Ten Creative Ways to Declutter Your Home

Upland, CA--If anyone were asked if they enjoy the clutter around them, few would say that they do. In this week’s “Ten-to-Win,” Kim shares 10 Creative Ways to Declutter Your Home. Enjoy!

1. Time Yourself. You may find yourself either cleaning until your knees give out or looking to when the end is near. Timing how long you will clean helps to reduce stress from being overworked. It creates a challenge to try and finish within the knick of time.

2. Stuff a Big Bag. Search an area, throw away what’s trash, and collect what you’re donating. Attempt to fill the “big bag” to capacity. Since you all you then have to do is tie it up and throw it out, you are less likely to want to hold on to something or go back to retrieve it.

3. Feed Outside the Box. If you’ve ever found yourself looking throughout the kitchen for a specific item, or if your kitchen is stuffed with boxes of the same item, you’ll love this tip. Invest in a couple of clear food containers from Big Lots or even the 99 Cents store. Place food or liquids into the containers from their boxes or cartons, which saves on space. Instead of having three boxes of the same cereal filling your pantry, you’re able to put the contents of those boxes into containers.

4. Schedule Your De-cluttering. Earlier, we mentioned giving you a time limit with tasks to prevent over-working, but if over-working yourself isn’t an issue, you may find yourself not finding time to de-clutter in the first place. Take a few moments to search your home for concern areas, jot them down, and then scheduling in when you can make time for decluttering each spot.

5. Put Clothes in Piles of Three. The “Pile of Three” method works by seeing your clothes as one huge pile rather than just pants, shirts, etc. Then: (1) Empty your closet. (2) Assess clothing for damage and size. Put into one of three piles: Keep, Trash, or Donate. With the clothes you’re keeping, we have a tip later about how to de-clutter that pile even further

6. Change Your Mindset of Cleaning. De-cluttering isn’t about throwing out junk but rather assessing what you truly need or don’t need. It may feel daunting to give away great quality clothing, but if you have repeat colors or if something doesn’t fit, doing away with it will help you begin to de-cluttering your life.

7. Use the Traveler’s Method. Why not take the “Traveler’s Method.” When packing for a trip, you are confined to one or two pieces of luggage and what doesn’t fit doesn’t come with you on your journey. You can use this in the de-cluttering process by reducing the amount of places clutter can grow which prevent you from taking on too much of what you don’t need.

8. Re-arrange Your Space. Re-arranging the placement of the main items in your room. For example, changing the position of your couches or office desk. This will force you to address the junk you are holding in and around these items.

9. Musical Chairs for Your Closet. Before, we mentioned about the “Pile of Three” method. But what happens when the items you want to keep is still a large pile? It’s time to play “Musical Chairs for Your Closet”. Remove all the hangers from your closet, creating a pile of hangers. Remove 5 or 10 from the pile. Place clothes back in closet assessing one final time if each item stays or goes. Once hanger space runs out, what’s left can be donated.

10. Digitize Your Clutter. In this tip, you can implement the “Pile of Three” method. Pile 1: “No Throw Zone” – original documents and sentimental items. Pile 2: “Trashing the Junk” – papers that must go. Pile 3: “Scan and Go” – papers you’re scanning and throwing out. If you don’t have a scanner, you can use your smartphone to take a photo of the document. You can also consider public scanning and printing shops and save your papers onto a memory card or flash drive.