When you are surrounded by clutter it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the thought of decluttering.
Where do you start?
What do you tackle first?
How do you even begin to organize yourself?
So we try to ignore it instead, make neater piles and suppress our frustration.
The fact is, decluttering is hard. It is difficult to get rid of stuff that belongs to us.
And when you are surrounded by a
Much easier to just force the wardrobe shut or stuff another plastic bowl lid into the corner of the cupboard!
But if you are constantly tripping over toys, struggling to find things or simply feeling emotionally exhausted by the mess around you, it’s time to declutter.
Let’s look at 3 easy areas you can declutter in a weekend, and still have time left relax!
Where do you start decluttering in a weekend?
There is no point in spending
I can usually tell how busy we have been by the state that the house is in. With a toddler and a preschooler around, you can bet there are always things lying around, spills on the floor and at least 3 sticky door handles.
Having a clutter-free home is easier to keep clean AND it makes me feel better. This means that I have more time to play with the kids, or just kick back and relax, because I am not distracted by the stuff that needs tidying
To have a clutter-free house you will need to change both your mindset and your habits.
Questions to ask yourself as you declutter
As you are going through your things, ask yourself these questions about EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM.
- Do I still use this?
- Is it a duplicate, do I have more of the same?
- Has it expired, is it moldy or dried out?
- Is it broken and can I fix it?
- Does it add value by making my life better or easier?
3 Easy areas to declutter in a weekend
1. Bathroom
The easiest thing to start with is the medicine cabinet. Clean out all your expired medicines and take them to your local chemist to dispose of for you. Recycle the plastic medicine spoons or dispensers that you get with liquid medicine.
Remove all empty or almost empty product bottles (shampoos, body wash, lotions, creams, tubes of toothpaste). Do not buy any more of these products until you have finished any duplicates that you may have.
Tip: Allocate specific places for your medicine, products, brushes and keep like items together. This way you will be able to quickly see when you run out of something and you won’t end up buying duplicates.
2. Linen cupboard
Over our lifetime we accumulate a lot of linen. A lot of this we don’t use and it ends up bundled into the dark recesses of a cupboard or drawer.
Start with your towels. Get rid of the ones that smell like damp-dog when they get wet (no matter how much you have washed it with vinegar). Also, the ones that are frayed, the ones that feel like steel-wool, and those that simply push the water around your body instead of absorbing it.
Decide on the minimum number of sheets you need for each bed (hint: one on the bed, one in the wash and MAYBE one in the cupboard if you have space) and donate the rest.
That table cloth with the giant red wine stain that you don’t use anymore but feel sorry for? Time to let it go…
Tip: Be realistic about how many sheets, towels and picnic blankets you actually need. Avoid keeping linen that you *might* need one day.
3. Pantry
When dinner time rolls around and you just grab the first thing you can lay your hands on, you’d better hope it’s not a box of stale crackers or moldy cheese.
It’s ridiculous how quickly food supplies can build up in a pantry (or wherever you store your dry goods). And it’s scary how quickly food can turn into a science experiment if you’re not careful.
A friend of mine recently posted a picture on Facebook of a homemade jar of half-full jam which he discovered *somewhere* in his kitchen. It was dated 1989 #truestory.
A few quick wins when purging and decluttering your pantry include old herbs and spices, rancid oils and those stale crackers.
Discard anything that is past its use-by date. Check the label to see how long you can use condiments from when you first opened the bottle. When in doubt, bin it.
Tip: When you open a new bottle of sauce, oil or spread, write the date on the label. This way you know how old it is.
Easy decluttering steps
When you have a system in place you will find it super easy to declutter each weekend. There are basically 6 steps each time when you declutter.
1 Work with one area or room at a time
2 Take everything out
3 Have 4 bags or containers handy – trash, sell, donate and recycle
4 Look at each item and decide on its future based on the questions above
5 Put everything you are keeping back by grouping items in categories
6 Complete your steps by emptying the trash, dropping off the “donate” and “recycle” pile and placing adverts for the “sell” items BEFORE you move on to the next area.
Keep your home clutter-free
It is possible to create a clutter-free life, even if you are not a naturally organized person. Start small by simplifying a few things and decluttering for a few minutes each weekend.
By clearing out the easiest areas, like the bathroom, linen cupboard and pantry, it will motivate you to create more clutter-free areas in the rest of your house.