Tips on How to Declutter Your Home This 2021 | Full Guide for Storage and Organization

Like everyone else, you’ve probably grown used to seeing clutter and junk laying around the house. Perhaps, you’ve promised yourself you’ll get around to decluttering and organizing everything eventually, but you just can’t seem to find the time and energy to do just that. The clutter is just incredibly overwhelming.

Ironically, the more clutter you have, the more your life feels out of control. It is not a great idea to surround yourself with so many things that you can’t manage. Decluttering your home is a great way to take better care of yourself. You would likely feel less stressed out when things in your home are better organized. However, that’s not the only benefit of decluttering. There are numerous benefits to living in a home free of clutter!

Why Do You Need to Declutter Your Home?

Clutter is anything in your home that does not add value to your existence or daily life. Decluttering your home means ridding your space of anything that does not matter. Clutter can cause a tremendous amount of stress on a daily basis. It is an energy zapper, and it can be a cause of embarrassment as well. Clutter has an adverse impact on mental health. It can also potentially result in dust and mold accumulation.

Organizing your home and removing all the clutter can help create a sense of control. It can reduce your stress level, and it can help free up space in your home. There will be less to clean. Cleaning is such a chore for most people. It’s even worse when you need to clean things that you don’t even use or need. It can be even more stressful.

Fewer items in your home mean that you will be able to find things quicker and easier. You don’t have to shrug things off anymore when they disappear. You can find them. You can enjoy the huge space that results from decluttering your home.

Most items that fill up your home are items that you don’t actually need. Perhaps, these are items that you find online and just randomly buy because they were on sale or look interesting. Decluttering your home involves changing your mindset when it comes to shopping. Spending less on items that you don’t need and buying items that add value to your life. This change translates into more savings for you. Your bank account and wallet remain fuller and fatter.

Decluttering your home and staying in that mindset will help you achieve financial freedom. Most households live paycheck to paycheck, and many people carry huge credit card debts. Minimalism and decluttering can help you save money and avoid huge credit card debts.

When you don’t have to spend so much energy cleaning your home, you give yourself more time to spend pursuing your passions or other healthier endeavors. This ultimately will make you happier.

Now that you know the many benefits of decluttering your home, the next question would be…where do you begin? 

Declutter Your Home in 3 Steps

Remember that decluttering is about respecting, recognizing, and honoring who you are now. Oftentimes, people keep items because of their attachment to the past, and they get stuck in who they were in the past. This could show up as craft materials for a hobby that they’ve outgrown or a pair of a shirt that doesn’t fit. Unfortunately, they do not make room for newer things.

Before you start decluttering your home, you need to check in with your goals. Who are you at the moment? The process becomes simpler when you honor the life that you have right now. Your choice would reflect the lifestyle, habits, desires, and needs that you have at the moment. So, how do you do this?

Determine Your Goals and Set a Timeline

Make a plan before you start tackling different areas in your home. Set specific goals so you will know what you want to accomplish. This will minimize frustration and remove potential roadblocks. Identify all the clutter hotspots in your home. Give each area a grade based on the amount of clutter that needs to be cleared, and then start tackling one area at a time.

Be sure to set a completion date for every phase of the cleanup. Your timeline should be reasonable. Create challenges for yourself, so the whole process feels like a game instead of a frustrating task. Plan out your days to work on decluttering areas that would take longer than a few hours to clean up.

Your timeline would depend on the size of the room and the number of items that you have in each area. You need to set realistic goals when you work through one room after another.

Create a Sorting System to Help You

As you go through each room in the house, you need to set up a sorting system to help you declutter each area quicker and faster. You can create your method, or you can always opt to use the popular Three-Box Method. This method will help you decide on every item.

Grab three boxes or storage bins like our 4-Pack Supermarket Style Mini Storage Shopping Baskets, and label them as “Keep,” “Throw Away,” and “Place in Storage.” Place in the Keep box items that add value to your life. Empty this box after you’ve done sorting out items in each space, and place or store them away properly.

Place items in the Throw-Away box if you no longer have any use for them. Empty this box after you complete decluttering an area, and decide whether you would like to donate an item or throw it away. Store items that you decide to give away or sell outside your home – perhaps in a storage bin in the garage or your car.

