Put your best foot forward and begin the new year with a clean slate and a clean house with these four quick tips for decluttering your home with ease.
The new year is right around the corner, and for many people, that means an opportunity for a fresh start. Start the new year off right by clearing out all the clutter and chaos that are tying you to the past. This guide for four quick tips for decluttering your home will help you enter the new year with a clean house and a clear mind.
Set goals
The prospect of decluttering your entire home can be quite daunting. Starting small and setting achievable goals will help you stay on track without becoming too overwhelmed. Start by establishing a project timeline. Whether you hope to have the entire house cleaned out in three months or simply want to clean up your closet by the end of the month, establishing a deadline gives you an attainable goal to strive toward.
When setting goals, try not to pack your plate too full. Overcommitting to too many projects and attempting to clear out your house’s every nook and cranny at once can cause you to quickly become overwhelmed. Set your sights on one small project at a time and work toward completing it fully before moving onto the next project.
Go paperless
Paper products are a major source of clutter for many people. We often feel compelled to save receipts, bills, birthday cards, and photo prints because we never know when we’ll want to reference them again. Luckily, thanks to technological advancements, you can now reference these documents without saving the physical copies. Switching to paperless billing reduces the amount of receipts and bills laying around your home, effectively reducing clutter in your home and litter in the environment. If you still want to hold onto the information but want to rid your home of the papers, consider digitizing the paper documents. This will enable you to access your files easier and help clear out some of the clutter on your desk and in your filing cabinets.
Establish a routine
One of the best tips for decluttering your home is to establish a sustainable routine that will follow you into the future. Establishing a regular cleaning routine will help your home from becoming unbearably cluttered, negating all the initial decluttering you did. When establishing this routine, try to think critically about your habits and the amount of clutter in your home. If your home becomes untidy quite quickly, you may consider setting aside time once a week, or even once a day, to tidy up the house and put things back in their intended locations. If clutter accumulates more slowly in your home, you may only need to go on a decluttering spree once a month.
Create a system
The phrase “a place for everything and everything in its place” may be a bit dated, but the sentiment rings true to this day. Ascribing to this adage’s instructions, try to create an organization system that works for you and your space. Find a place for each of your belongings and be sure to return the items to that place promptly after use. This will help you stay organized and significantly reduce the number of items that go missing in your home. Establish an organization system for storage spaces in your home as well, including closets, cabinets, bookshelves, and basements.
