Decluttering Tips For Beginners
Get our top decluttering tips for beginners that will put the easy into transforming your home from messy to organized. Tackled just a few clutter tips each day and watch your home take shape.
Add this list of decluttering tips to your simple living guide and refer to it whenever you need a short and easy approach to cleaning out a messy room.
Decluttering your home can be a pretty monumental task. Nothing can be more frightening than the thought of going through every one of your things and deciding whether to keep or remove them.
When faced with a project this size and all the drawers, closets, cabinets and shelves ….sometimes it is easier to turn a blind eye, close the door, and just continue on with your day.
If you are a frequent visitor to Simple Living Country Gal, then you know how much I love decluttering and simplifying.
It is my goal to help anyone who wants to remove the excess so they can live a peaceful, satisfying life without the noise or the chaos that clutter and mess often bring.
I am also aware that the getting started part can be half the battle.
Oh, who am I kidding? Getting started is usually the hardest part!
If you can find a way to make getting started easier, then you are off and running.
Now, before we go any further, I understand there are different levels of clutter, and not every list of tips will be the answer you are looking for.
If you have your home pretty well cleaned out and all you need is a little help with the finishing touches, you can jump to this post and get my My Best Decluttering Tip that you can use to keep the mess from coming back.
For the rest of you, we are going to come up with a game plan that will get you on your way to “wanting” to declutter your home.
Well, this may not be quite as exciting as my friend right here, but it’s pretty darn close.
You see, I used to HATE decluttering. I hated the tediousness of it all. But then something happened; I finally finished my first room. Once I saw that room, once I FELT that room, I was hooked.
That’s because when you declutter a home it is contagious. Once that very first room is cleaned out and set up in a way that makes sense to you and your family you will be hooked too.
See this plan in action with a room that your entire family uses, The Family Room.
Notice I did not say a cleaned-out and decluttered home. That is not what this post is about. It is actually meant to be more than that.
This post is meant to be a tool that you can use to help you get started. To take that first step even when you don’t want to.
Whether you have one room that needs your attention or an entire house that needs a full-on overhaul you can get control of your things with one simple and easy rule.
Remove the clutter one item at a time.
The problem with any decluttering or cleaning task is we tend to look at the whole picture and that can be enough to keep us from starting.
When you picture your entire home and the size of the job that lies ahead of you, you can quickly lose any motivation because you are setting your sights too high. You are only picturing and planning for the finish, making it too hard to begin the journey.
I want to encourage you to change your perspective and think only of the journey.
And with any journey, it all happens just one step at a time.
Just like with a marathon, you need to train yourself to look at decluttering differently.
It isn’t a “show up for the long strenuous race and be done with it forever” project. You are going to work on this every single day by setting small attainable goals that you can reach without giving it a second thought.
But it’s more than that. You will change your daily and weekly habits to incorporate decluttering and cleaning into your schedule.
As you remove things slowly and intentionally you will, in turn, teach your mind to look at your things as just that.
THINGS.
These things are NOT people we love. They are NOT friends we cherish. They are NOT events in our lives. , they may represent those things,Sure they may represent those things but they are not and never will be replacements for those things.
Decluttering Tips For Beginners.
Okay, so I know what you are thinking. This is all well and good, but HOW do we do it?
I am so glad you asked because I am going to show you my top tips that you can use when you are stuck.
Step #1 Plan and Schedule
I want you to look at this step as part of your daily routine. Eventually you will make this weekly but for now daily is how we are going to approach this. Remember we are training for a marathon and to do that we need to introduce things nice and slow.
As you begin to see how purging makes you feel. How it frees you from the stress that too much stuff naturally brings, you will train your mind to WANT to remove the extra.
- Plan on spending just 20 minutes every single day working on your clutter.
- Take it one step further and put that 20 minutes onto your calendar. Mark it off in pen, so you can’t ignore it.
Just 20 minutes? Well, that’s ,easy enough, right? Heck when you think about it, you can do just about anything for 20 minutes.
Get a root canal, watch a painfully boring presentation at work, walk on a treadmill, get your oil changed.
When you know you just have 20 minutes committed it is much easier to get through it.
Set that time and get your head in the game! My partner in crime, my decluttering BFF is my Echo Show.
All I have to do is say, “Alexa, set the timer for 20 minutes,” and it’s done, and I can get to work. Better yet, I can have her play my Timer Playlist. My top songs that take, you guessed it, 21 minutes to play. Winner-Winner!
Step #2 Get up and Get Going
Unfortunately, there is no way to sugarcoat this step. To create a simplified, neat, and organized home, you need to get up and get going.
Remember, it’s just 20 minutes.
It’s for your own happiness. It’s for your family’s happiness. Use that as your motivation to get started and work for the full 20 minutes.
Better yet, consider this a daily task, like cooking dinner. Cooking dinner takes about 20-30 minutes and it is something you probably do every day.
If you can approach decluttering just like any other daily task, you can incorporate it into your daily routine without thinking twice about it.
Step #3 Set the Timer
I love a good motivator and a timer is just that. A motivator. Maybe not at first, but as you begin to find your groove, you will see that when the time is ticking away, it is a great motivator and a perfect way to get more done faster.
