I’ve spent most of the past two years going through our closets, drawers, creating a system to make our house free of items we no longer need, get rid of some furniture to prepare to downsize and bless others with things they will enjoy! I know it sounds crazy but we’re still working on it after all this time, but the whole process makes me happy, so today I will share my tips on how to declutter your home one day at a time.
How To Declutter Your Home
I’ve shared a few tips before when we did the big overhaul and had a dumpster in front of our house. You can read more HERE.
I’ve also given some tips on how to make your home more welcoming this fall, check it out HERE.
Today I will share some tips on how we were able to significantly reduce the furniture, remove the clutter, improve the look of our home, just with minor cosmetic changes.
We gave away/sold large couches, sleep sofa, ottoman which we didn’t need or was making our large room look cluttered.
Before:
Now
No Christmas decor, but you can see how spacious the room looks, right?
We also purchased a new smaller couch which fits the TV Room space much better.
Before
After
We eliminated pieces out of hallways, such as the small mudroom area, moving it to the piano room.
We moved my cluttered office to the gym room, consolidated the furniture and turned my office into what it used to be, a large bedroom, a possible first floor master bedroom/master suite, since it was a bathroom adjacent.
Room Before
Room After
Don’t you love the new color?
But let’s move on to what most people see as decluttering a home. If you’re not ready to give away furniture or move things around at your home, as we are, since we’re planning to move soon, I have more subtle changes which will help you declutter regardless.
Schedule Time Blocks/Area Blocks
It’s important to not get overwhelmed and give up.
My tip for staying on track is to choose an area and work on it for, let’s say, an hour or for as much time you have.
Here’s an example: My husband changed the old door in a closet in a guest bedroom, so I am taking the opportunity to use my method and stay in that zone until I’m done. Here’s my process:
- Remove what you no longer need and place it on the floor, separate things into two piles: donation & trash, yes, it’s that simple.
We have a local group called “buy nothing”, so before donating it to local bins, I offer the gently used items there. That particular closet had formal work attire I hadn’t worn in years, tons of Halloween costumes and even baby items.
2.Make a list of areas which need work, items which need to be removed and start working on each project, one at a time.
3. Step two is where I’m at, look at what is left and remove more items, get down to what you’re absolutely going to keep and are going to wear/use.
I have to go through some books and formal wear, like long dresses which still fit me, but my plan is to just keep two formal dresses and place them in plastic bags and put them in our attic.
The project has been longer than I’ve envisioned, but that does not make me discouraged. I work a few minutes every day and keep moving on, as my weekends are for cleaning our home, spaces we actually use and need to be cleaned on a weekly basis.
I used this system in our pantry, closets and drawers, I did it a year ago, you can see some of what we did HERE.
For example, my pantry is now organized, but the shelving with spaces, makes it harder to be organized and things seem to fall, so the next step is to replace the shelves with wooden shelving.
You will see there seems to be a never ending list, but the more you work on it, the better you will feel about your home.
Use my Declutter Master List to get started:
It’s important to understand, if you had visited our home before we started this process, you would say, your house is so clean, I don’t see any clutter.
Well, it’s all a matter of perspective.
We accumulate things, get gifts, buy things we don’t really need and things just keep getting added to closets, areas where you don’t even look at them.
I say, get rid of what you no longer need to bless others and free your home of the clutter for good!
Not ready to get started? Save For Later!
Can’t wait to hear what you think about my tips on how to declutter your home!
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Things look nicer when they’re not cluttered. I’m a fan of decluttering. We don’t have a lot of room where we live so we have more clutter than I’d like but it’s nothing I can/want to get rid of… I just need more room. 🙂
I love how spacious immediately the house looks when the floor spacing is cleared and de cluttered. Thanks for the tips, I need to start doing this before the house gets more cluttered with Christmas items.
Declutter and proper organization is a must! Everything will go smoothly when all is in order.
Wow, all the motivation I need is a good before and after! I like doing it in blocks are well, way less daunting.
I’ve been working on decluttering the house. Thank you for the tips.
I am loving all the before and after shots. You can see how much of a difference there was. I need to look do this once one of my projects for work finishes.
An organized space makes a huge difference in mental clarity especially with the holidays coming up. It always feels so nice to have a little organization.
Decluttering is a big thing for me and I really need to do better! We live in a small space with a ton of furniture that we don’t really use!!!
I’m definitely book marking this post because I need a good declutter before Xmas.
We seem to do a big declutter a couple of times a year. My husband is great at this as I am a horder, even down to clothes if it hasn’t been worn for 6 months then get rid of it. I do always feel better once everything looks tidy again
You know what I love the most about this? The idea of decorating with appropriately-sized furniture. We often think of clutter in terms of junk, but there’s also spacial clutter.