It is a great time of year to work on decluttering! Chances are that after all the new holiday loot has found a place in your home, there is now a bunch of old stuff that you could part with help clear the clutter. If you to take this declutter challenge, I bet you feel a whole lot better! It just feels good to have a clean slate. To make this easy, I am going to share my tips for how to declutter your room in just a few easy steps.
Why Declutter?
Here is the thing to remember when it comes to stuff- less really is more! If your kids have 100 games, not only is it more stuff for you and the child to have to constantly pick up, but it is also likely that they won’t value any of the toys the way they would if they had less. If you open your drawer, and it is so packed with stuff that you don’t wear that you can’t find the stuff you do wear, then you understand that less is more.
Benefits Of Decluttering:
- less to put away
- easier to clean
- more open space
- looks better
- feels better (life just feels less chaotic)
- allows you to value the items you have more
- allows you to find things more easily
- allows for better organization (which has it’s own health benefits)
- easier to concentrate (less distractions)
Decluttering Tip:
When I declutter, I always imagine how happy I will make the people who will find these new treasures after they are donated to Good Will or sold at through VarageSale. One person’s junk really can be another’s treasure and it always makes me part with more when I know it will be reused by someone who needs it.
Declutter Challenge
To make this more fun, I want to give you a Declutter Challenge. I have to tell you that decluttering is good work that you can be proud of so I don’t want to push you or rush you. I challenge you to choose one room in your house each week and then thoroughly declutter that room. You can do it anyway you work best as long as you meet that declutter challenge goal of one room each week. Personally, I would devote one day to getting it done. Like start early Saturday and see if you can finish before noon. It will feel so great!
How To Declutter Your Room In Just A Few Easy Steps
To do a really thorough job, it is important to declutter by room. Choosing one room at a time gives you a manageable goal so that you don’t get lost in what you have and haven’t done. You don’t put it off and forget. So first choose your room.
Now grab a few bags and or boxes to make it easy to sort things you want to give away or sell. Go for giving away when it won’t make you much extra cash because it is immediate and feels good to give.
- Start with what is most visible in the room. What is most visible will have the most impact when you declutter and give you a sense of getting something done. For example is there stuff all over the floor- do you really need any of it or can you load it into a bag or box to be given away? Is there junk covering the surface of your furniture? Is there too much furniture? Too many books to fit inside the book shelves? Once big obvious things are out of the way you can move into the hidden but often very cluttered areas.
- Time to open the drawers and cabinets and see what can go. If you haven’t used it or worn it in a year, then you can likely give it to someone else who will and get some space back! It may look like you have 10 pairs of jeans but when you give away the 8 that don’t fit, you will be able to move stuff around and actually know what you do need. (Then you will be able to use my thrift store shopping tips to get what you do need.)
- Last work on the closet. The closet can sometimes be like a whole new room that needs decluttering. Again break it down by area. Go through the shelved space and the stuff sitting on the ground. How many pairs of shoes do you really need? Then go through the hanging stuff and use the 1 year rule again.
You just decluttered your room. You did it! Now, go ahead and make that donation drop off right away so it isn’t just moved clutter.
Pat yourself on the back! You deserve a high five for cleaning out all of that stuff you didn’t need, creating more room in your house, and giving (or selling) that stuff to a place where people that do need it can get it!
If you have kids, don’t forget to have them help you with at least part of the process so they can learn that giving things they don’t use to others that need them is an important and desirable thing to do.
I hope you found these tips for how to how to declutter your room helpful! Do you have any declutter tips you would like to share? I would love to hear them @familyfocusblog and see your before and after photos! If you found these tips for decluttering useful, share the Declutter Challenge with your friends!
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These are fantastic tips for decluttering!
Thank you for the tips! I try to do the same every year in our house with all of my kids helping, it is not only a fun activity if you do it together but one of the best things you can do in your house to make it look and feel better to live in. My process looks a little different though – we first start to take on the biggest challenges. Look around the house and see if there’s anything big both literally and figuratively that needs to go out. Old furniture, cloth storages, shelves we don’t need anymore or would like to get rid of and all of that. And then come to smaller things like unwanted, old toys and other stuff. It is really important to remove old clutter from your place because otherwise it will become too much work with years and you’ll never get to do it or it will be substantially harder to do all at once compared to if you did it every year.