That timer will force you to focus. To motivate you to zero in on what needs to be done and work quickly.
Set that timer, and as soon as it begins to count down, get busy. Set your focus on the project in front of you and get it done.
20-Minute Action Steps
#1. Set a timer for 20 minutes
#2. Grab a bag or a box that you can fill in that time frame
#3. Start selecting things that you can easily remove. Look for trash, excess things, or items you haven’t used in years.
#4. Move quickly, and collect things that you can let go of. Extra kitchen items, expired makeup, clothes that no longer fit, junk mail, or toys your kids have outgrown.
#5. The object is to fill your box or bag before the timer goes off. Don’t think. Just do.
#6. When the timer goes off, take the box and immediately put it in the trunk of your car.
#7. Next time you are out running errands, be sure to drop all the items off at the donation center.
#8. Repeat this process every day and watch your home transform.
Step #4 Save the hard stuff for later
Sometimes, there are items in those piles that have meaning—certain things that bring with them a pleasant memory. Sentimental items take time and can not be rushed through in 20 minutes.
To help, here is a tip: Save those items for later. They deserve your time and attention, so if letting them go is not something you can deal with instantly, you can set it aside to deal with it later.
Remember, this list is to help you GET STARTED. As you sort through things you will strengthen your decluttering muscle, making it easier to make decisions. You will actually train your mind to look at an item from a different perspective.
Step #5 Declutter as you go
For me, this was the easiest way to handle all that clutter in my home. When I decided to weave decluttering throughout my day, I was not hit in the face with the hardness of it.
Instead, I could remove the clutter as I came across things throughout my day. So, for example, when making dinner and waiting for things to cook, use that time to sort through a drawer in your kitchen, looking for any excess or unused items you can donate.
This is called gradual decluttering and it will completely change how you clean out your home.
Gradual Decluttering Examples
When dressing in the morning, take a few seconds to sort through your sock drawer.
When putting dishes away, set aside any food storage containers that are missing lids.
When cleaning the bathroom, toss any empty shampoo or conditioner bottles.
When cleaning up the playroom, fill a bag of random toys that have collected at the bottom of a toy box.
By decluttering this way, you are not faced with the monumental task of cleaning out your entire home. You will instead remove a few random things here and there as you come across them.
This will allow you to turn a huge job into a simple chore you can tackle without much effort at all.
Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Step #6 Nothing comes in unless something goes out
This is a tip learned years ago, and it is great for anyone just starting out. This one tip alone will ensure that your home will never get any worse than it is right now.
Before anything new comes into your home, the same amount needs to go out.
If you go out shopping for new clothes, be sure to remove the same amount of old items before you bring the new ones in.
If you purchase a new kitchen gadget, you will need to remove an item from your gadget collection.
Did you buy new toys for your kids? Gather up the same amount and set them aside for donation.
Step #7 Declutter as you clean
This is another of my favorite ways to remove the clutter and one I still use to this day. It is a great way to stay on top of your things and to ensure they never get out of hand again.
When I dust, I will go through my nick-nacks and remove any items that no longer bring me joy. Now, don’t panic, I am not telling you to toss important sentimental items, however, I do want to encourage you to keep a reasonable amount that doesn’t overwhelm a room.
READ: HOW TO CONQUER SURFACE CLUTTER
You see, decluttering doesn’t mean forcing you to give all your things to a donation center. Decluttering means keeping the things you love, need, and use and letting go of the stuff that does not.
Once you remove all the extras—the piles, the bags, and stacks of stuff—you will uncover the items that make you smile whenever you look at them.
I cannot tell you how comforting it is to be in a home that is simplified and less cluttered. Having counters that are open and free of stuff sets the tone for the entire home.
Use these tips on how to begin decluttering and take your first step towards creating a home you love to be in.
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Hello Tracy
I had to delete my Gmail account because they kept not recognising my password,so I am now on my btinternet account.Please could I have the October decluttering calendar?
Many thanks
Brenda
Oh, Brenda,
I am sorry I just saw this!! Did you ever get the calendar?? If not email me at [email protected] and I will send you one right away.
Hi Tracy
I received the free January decluttering calendar,but thought I requested the rest of the year at a bargain price.I haven’t received the calendar for February onwards.
Brenda
You have done a great job on these seven tips. I want to agree with your idea about leaving the harder stuff for later. Focusing all your energy on the harder part of decluttering will only want to make you quit.
I also agree with you on the idea of spending 20 minutes every single day on decluttering. However, I will like to suggest that people can also use just five minutes a day to declutter if they see that they can get 20 minutes out of their busy schedules. Doing something in a bit makes it more interesting and easier.
That said, I appreciate you taking your time to share these great tips with us.
I greatly appreciate your tip of leaving the big and bulky stuff for the latter part of the decluttering process. This will help us properly plan how we’re going to tackle my brother’s old apartment and how we want to help him organize it before he moves out. There could be a lot of stuff we can still use from there, so we’ll make sure that we start with the little stuff and get a dumpster rental to provide us a way to get rid of the things we no longer use.