Decluttering Your Home and Life: Signs of Clutter and Ideas

Over time we all accumulate and keep a lot of items that we do not need or use. There are many different reasons why we do this but it is no secret that we are all guilty of it. Some people even do not realise that they are doing this. So here are some obvious signs that you may want to know.

Signs that you have clutter are:

Having food or medicine stored in your cabinets that have expired years ago.

Having two, three or more junk drawers with trinkets and stuff that you keep because "you might need them someday" and you never do.

Every time you start spring cleaning your home you find "cool stuff you didn't remember you had" and just change their location instead of throwing them away.

When you have boxes of old VHS tapes, cassettes, DVDs, toys, etc. stored in boxes because they have sentimental value to you.

Have pieces of clothing with the tags on. Any impulsive buy and shopping spree that has urged you to buy unnecessary clothes, bags or shoes, which to this day you have not used, is a great alert that you keep too much stuff.

Your fridge is full of jars or bottles that have been there for so long that you no longer remember what are the substances inside.

You regularly bring boxes of your old memories or old appliances to your parents' house to store be cause you don't have a place to store them.

Here are examples of what your home might look like:

Having many dusty boxes in your attic labeled 'old clothes', 'old toys', 'old books' and others of the sort.

Having a lot of souvenirs that someone has given you as a gift, simply because they are gifts. They clutter your home and make it hard for you to clean. Most of the people will not even remember that it was from them if it has no sentimental value, it is not a unique handmade piece of art, there is no need to keep it.

Having piles of magazines from 5 years ago.

Motivation to Begin the Process is The Most Important Part

Decluttering is not a rocket science and it’s not like trying to assemble IKEA furniture for which many people hire professional assemblers.

Dedicate a whole weekend to decluttering your home. It will certainly help you to take the time to thank your possessions for their purpose and let them go. Throw away any broken piece of appliance or souvenir; donate old clothes and toys, sell what you deem appropriate. This will help you feel better because your sentimental possessions that have only been collecting dust and taking up space in your home will be useful to someone else.

Or you can follow a very popular advice on decluttering in five steps.

The advice is to:

Empty the room. Remove everything and take a look at your empty room.

Create an image in your head of how you want the room to look. Think about what things you have and which of them fit your image.

Sort all your items into two piles - the image pile and the unnecessary pile. The image pile should contain all items that will be added to the room to complete your image of it, and the other pile will bid you adieu.

The unnecessary pile can be again separated into two piles - one for donations and one to be thrown away.

Use your image pile and create your room’s image anew.

Getting rid of the unused things in your home, even when they have sentimental value to you is necessary. You do not need to keep all of the junk that brings memories to your mind when you see them, you will have your memories without them. By releasing your home from the clutter, you will be making room for new stuff, better stuff. A space for new memories and new loved items.

Interested in everything. Experienced writer/blogger. Field of expertise - interior design.