My Essential Tips for Decluttering Your Home in the New Year

Start Small

The decluttering process is not for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t expect to do a full home clear-out in a matter of a day. Instead, take 5 to 10 minutes at a time to break it down. Choose one category each day to dedicate your time to. So for example start with books on the first day, once you’ve pulled and sorted through all of your books move on to the next category the next day. This allows you to make sure you go through everything as well as preventing you from burning yourself out halfway through the process.

Kiss them, and let them go

I might be the only one that knows this reference from the show Younger but it is a take on the Marie Kando method that when I think about decluttering I can’t get out of my head. I know I was taught to hold on to things because “what if” or “you never know if it will come in handy” but this method reprograms your mind to get rid of things that don’t serve you currently. You have to give yourself permission to repurchase or purchase a version you will like better in the future. Let go of the items you never wear or use because there might be one time.

Store Seasonal Clothes

I’m also really guilty of hoarding all my clothes in drawers and closets and not organizing anything by season. There are many benefits to taking the time to organize your wardrobe by season. By pulling winter or summer items and storing them when they are out of season you can focus on items that are in season now and have a better view and inventory of what you have and what may be missing from your essentials. On the flip side when it’s time to transition from one wardrobe to the next pulling out your seasonal clothes allows you to feel like you’re shopping for a brand-new wardrobe for the season because you haven’t seen the pieces for a few months.

Once you’ve organized your wardrobes by season it’s helpful to get clear plastic storage containers. This allows for easy stackable storage and if the containers are clear you can see what you’re working with really easily.

Use many methods of Purging

Purging is a really important part of decluttering. As I mentioned “kiss them and, let them go” Is the name of the game when it comes to decluttering but sometimes that can be challenging so I like to use many different methods when purging my home of clutter.

First the box method: Get four boxes and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate / sell. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of those boxes. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This can take time but allows you to see how many items you own and also find what to do with everything in your home.

10% method: If the box method isn’t your thing you can use the 10% method by pulling every item in a particular category such as shoes, or books take the total number, and cutting it down by 10%. So if you have 20 pairs of shoes you need to get rid of at least 2 pairs.

90 day test: Sometimes we forget or aren’t always aware of the items we do or don’t use regularly, raise your hand if you have a drawer of utensils in your kitchen that is filled with gadgets you don’t often think about. Or in my case, I have a couple of closets where I store all my clothes and sometimes I need a reminder of the items I don’t often wear. The 90 Day test is taking each item and asking yourself “have I used this in the last 90 days?” and “will I use this item in the next 90 days?” if the answer to either question is no, it’s gotta go.

Enlist an Expert

After you have packed everything up and decided what can be stored away for another season sometimes it’s time to enlist the help of some experts. If you don’t have the space in your home to store it all a small storage unit might be a good option. You can put unused gadgets, bikes, and seasonal clothing (packed in their plastic containers) in a storage unit close to your home to free up more space and allow your home to feel less cluttered. If you’re like me living in a big city using Chicago furniture movers like the professionals at  JC Movers & Lumper Service Inc can quickly and efficiently move your store-able goods to their new space. 

Practice one-in-one-out

My final tip is to maintain your hard work. After you’ve spent weeks organizing, purging, and finding new homes for things the last thing we want to do is do it all again. So to prevent myself from falling back into a cluttered home I like to use the one-in-one-out method. It goes if you get something new something old needs to go. For instance, if I have my eye on a new pair of boots, I need to first get rid of a pair that doesn’t suit me. If I’m not willing to part with any of my other boots then maybe I don’t want the new pair as badly as I think.