Quick Tips on How to Declutter Your Home

When your home's cluttered, it takes a toll on your mood and overall emotional state. It's a constant source of stress, even when you're not consciously thinking about it. And the situation tends to snowball, with the chaos growing over time. Then, when you start thinking about how to declutter your home, it all seems too overwhelming to tackle.

As with most challenges, the first part of the solution is mental. You need the resolve to dive in and get it done. This may mean some physical labor, and it may mean finally parting with old stuff you've been holding onto. But when you get it done, you'll breathe much easier and feel much better.

So, take a look at these tips on how to declutter your home, make your game plan, and get to it!

How to Declutter Your Home

• Remember that you don't have to declutter your entire home at once; divide it up over a few days if that makes it more manageable for you.

• Round up some help from family or friends who can make the job easier and more fun.

• Stop bringing new things into your home until you finish the decluttering process.

• Put a heavy-duty garbage bag in every room you're cleaning up, plus another bag or box for items to donate or sell (if you use the same garbage bags for both purposes, put a big piece of masking tape or something on one bag, so you don't mix them up).

• Invest in some baskets, bins, or other containers to combine and contain items.

• Little containers are great for organizing the contents of drawers.

• Buy large but short plastic containers that fit under beds, and use them to store clothes, bedding, or other stuff that's out of season.

• Don't overlook using bins in the pantry to organize it.

• Go through medicine cabinets, other cabinets, the pantry, and closets and dispose of old toiletries, beauty products, food products, cleaning supplies, and other things you never use.

• Pull everything out of your linen closets; get rid of bedding you never use (you might have some that doesn't even fit any beds you have these days), old towels, and other stuff in there that serves no purpose other than taking up space, then neatly fold and stack what's left.

• Hang shoe organizers on the back of bedroom or closet doors; they're not just great for organizing shoes but for all sorts of other smaller items too.

• Donate, sell, or get rid of old toys; we all tend to hold on to these long after the kids stop playing with them.

• Most of us also have lots of old clothes and shoes we never wear; make an honest appraisal and part with items you don't ever wear anymore.

• Go through all those old forms, pieces of mail, receipts, and other miscellaneous papers and toss or recycle what you don't actually need; use file folders to organize important paperwork.

• Figure out once and for all if those old appliances and electronics work or if they're worth fixing; if not, dispose of them.

• Check out all these places you can sell your stuff online and in person and bring in some extra cash!
  
  
• Once you declutter your home, keep on top of it! It's a lot easier to put individual things away and regularly maintain a tidy environment than to deal with a whole house or apartment full of clutter!