A Guide to Decluttering Your Home, Room-by-Room

A Guide to Decluttering Your Home, Room-by-Room

Decluttering your home may feel like quite a daunting task, but it has a range of benefits. Decluttering reduces stress and anxiety, improves your sleep, boosts productivity and creativity, saves money, and makes it easier for you to keep your space clean and tidy. If you haven’t decluttered in quite a while, you’ve probably built up a lot of stuff. You’ve got a few options: you can sell your stuff, donate items to charity, put belongings into self storage (there are plenty of options for self storage in London) or throw items away.

To make the process easier for you, we’ve created a guide to help you declutter your home, room-by-room.

• Find Containers

The first step in the decluttering process is to find large containers to sort your items into. You’ll need separate containers for items you’re keeping, fixing or mending, recycling, putting into storage, throwing away or donating to charities. Once you’ve sorted your containers, it’s time to declutter!

• Start in the Bedroom

Your bedroom will likely be one of your home’s most cluttered rooms. We recommend that you make your bed if you haven’t done so already, an unmade bed will make the room look untidy, and it’s hard to feel like you’re making progress if the room feels messy.

Start by sorting your bedside tables. Remove any items that don’t belong there, including books you’ve finished, pens and paper and other items that would be better placed elsewhere. Dispose of items that are damaged or that you no longer need, but make sure to recycle as much as you can to do your bit for the environment. Repeat this process for your chest of drawers and on any other surfaces, including shelves and windowsills.

Finally, it’s time to tackle your wardrobe. The best way to approach it is to declutter by clothing type. Start with shoes, then move to dresses, tops, trousers, and so on. Once you’ve sorted through your clothes, you should have several piles: items that were in the wrong place, clothing that needs to go in the laundry, items that need repairing and clothes to donate or throw away.

• Move to the Bathroom

Now, it’s time to tackle the bathroom. Start with the medicine cabinet, if you have one. Take everything out of the cabinet first, then add items that you’re going to keep back in. It’s best to store the items you use most often at eye level and items you use less regularly at the back where they’re less easily accessible. That way, you won’t have to rifle through the cabinet and mess it up every day.

Next, sort through the bathroom drawers. Remove everything from inside the drawers and evaluate which items you’re keeping and which need to be thrown away. Then, put the items you’re keeping back into the drawer—we recommend you put the items you use the most at the top of the drawer for easy access.

If you’ve got shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles on the side of your bath or on a shelf in your shower, sort through them, too. Place the items you use the most in the most accessible place to save yourself hassle later. Finally, place the items you have left over after you’ve put everything away that you’re keeping into their appropriate decluttering container.

• Head Over to the Kitchen

We all dream of a clutter-free kitchen. However, because the room is used so often to cook, eat and spend time with loved ones, clutter that belongs elsewhere soon piles up. There are two ways you can approach decluttering your kitchen—by item type or by zone. If you prefer decluttering by item, make a list of all kitchen items by group (utensils, mugs, glasses, bakeware, etc.) and sort through them one by one.

On the other hand, if you prefer sorting by zone, pick an area of the kitchen and sort through all the items in that area before moving on to the next zone. Completely empty the space first, then put the items you’re keeping back in their place. Then, once you have the remaining items, sort them into your decluttering containers: fixing or mending, recycling, putting into storage, throwing away, or donating to charity.

• Next, Tackle the Living Room

It’s difficult to keep living rooms clutter-free because they are one of the most commonly used rooms in the house. Start the decluttering process by emptying bookcases, side tables and the TV stand, and add the items you’re keeping back into their storage space. Then, sort the items remaining into their appropriate decluttering container.

In Summary

Decluttering your home is an incredibly satisfying task. While it might take quite some time to complete, the end result is an organised and tidy space where you’ll enjoy spending time. If you find that you have items you want to keep but simply don’t have space to store in your home, consider putting them into self storage.

Guest Article.