Living in clutter makes your home feel chaotic. When your belongings are unorganized and you can’t find what you need, it can cause anxiety and stress. Many people feel like a weight has been lifted when they declutter their home. Here are some guidelines to follow when you decide to start this task.
Don’t Add While You’re Subtracting
When you are trying to declutter your home, it is counterproductive to buy more things until after you have completed the project. Only shop for things that are absolutely necessary, like groceries, while you are going through the decluttering process.
Organize First, Then Buy
Organizing is a great excuse to shop for storage solutions but wait until you have gone through and purged your items and organized everything that you’ve decided to keep.
Use free cardboard boxes to start. Once you have established exactly how many clear plastic bins and other organizational items you need, then go purchase them. This will avoid unintentional clutter of unused storage containers.
Gather Necessary Materials
Collect boxes and garbage bags and keep them near you so you have what you need once you’ve started. Also, keep the cleaning solutions at hand so that you can wipe out small nooks and crannies that are not usually accessible.
Keep to a Schedule
Write down on the calendar certain time frames when you plan to declutter your home with specific goals in mind. Set goals realistically depending on how much time you have available that day.
For instance, if you have a whole day free, dedicate this time to decluttering the messiest room in the house. Once you have completed this accomplishment, every other room will seem easier.
Four Box Method
Take four boxes into the area you are decluttering. One is for trash, another is for donations, a third is to keep, and the fourth is to store. Every item should go into one box or another. Ideally, most of your items should end up in the trash and donations boxes.
The keep box should be filled with only the necessary items that you use often. Very little should end up in the storage box; mainly things like seasonal items or sporting equipment that’s not used frequently.
Consider the Placement of Your Furniture
You can get so caught up sorting through your smaller possessions that the large items creating chaos in a room can be overlooked. The placement of furniture in a room can contribute to visual clutter, making it more difficult to be organized. If a room holds too much furniture or there are large items that are rarely used, move those things out of the way first.
Manor Home Inspection provides home inspection services to Greater Boston. Contact us to book an appointment.