Easy Tips to Declutter Your Home

So I mentioned recently that I’ve been on decluttering rampage since the day after Christmas. I’ve been whizzing through the house like a crazy lady throwing stuff away, donating things, and just getting this hot mess of a house in order. You guys only see the pretty pictures, but believe me there are plenty of not-so-pretty spaces in my home. And to be honest, I’m embarrassed to say that it’s been waaaaaaay too long since I did a good purge around here. Things have been getting piled up, closets are looking crazy, and don’t even get me started on how out of control my laundry room is right now. It’s just way too easy to let stuff stack up and if you don’t make time to declutter it only gets worse. Anyway I’ve been slowly but surely working my way through the house, one closet and one drawer at a time. And I have to say, it feels soooooooooo darn good. I actually find it really therapeutic to declutter. I crank up the music, put on a fresh pot of coffee and just work my way through all the stuff. And even though I always procrastinate and put it off, I end up really enjoying the process and feel so much better afterwards. So since this has occupied so much of my time lately, I figured it would be fun today to share some easy tips to declutter your home. And let me warn you now: I’m even sharing a shocking photo of our kitchen cabinets that might scare you.

Why we should declutter:

I really believe that decluttering and simplifying our homes has a pretty powerful impact on our minds and energy. I know it may sound like baloney, but it’s true that our stress levels can be greatly impacted by the way our homes look and feel. I know for me personally, I’m always less anxious and more calm when I feel like the house is organized and less weighed down by too much clutter. And since there’s always a steady flow of stuff coming in (school papers, mail, clothes, food, etc) if we don’t make time to declutter and eliminate the unnecessary junk, our homes will continue to fill up more and more as each day passes. And that ain’t good.

How to declutter:

• I like to work in small sections of our home and focus on just one area at a time. Start with just one closet, one cabinet, or that junk drawer that looks like a war zone. Don’t try do to the whole house at once!
• Once you’ve decided on where you’re going to declutter, turn on some music (or maybe a podcast or audio book), pour yourself a cup of coffee and get to work. Grab one box for things you’ll donate and one large trash bag for things that can be thrown away.
• If you come across an item that you’re on the fence about keeping, ask yourself these three questions:
  • Do you love it?
  • Do you really need it?
  • Do you have more than one of the same item? (For example, I donated several large bakeware dishes this week because I realized that I never need more than 1 or 2 at a time. I can’t remember any occasion where I needed 5 large pyrex baking dishes, so they had to go.)
• If you come across something that is sentimental, ask yourself if you actually love it. Like, truly LOVE it. Many sentimental items we own are things we don’t necessarily like, but we hold onto them because we feel like we need to or have to. Let go of that guilt and only keep what you truly love and value.

One of the many things I’ve decluttered and organized this week has been the large cabinets in our kitchen that hold a lot of our food and dishes. They were loooooong overdue and I knew it needed to be done. Every time I opened the cabinet doors I felt stressed and anxious because it literally looked like a bomb went off in there. It was bad. Soooo bad. But it wasn’t until this week that I finally did something about it. Here, take a look for yourself. But be warned–it’s scary!

I told you. SO BAD. Don’t judge me too harshly, ok? Clearly nothing is organized and each cabinet is literally overflowing with crap. I’m ashamed to even show you guys this, but here’s how it looks after I spent a solid hour cleaning it up:

So much better, right?! You would not believe the pile of junk I pulled out for here. Seriously, I had THREE large bags of trash and one big box of stuff to donate, which was full of large dishes and things I never even used. I don’t even know how it was possible to have that much stuff crammed in there, but somehow I did. To clean up these cabinets I basically removed EVERYTHING and sorted through it all–making a pile of stuff to throw away and then a pile of things to donate, like several large baking dishes that I had too many of. I used large tupperware bins to help organize the small stuff like granola bars and bags of oatmeal. And I also used a few old jars to hold smaller things like candy and nuts. It’s nothing super fancy, but it’s a million times better now and it feels amazing to have this done. I rewarded myself with chocolate.

Decluttering is really powerful because it teaches you a lot about yourself. You’ll learn about what you truly love and value, and you might even learn some lessons that will keep you from acquiring so much stuff in the future. So here’s my challenge for you today: go grab a box and find 10 things you can get rid of in your home right now. I promise you’ll feel really good afterwards. And then you can reward yourself with chocolate too! It will be great.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! I hope these easy tips to declutter your home motivate you to tackle some of your own messy spaces. Here’s a few other posts you might enjoy:

7 Practical Ways to Refresh Your Home

How to Get Organized with Vintage Decor

Farmhouse Style Wall Storage & Organization

Farmhouse Style Family Command Center