Tips on powering through the ultimate home decluttering

By Tori Taylor, September 25 2019

When it comes to organizing your home and getting rid of junk, I’m the first to reach maximum overload at just the thought. I love to clean. I love to organize. But I have almost all of my clothing from grade nine and onward because it still fits and I have never given any of it away. But, I’ve bought many new clothes since then — a problem for my already-crowded room. It is so easy to hang on to things that no longer serve us because we just don’t want to throw them away. What if I need exactly six nail-clippers at some point in the near future? What if, at 30, I am suddenly in need of a small see-through black dress that covers exactly two-thirds of my ass and even less of my front side? Is it possible that I will regret donating all of my unused headbands and collection of pre-teen purses that were holiday-gifted via distant relatives? The anxiety is real. But, cleaning out your space and having room to breath without all the back-logged clutter is for your own well-being. There are three methods you might use to tackle the autumn decluttering. Whichever style fits you best, roll up your sleeves, grab a glass of tea, pump some good tunes and get to it.

If you are someone who is easily overwhelmed:
If you get overwhelmed you won’t follow through with the decluttering. It is important to do only what you can handle so you can see the task through to the end and not give up halfway until the following year or later. Decide to pace yourself by tackling a small amount at a time. Perhaps just a smaller area like a section of your bedroom or all of the cupboards on the right side of the kitchen. Make a checklist day-by-day of the smaller tasks you want to accomplish. Reward yourself after each completed area so you feel motivated to continue on.
Someone who enjoys self-sustaining, organizing systems:

These types of people do best organizing and decluttering category-by-category. This is a methodical style of purging your home. You can start with an entire category of items. If you wish to start with clothing then you can attack the whole project — all of the closets and drawers throughout the whole house. From here you can go through all of the items and decide what to donate, toss and keep before finding one or more designated locations to store your newly organized items. This method is perfect if you’re feeling like you have a lot of accumulated things in random places.Someone who is deadline-driven and can tackle big projects without being overwhelmed:

This type of decluttering is done room-by-room and can take a bit longer depending on the room size and how cluttered they are. But if you are someone who isn’t easily distracted or put-off by a large task then this is a highly efficient method to choose. Cleaning one entire room before moving on to the next room will allow you to organize and cleanse your home within a day or two instead of taking a week to pace yourself. You can tackle your home on a weekend and have Sunday to relax in the newly fresh space. This style of cleaning provides almost immediate gratification because, although daunting at first, the transformation is quick and improvements are noticed right away.

Once you have collected a pile of things for donation boxes you can do a quick google search for the best one near your home. There are always lots of drop-off boxes and Value Village openly accepts donations of a huge variety. Feel free to sell things on Facebook or Kijiji to make a bit of extra cash. Cleaning out your living area makes a world of a difference and makes room for new life changes.