5 Great Tips for Decluttering Your Home

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Marie Kondo and the spirit of decluttering is everywhere. Her Netflix series “Tidying up with Marie Kondo” has made quite an impression on viewers all over and with good reason too.

Whether it’s to be a more organized person or just tidy up, decluttering is critical for us to get a better handle on our everyday lives. The applications of decluttering are vast and it’s amazing how this one activity can bring about so many benefits to our health and wellbeing. According to Psychology Today, decluttering fosters:

Better self confidence and self-efficacy
Increased energy,
decreased anxiety
mind wandering and physical activity
Reduced relationship and family tension

One of the reasons why decluttering is so beneficial is because it simplifies our home environment and makes it easier for us to complete tasks quickly and efficiently. When we can see, move and locate things easily we can get more things done.

While some people say clutter isn’t a big deal, it’s impact on how we use space is undeniable. Think about it. We’ve all been there or know someone who has.

For instance, think about all those lovely garages you see no one parking in anymore because it’s full to the brim with stuff. Or, remember all the times you had to go out and buy new things because you can never seem to find anything in your house. The impact of clutter is real and regardless of how hard you may try to avoid it, you have to declutter at some point. Failing to declutter can negatively affect your lifestyle, health and spending habits.

Furthermore, in the same way that we can declutter our physical spaces, the principles of decluttering can be applied to almost every aspect of our lives. When necessary, you can declutter you mind, your friendships, social media etc.

The fact is, the older we get is the more possessions we acquire. And with more possessions, over time, it becomes easier for them to take over our home and by extension, our lives. Therefore we have to take action to ensure that we are not carrying around unnecessary baggage and keeping our spaces and lives organized. If done right, you can really change your life.

So, without further ado, here are five tips for decluttering your home

1. Better self confidence and self-efficacy

2. Increased energy,

3. Decreased anxiety

4. mind wandering and physical activity

5. Reduced relationship and family tension

While some people say clutter isn’t a big deal, it’s impact on how we use space is undeniable. Think about it. We’ve all been there or know someone who has. For instance, think about all those lovely garages you see no one parking in anymore because it’s full to the brim with stuff. Or, remember all the times you had to go out and buy new things because you can never seem to find anything in your house. The impact of clutter is real and regardless of how hard you may try to avoid it, you have to declutter at some point. Failing to declutter can negatively affect your lifestyle, health and spending habits.

So, without further ado, here are five tips for decluttering your home

1. Stop doing things halfway.

The first tip to decluttering your life is to stop doing things halfway. A lot of clutter at home is created from objects from an unfinished task. A lot of the time we are in the middle of doing something when a more pressing issue comes up and we get completely distracted. Then, one thing leads to another and we end up totally forgetting to complete the initial task. As a result, the initial task remains incomplete so everything just sits there for days and becomes clutter.

The best thing we can do to stop this pattern of behaviors is to make an effort to focus on completing activities 100% before moving on to another task.

2. Take a picture, it will last longer

The second tip to decluttering your home is to take pictures to store information digitally rather than storing them physically. Paper use and storage are one of the biggest sources of clutter. From receipts to the beautiful old sketch you just can’t throw away, paper based clutter is everywhere. Fortunately for us, in this technologically driven age, it doesn’t have to be. Simply scan or take photos of all the hard copy information and throw away all that clutter. With so many free online cloud storage options you can be sure that your information is safe and secure.

3. Assign a storage location for all your belongings

The third tip to declutting your home is to assign a storage location for everything. When useful objects don’t have designated area for storage they become clutter. Everything has its place in our lives and should belong somewhere. Therefore it is very important to have even a basic system of organization in place. For example, clothes belong in closets, food belongs in the pantry and jewelry belongs in the jewelry box. So, if you have nowhere to put dirty clothes, it will end up becoming clutter around your room. Organization is key!

4. Stop buying things you don’t need

The fourth tip to decluttering your home is to stop buying things you don’t need. This is a tip I can’t stress enough and is especially important to follow if you don’t have enough space to all these new things. Exercise self control and only buy things that you really need. If you have a perfectly good one at home, you don’t need to buy another.

5. Declutter your mind

The fifth tip to decluttering your home is to declutter your mind. Acknowledge and work though any problems in your life that may be affecting your mental health and manifesting as clutter in your physical environment. If you find that you are consistently doing things halfway, buying stuff you don’t need and not creating space for your new things then it might be happening as a result of a bigger issue. A cluttered mind leads to a cluttered home.

Hope you found these tips useful. comment down below any other tips that work for you.