4 unexpected decluttering tips

These declutter tips for success will be the key to finally having the simplified home you’ve always wanted.

I am a little more excited about this post than maybe I should be! I think I am a closet organizing, decluttering junkie! I love to declutter and purge and all that jazz but for many years I have been closing the door on some major areas of our home! And I mean literally closing the door!!

My husband and I finally hit the wall with all of this stuff and the inefficiency of it! We talked about what we needed and how we needed to get there. I don’t mean we wrote out an hourly timeline and spreadsheet of all of our clutter and what to do but we talked about how we wanted to feel when we were in our home.

Simple living is high on our list!

Overwhelmed should not be how we feel when we are home! Sure, there are things in life that we can’t control but clutter is not one of them. Our homes should be our haven. For me an unorganized, overflowing with excess home is not simple living at all.

“Everything we keep in our house is inventory that we have to manage and it adds to our mental load.” The Minimal Mom

Declutter Tips for Success

Step 1: Family Talk

Have a conversation with everyone in your house of your intentions. Don’t point the finger or play the blame game because that will never motivate them.  Give examples of what you are doing that causes some clutter frustrations in your day and then let them follow.  If they don’t follow right away that’s ok, they will eventually follow your lead.

Step 2: Clean the House

I know what you’re thinking, decluttering the house is cleaning. No, it’s not! This has been the best thing I have done this time around that I had not done in the past.  By clean the house I mean the obvious.  Do all of the laundry, folded and put away. Put things away, even if that means stacking some things behind the infamous closed door.  Clean your kitchen. Make your beds.

Step 3: Plan Meals

Whether you plan to declutter over the weekend or any day go ahead and decide what you will eat for your meals. This will allow you to work with out freaking out at 7:00 because everyone is hungry and whining. Even if it’s take out from your favorite restaurant or pizza delivery go ahead and decide.  I have a chalk board that I have started writing meals on.  That way everyone can see it and knows what to expect.  This is a great time to use up some of those soups you may have put in your freezer.

 Step 4: Prioritize

Now it’s time to start your decluttering journey! I’m joining a 5 day video declutter challenge Jan 4-8, 2021) and you are invited. This will give you a great start.

It’s not something that can happen over night. Make a list of the areas that frustrate you the most and then list them in order of priority. For my family it was the kitchen counter where the mail comes in and all of the electronics are charged. We started there.

Now that you have read so much, (THANK YOU) I wanted to show you a few pics of what’s going on around here.

Ray did an amazing job decluttering our paper clutter.  Everything is trashed, burned or filed away!

I started in one of my closed door rooms…I’ve started with sell and donate piles.  It will be a slower process but it will happen.

This has been working so great for us over the past 3 weeks. I have kept up with all of the housework as my #1 priority before decluttering and it is amazing how much better everyone in our home feels and how easier it is to get more done.

Neglect is the reason we get ourselves in the cluttered up messes in the first place! I have told myself “follow though” more times in the past few weeks than I can count.  It has been a good thing.

I will keep you updated on my progress and any tips I learn along the way.  I hope sharing with you what is working for me will inspire you to live a simple life.

Where to start in decluttering your home

• Secret Mindset for an Organized Home
• Organizing and Tidying
• Declutter Tips for Success
• Trash and Donate
• 10 Things to Get Rid of Today