How to Tackle Your Home’s Clutter Without Losing Your Mind

Everyone has items in their house that they don’t use, items that take up space that could be designated for more important things. However, rather than engaging in clutter reduction and taking care of these unwanted things by donating them or selling them they’re usually relegated to another part of the house.

It does not matter how one little bit how cutting edge your living room is or how modern and sleek the new kitchen. Since if homeowners just allow their living spaces to accumulate increasing amounts of random items and junk. Then the character and ambience of having a gorgeous, luxurious home is negated and lost.

It seems also that in some instances that the large the home and the more space it has the more items and clutter we tend to accumulate. Indeed entire rooms or household areas seem to have little purpose save to act as a home for endless amounts of random and unnecessary clutter. The more spare bedrooms there are, the larger the garage or backyard the more room it seems is available for clutter.

Too Much Free Space Can Equate Into Clutter

We’re all guilty of it. We open a closet to store away something important and a jumble of stuff leaves no room for more. You may even have no idea what these things are but since you haven’t gotten rid of them yet they must be important.

So they go to the garage. Unfortunately, at some point even the garage can become so cluttered that your car now stays in the driveway and you still have more stuff. It’s quite amazing how fast clutter can pile up and literally begin to take over your home like the clutter has taken on a life of its own.

However, there is a solution and while it does require work on the part of you and your family it can be done and you’ll be amazed at the results. Here’s how to get it done.

Separate Items to Simplify the Project

Generally speaking your clutter can be divided into four categories: keep, donate, recycle, and throw away. While it sounds simple enough you need to have a somewhat ruthless mindset when assigning these categories.

The things you keep are the things you use on a daily or weekly basis. The things you donate are no longer of use to you but are still functional enough to be of use to someone else. The things you recycle are computer components, paint, cardboard, glass, and aluminum. Finally, the things you throw away are completely unusable.

Use boxes or mark of sections of floor space in your garage or in your yard and place items in the appropriate areas. While this usually can’t be done in one day it’s the best place to start.

Arrange to Have Your Donations Picked Up

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to organize your clutter is to make an appointment to have your donated items picked up. This way you have a set deadline that you have to meet and this can help spur you along. If you’re donating old boats, cars, or other larger items this can also be a great motivational tool as you know this simple act will free up much more space that you can then use for storage.

Be choosy when collecting smaller items to donate. It can be quite easy to simply put everything in a donation box and be done with it. However, the charity you’re donating to has guidelines to follow when accepting donations and it’s not exactly fair to put your trash in their hands. Only donate items that are in good shape and can be used by someone else.

Clutter Reduction : Further Reading

• Calming the mind at home tips : 23 Calming tips for the home
  
• Useful space saving hacks : 21 space saving hacks for your room
• Spacious closets and storage tips : 18 amazing tips to organize your closets

Enlist the Entire Family

When it comes to clutter there is no single family member who is the sole contributor. Therefore there should be no single family member tasked with cleaning it up. No, it won’t be easy to explain that everyone is going to have to give up their time to sift through years’ worth of stuff, but when it has to be done that’s just the hard truth of the matter.

Your kids will likely treat this chore as something akin to torture and while it might help to try and add some fun incentives, especially, for younger children, at the end of the day it’s important that they learn they’re responsible for their own things. And if you have to sneak in behind them and add a few more items to the “donate” or “toss” boxes, then so be it.

Simplifying is certainly the trend these days and while you don’t have to embrace every aspect of the word or the ideas behind it there really are many benefits to ridding your home of clutter. Not only will you have more space in your home but that space can now be used to store things you actually use, things you love, and things you might want to pass on to your children.

But remember, when they grow up they might not want your clutter either.