then having to either put everything back or live in a mess until I can get back to it
3. What to keep/throw away/give away
William Morris is usually quoted, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” and it’s a great maxim to keep in mind.
We will cover all these categories in more detail in a later blog article but essentially:
- throw away broken stuff and any obvious rubbish
- keep anything you love or use
- give away (or recycle) anything that you neither love nor use
4. Finishing your declutter session
When you have finished, whether you have taken 15 minutes or a whole day, you must leave time to clear up so that you don’t leave an unfinished task to be completed (mental clutter) or mess (physical clutter). So that means:
- throwing away the rubbish
- putting back the things you want to keep
- packing up your give-away items to take to the charity shop or elsewhere
And, not necessarily on the same day but as soon as possible:
- take your give-away items to the charity shop/Freecycle them/sell them
And that’s it. Happy decluttering! We would love to hear from anyone out there who wants to declutter or has already started. Sally & Jane
