With the rise of minimalism, many are feeling the need to declutter their homes and to live with less. Gone are the mantelpiece ornaments of our grandparents’ generation. Modern homes have paved the way for clear surfaces and open spaces, giving us the chance to have a more organised home.
Start With One Zone At A Time
If you’re brand new to decluttering, it is best to split up your home into lots of different zones. Then you can tackle each zone one at a time. This makes the whole process a lot less overwhelming.
Your home may have many zones- you can even count your make up drawer, your bathroom cupboard and your ‘junk drawers’ as completely separate zones if you have a lot of stuff in these areas.
Start off small, and build yourself up to the larger areas like your wardrobe and your book shelves.
Research Marie Kondo
Marie Kondo has helped pave the way for minimalism and decluttering to become some of the biggest lifestyle trends of our generation.
And with good reason, too. Having less stuff makes us want less stuff. Once you have a clutter-free home, you are more reluctant to buy new things.
If you haven’t already heard of Marie Kondo- you can watch her show on Netflix and see how she encourages her clients to pick up each item to see if it sparks joy for them. If the item does not spark joy, it should be given away.
This is an excellent rule to follow if you are predisposed to hanging onto sentimental possessions.
Operate A ‘One In, One Out’ Policy
You can help keep your home clutter-free by operating a ‘one in, one out’ policy. This means that whenever you bring something new into your home, you get rid of something.
So for example, if you buy a new pair of jeans, you get rid of a pair of jeans which you no longer wear.
When this rule is applied to your wardrobe in particular, it means that you can keep a capsule wardrobe.
Revisit Areas Of Your Home
After your first round of decluttering, you can revisit areas of your home. If you haven’t tried decluttering before, you may find that you have been quite reserved about the things that you have got rid of.
When you revisit areas of your home, you may find that you are a little more ruthless and want to get rid of even more stuff.
New Purchases
After you have decluttered your home, when you make new purchases, you are more likely to know exactly what possessions you have in your home. This means that you are less likely to repurchase similar looking items- which could save you a lot of money!
Once you have less in your home, you are going to be less inclined to buy new things for your home- you’ve been through the effort of decluttering so why would you want to ruin all that hard work?! The ideal goal of decluttering is to be happy with the possessions that you currently have and to ensure that the items in your home bring you joy.