Place in Storage items that are either seasonal or with sentimental value. You can empty these items into storage containers after you declutter each space.
Make sure to label the container properly so you would know where things are stored.

Purge Your “Get Rid Of” Box

Now that you have sorted out items, and place them in your Get Rid Of box. How do you dispose of these items? You have a few options to choose from.

First off, you can always donate or Freecycle these items. This is a great option because someone else will benefit from you disposing of things that you no longer need. Someone else needs those clothes, shoes, and household items. Look for local charities where you can drop off items. Check their guidelines for accepting donations. You can also try freecycle.org. There are barter or resale groups on Facebook as well where you can post the items.

Secondly, you can choose to recycle these items. Plastics, paper, and recyclable glass can go straight to recycling. You can drop them into your recycling bin, or you can bring them to a drop-off location.

Thirdly, you can also have a garage sale. If you have some free time and you’re up to the task, a garage sale will help you make some money. Be sure to check with your neighbors, and ask if there is a designated date for a garage sale.

Finally, you can rent a dumpster. Unfortunately, you cannot sell or donate all items. Some items may not be in good shape at all. You may want to rent a dumpster, so you can rid of these items. You can fill up the dumpster, and have the rental company haul it away for you.

For most people, getting rid of items in their homes can be particularly difficult. Perhaps, it is the same for you. It is especially hard to throw away things that you’ve bought with your hard-earned money. It is even harder to get rid of things that have sentimental value or stir up memories and emotions.

If you are struggling and you need some guidance on how to declutter your home, here are some tips on how to declutter your home quickly this 2021.

Declutter Room-to-Room. If you do not know where or how to start, you can try decluttering one room after another. Start with the family room or kitchen, and go through the process of keeping, storing, or tossing away items in your home. Prioritize rooms that wit high traffic, so you can start seeing the positive effects of decluttering and organizing quickly. It gets easier as you move from one room to another.

Mentally Prepare for Decluttering. It is important to prepare yourself for decluttering and purging your home. You need to have a firm resolution that you are going to get rid of things with no value to you. This is difficult for many people.

Start with a few minutes each day. Perhaps, you can start with 5 minutes. Once you’ve started decluttering, you can start adding to your minutes and build momentum. Give one item a day. This would get rid of 365 items in a year. If you increased the items you give away, sell, or recycle, you’d increase the number of items that you’d get rid of in a year.

Fill a trash bag. Be sure to grab a trash bag, and fill it up with things that you can recycle or donate. Get rid of clothes you never wear. Discard the clothes that you’ve never worn for months or years!

Create a checklist for decluttering your home. It is a lot easier to declutter your home when you have a checklist to follow. This is your visual representation of your entire process. This will help you focus on areas that are in dire need of an organization.

View your home as a new visitor. It is easy to ignore all the clutter when you’re so used to it. You might want to enter your home and take a look at it with the eyes of a new visitor. Take note of your impressions on how to organize or clean your home is, and be sure to make the necessary changes.

Take photos before and after decluttering. Choose a small area in your home like for instance your child’s play area that is packed with toys, and take a photo. Afterward, remove the items in the photo, and take another picture. This will give you an idea of how your home would look like without clutter. Once you have a picture of how it would look like, decluttering will become easier.

Ask for help. Have a friend or family member visit your home and suggest items that you can throw away, recycle, or donate. Defend the item if you don’t want to get rid of it. If your friend finds your reason acceptable, you can keep the item, but if he or she doesn’t agree with your reason, then you should get rid of it.

Use the best decluttering tools. Be sure to grab storage cabinets like our Wooden 16 Drawer Desk Top Cabinet Organizer and Foldable and Stackable Supermarket Style Mini Storage Shopping Baskets to keep your home organized. You can place this 16-drawer cabinet on top of your kitchen counters, tables, or desks for easy storage and access. With 16-drawers, there is so much space for all the things that you decided to keep. Our shopping baskets will also help you declutter your home quickly, and you will have some place to put your kids’ toys once they’re done playing.

There is a beautiful world free of clutter if you take the first step to organizing and decluttering your home this 2021.