4 Great Tactics For Decluttering Your Home Successfully

If you've decided you simply have too much stuff and too little organization in your life, you'll find plenty of people stuck in the same boat. Welcome to the world of decluttering! Decluttering your home is the process of eliminating stuff you don't need and organizing the essentials so that your space is tidier, more livable, and easier to use. The general principles outlined below will help you start decluttering effectively.

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1. Elimination Is Priority Number One It's no accident that "eliminating stuff you don't need" was the first point mentioned above. You should always approach decluttering with purging your home of items you don't use at the top of your mind. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to haul everything you intend to get rid of to the dumpster, either. Be on the lookout for goods you can donate to charity, (clothes, canned goods, etc.) give to friends and relatives, or offer to community institutions. (Books you don't want to keep can go to your local library or school, for example.) You can use two easy questions to identify the things you don't need to keep: When was the last time you used it, and How much would it cost to replace? Anything that's gathered dust for months and would be easy to replace should go. 2. Work In Manageable Chunks Setting aside a whole weekend for decluttering your home is an excellent way to fail. Clearing out clutter is hard work - you can't do the entire job in just a day or two. Break up your decluttering tasks into manageable chunks. Working room by room (or even drawer by drawer, in extreme cases) is a more realistic plan. Some decluttering experts even recommend a daily five-minute dose of organization, and no more than that. Getting into the habit of making progress regularly will make you better at decluttering, even if you're making progress in tiny increments. 3. Organize Before You Spend Money Some people equate decluttering with buying lots of fancy organizing bins, installing new shelves, and purchasing pricey furniture. While you can incorporate just as many fancy gadgets as you like into your decluttering, resist the temptation to start your work at the store. It's much better to pare down to the essentials and develop a clear idea of how you want to organize them first. It's also more productive: If you eliminate waste and organize your belongings, then neglect to buy that new shoe rack, you've accomplished plenty. If you buy a shoe rack and throw it in your closet without doing anything else, you're only increasing the amount of clutter in your home!

4. Aim For Improvement, Not Perfection

One danger in the decluttering process is spending too long looking for inspiration. Tips can come in handy, of course, but staring at photos of picture-perfect dressers and spotless closets can actually have a demotivating effect.

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Your goal in decluttering is to make your situation tomorrow a little better than it is today, not to reach some platonic ideal. If you get comfortable with the idea of making small but continual improvements, you'll get a lot more done. You'll even approach the lofty heights of perfect tidiness and organization if you really cultivate a habit for consistent organization. Best of all, the good habits you build will prepare you to get the most out of your home as it gets neater and cleaner.

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