Everyone’s Decluttering – How To Get Started

by Mia M.

Hello, beautiful people and welcome back to my website. Today, your girl is taking a backseat and having a guest post take the wheel! (Thank God… being back at work is really zapping any and all spare energy I had, so this could not have come at a more convenient time!) Usually, I kind of skip out on sponsored posts, but this guest post is something that’s actually quite helpful and relevant for you guys, so I hope you enjoy!

Many people are now simplifying and downsizing, realising that every new gizmo, gadget, or so-called ‘must-have’ just makes life more complicated.

And decluttering has another purpose. Have you ever had problems with ants, moths, spiders, or *gasp* roaches? So much so that you had to call in professionals like https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/arizona/ to get rid of them? Cluttered houses end up being the perfect homes for pests like those mentioned to settle down in. And it can be harder to notice they’re there when there is so much clutter blocking them from your sight. 

People with less clutter find things like cleaning and even just walking around in their own homes to be a breeze. That’s just the facts.

Decluttering your possessions is a first, and major, step when you’re trying to make life simpler. It sounds easy, but it’s not always that straightforward. These tips might help.

Take it Easy

Trying to declutter your whole life (or even your whole wardrobe) all at once is sure to make you feel overwhelmed by the task. Small steps are the way to go, focusing each step on just a single aspect or theme in your life.

White Bedspread Beside Nightstand With White And Copper Table Lamp
White Bedspread Beside Nightstand With White And Copper Table Lamp

Examples of single-focus areas could be:

  • Your car that’s always full of old parking slips, sweet wrappers or dust and dirt from your shoes. Hoover the floor and seats. Polish the dash. Clear out the glove box and side compartments. Enjoying the ‘new car’ feel in your old motor will encourage you to create the same feeling of space somewhere else.
  • Tackle your clothes. Start with the things that don’t fit or are damaged beyond repair. Let them go. Put them in a self storage room if you just want them out of the way but still within reach. Enjoy the liberation of knowing everything in your wardrobe is wearable.
  • Target the books you don’t read, games you don’t play, or gadgets you don’t use. They are all taking up space and mental energy. Remove them from your life.

Little steps like this might sound too small to make much difference. But they’re important. When you find yourself drawn to (and enjoying) the place or area you’ve cleared, you realise how much you could amplify that good feeling if you cleared another small spot. It starts the momentum you need to carry on.

Build New Habits

Good habits are harder to form than bad ones, for some strange reason. Habits are so deeply ingrained that we often don’t even realise we have them.

White Wooden Shelf Beside Bed
White Wooden Shelf Beside Bed

When you try and make too many changes to habitual behaviour, your mind will rebel and you’ll slip back into old ways before new ones have had chance to become second nature.

By focusing on just one small area in your life to declutter, and maintaining the new, streamlined style until it’s a habit, you give a new way of doing things chance to bed in.

Bear in mind that if you live with other people, they have needs and habits too. When you change something in your own life, you also make changes in theirs whether you meant to or not.

So small steps, taken regularly, help ease everyone into a more organised, smooth-flowing lifestyle.

Try and maintain each newly cleared area, whether it’s one kitchen drawer, your shoe collection or your car, for about a month before adding a new area.

Make Believe Life’s a Beach

You can’t take everything you own on holiday, so if you’ve ever had a holiday you already know a bit about living a minimalist lifestyle. Even if you’re an over-packer, you can still only take what you can carry.

When you’re packing, you naturally focus on what you need and what you can manage without.

Turned On Silver Macbook On White Bed
Turned On Silver Macbook On White Bed

Nobody is saying you have to live your whole life out of a suitcase. The idea here is to tap into your inner minimalist. We all have one.

So, do you really need a phone, an e-reader and a tablet? Maybe, or maybe not. Try cutting down on your gadgets for a while, choosing just one that lets you do it all.

What about clothes? Do you need to keep a wardrobe full of winter boots and coats through the summer months? Wouldn’t it be grand to just reach in and grab what you want without having to root through out-of-season stuff?

Kitchen gadgets? How often do you use the bread maker, the smoothie maker, the food processor or the halogen oven?

There are lots of areas where we could reduce what we own down to just those things we use, like we do when going on holiday.

Silver Macbook On Top Of White Surface
Silver Macbook On Top Of White Surface

If it worries you to get rid of stuff, consider renting a self storage unit for a few months. You can stow away the things you don’t use, but they’ll still be there if you made a mistake and need something back. When you realise you’re not missing what’s in storage, you know you can safely unload them permanently. Some people like to keep things in self storage in the long term, as a sort of home extension, especially in small houses or flats.

Over a few months, you’ll find life naturally becomes a bit less stressful when you don’t have so much clutter hanging around. A huge benefit of having less stuff at home means the things you do have hold more meaning. These are things that matter, that enrich life.

You get a lot more pleasure out of possessions when the best ones aren’t buried under things you don’t really care about.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post, it definitely inspired me to clear out my room this weekend! Back to normal posts soon, babies, I’m just learning to rebalance work and social life.

About Mia M.

I'm going through a bit of an existential crisis right now, I'll tell you about myself when I figure out if I'm real or not.

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hey, i’m mia

tattoo lover, plant hoarder, DIY addict and overall stoner grandma

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