How to Carry Out a Decluttering Plan For Any Space
At the beginning of a major tidying session the mess can seem overwhelming, but sorting out a little at a time is an excellent way to overcome this feeling. Here are some actionable steps to take for carrying out a decluttering plan for any space.
Tidy a Small Number of Items at a Time
It may well be necessary to carry out a major tidy up and declutter for all sorts of reasons. Are you selling your home? Are relatives visiting? It’s much better to start tidying up before any of these events occur and do a little at a time every day. Try the 15 Things Challenge and choose 15 items to declutter every day – no more and no less – for a week and deal with just those items. 5 Items to donate, 5 items to trash/recycle and 5 items to find a new home for. It’s surprising how much things improve and this only takes about ten minutes at a time.
TIPS FOR Sorting Through the Clutter
While going through your piles, first of all look for personal papers and general paper clutter. Make sure to shred or destroy items with personal information. Recycle items like envelopes, old receipts, magazines and post its. Documents which need to be kept can be placed in a box ready for filing, but do make sure that you absolutely need to the papers.
Go through loose items. Old medicine bottles containing out of date medication should have any prescription information removed and the medicines placed in a bag to take back to the pharmacy for destruction.
Books if not wanted should go into the box for selling second hand items, along with any other items which could be useful to or wanted by someone. These can include old toys, clothes which are wearable but which are no longer needed, old magazines and anything else which is unwanted but in good condition. Go here for some ideas on how to find new homes of unwanted items!
Put Things Away when Finished
Finally, once the items have been sorted out, put away anything that you want to keep. If there are things which should be kept but there is nowhere to put them, place them in another temporary box. Storage may need to be purchased at some stage once there is a better idea of what is needed, but in the meantime check your home for items that can be used as storage before going out to buy more bins.
Above all enjoy the sorting out your items when carrying out a decluttering plan for any space. It can be fun to find objects which were thought to have been lost forever, and sometimes annoying to find there are two (or more) copies of books or magazines. It is very satisfying too to see the home appear from under the mess and clutter!
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