3 Easy Steps to Declutter your Home

I know that Marie Kondo’s new show on Netflix is popular right now, and that’s for good reason – she knows what she’s talking about! I enjoy her show, and after watching an episode or two, I am always motivated to clean my house. But, I do think she can be a little extreme. So, I have 3 easy steps to help you declutter, that might feel a little more realistic.

Marie’s mantra is to get rid of anything that doesn’t “spark joy.” But, there are a lot of things in my house that don’t “spark joy” that are necessary – like most of the things in my kitchen! I don’t enjoy cooking, but with three boys and a husband that all like to eat – it’s vital to keep most of the things in my kitchen in order to prepare and cook food for us. But that doesn’t mean that I need to keep everything and let my house get out of control. These are the steps I follow in order to keep the clutter from taking over my house:

1. Remove the things that don’t belong. I don’t know about you, but most of the clutter in my house is due to things being left in a place that is not their “home”. Like my kids’ toys that get brought downstairs and not brought back up to their rooms, snacks that get brought out of the pantry and not put back, etc. So, the first thing I do when I’m trying to declutter is to go through each room in my house and pick up the things that don’t belong there. Then I put those things away right then, so they don’t just add to the clutter in another room. If an item doesn’t have a home, find a home for it and always return it to that spot.
2. Get rid of things you don’t use. Instead of asking if something “sparks joy”, ask if it’s something that you use. If you have a bread maker because it was a wedding gift, but you have been married for 10 years and have never made bread, then it’s probably safe to get rid of it. Go through your house, one room at a time, and pick out the things that you don’t use or wear – donate the things you can, throw away the things you can’t.
3. Pare down what’s left. So, hopefully you are now only left with the things that you use. But, if you still feel like you are overwhelmed with stuff, then it’s time to pare down. You might use all 26 of the mugs in your cupboard, but do you really need 26 mugs? Probably not. If you have a hard time getting rid of things you think you will need in the future – my tip is to keep out the lowest number of items you think you can get away with, and put the rest in a box and store it elsewhere – like in the basement or garage. If you don’t need those things at some point in the next 2-3 weeks, you can get rid of them.

I hope that these three steps are helpful for you! Decluttering shouldn’t be stressful – the whole point is to make your life less stressful. When you aren’t overwhelmed with stuff, you have the physical and mental space to move and live.

But, if you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start or how to make it last for more than a few days – please contact me. I would love to help you declutter and set up organizational systems for your home that actually work long term.