The idea of living simply with less stuff sounds appealing. But often, that initial enthusiasm is met with feelings of anxiety and defeat when overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to declutter around the home.
Learning how to declutter your home (and as a result, decluttering your life) doesn’t need to be as painful as some make it out to be. And the benefits abound.
The Benefits of Decluttering Your Life
Less to clean. Cleaning is already enough of a chore, but having to clean around things you have zero emotional attachment to (or worse, actively dislike) makes cleaning the house much more stressful.
Less to organize. Finding things suddenly become easier. Things don’t just “disappear” anymore. You can actually move around your home and enjoy the space, instead of moving around things that are in the way.
Less stress. Looking around at the clutter creates mental anxiety. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to look around and see a home you love?
Less debt. Spending less time shopping for material possessions and adding to the clutter means your wallet and bank accounts remain fuller, your credit cards’ statements are lower, and your home doesn’t get filled with costly things you don’t need.
Ok, so now you know the benefits of decluttering your life, but you may be getting tripped up by the very next question… how do I begin?
5 Decluttering Hacks
If you’re struggling and need guidance on how to declutter, here are several hacks to get you started:
- Start with 5 minutes at a time. If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day.
- Give one item away each day. This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. Increase this number once it gets too easy.
- Donate clothes you never wear. To identify them, simply hang all your clothes with hangers in the reverse direction. After wearing an item, face the hanger in the correct direction. Discard the clothes you never touched after a few months.
- Take the 5-5-5 challenge. Choose a room or section of your home and locate 5 items to throw away, 5 to donate, and 5 to be returned to their proper home.
- Use the Four-Bag Method. Get four bags and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of the following bags. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This may take days, weeks, or months, but it will help you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.
There is a place of rest and clarity hiding behind that clutter. With small incremental change everyday, you’ll find it!
