Declutter Your Home and See Your Way to Greater Profit
It’s easy not to see all your clutter when you live with it every day. Whether you have a little or a lot, clearing away unnecessary stuff is the most fundamental thing you can do to improve your home living and your life.
You can declutter spaces gradually over time, or all at once as you become more proficient at distinguishing what’s clutter from what’s worth keeping. In the long run, you will spend less time, energy and money clearing clutter from your home than you would spend organizing clutter from day to day.
Take Back Your Home Space Before You Declutter
Before you clear away clutter, take stock of the spaces you live in and those areas of your home too cluttered to live in. Open all the windows and shed light on hidden corners and other unused sections of your home, which can be renewed with cleaning, painting or other home improvements. Think about how each room feels and how you would like to live in each space.
When you have an overall picture of how you want your living spaces to be designed, decluttering is clearer. Depending on how much stuff you have, you can make the process gradual or do a thorough gutting over a weekend. Making your home functional and free of clutter is an ongoing process, but for a fresh start empty out every item from drawers, closets and corners for a thorough inventory. Work room-by-room instead of tackling your whole house at once.
Identify Clutter Sort to Declutter
Moving everything in a room out into the open will give you new perspective. Some things that need to go will be more obvious than others. A toaster with a faulty plug will look less worth keeping when it’s sitting in the midst of other items that work. Ask yourself if broken items can be fixed or if they’re even worth replacing.
Separate all like items into piles. Make separate piles for the things you want to keep, throw away, donate or fix.
Keep those things that blend with the kind of life you want to live. Start by gathering only items you love, as well as functional items you use often. Define the places where things you intend to keep belong.
Get rid of lingering objects you don’t love as much. Think about how you acquired them and whether memories of them feel more like baggage than part of the life you want.
If you have too many sentimental items, take the time to identify how you genuinely feel about each one. Letting go of old emotions attached to objects can open up space in your life and home for new things.
Take the time to rethink everything in your home. The process of uncluttering will transform how your home looks and functions as well as how you feel and function.
Declutter to Redesign
When you declutter, you redesign the life you live. With less stuff you have more physical and mental space to think about goals you truly desire. How you feel about what you own impacts how you function in the world. Whether you own a home or want to sell one, increase its perceived value by decluttering.
QUICK TIPS
• Decluttering is the most fundamental thing you can do to start improving your home living—and your life.
• Extra items around your home distract you from seeing alternative ways to use spaces.
• Homes staged with fewer items look more spacious and sell quicker.
• Before you clear away clutter, take stock of the spaces you live in and those areas, which need refurbishing.
• Depending on how much stuff you have and how ambitious you are, you can declutter gradually or do a thorough gutting over a weekend.
• For a fresh start, empty out every item from drawers, closets and corners for a thorough inventory.
• Work room-by-room to declutter instead of tackling your whole house at once.
• Make separate piles for the things you want to keep, throw away, donate or fix.
• Start by gathering only items you love, as well as functional items you use often.
• If you have too many sentimental items, take the time to identify how you genuinely feel about each one.
• Whether you own a home or want to sell one, increase its perceived value by decluttering.
