Declutter time: How to get rid of the things you don’t need, today

Don’t wait another day – it’s time to declutter all those places in your home that are loaded with stuff. You’ll feel better for it and may even be able to make some money!

Wardrobe

Why is it that we can have a wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear? Well, the average person only wears about 20 per cent of their clothes.

Here’s how to declutter that wardrobe.

1. Take everything out of it.

2. When choosing clothes to keep, ask yourself a few important questions to decide which clothes you don’t need:

• Does it fit?
• Have I worn it in the last 12 months?
• Would I wear it again?
• If I saw it in a store now, would I buy it?
• Do I love the way it looks on me?
• Is it undamaged?

If you answer ‘no’ to any of these questions, consider donating, selling or throwing it out.

3. Hang the items you want to keep in your closet neatly so you can see everything you own in one glance.

4. Use the backwards hanger strategy: hang up all the items you are undecided on and face the hook towards you when you open your closet door. If you use an item, hang normally. At the end of the month/year, check which clothes hangers haven’t been turned around and ditch those clothes.

5. When folding the clothes you want to keep, try to think of a way of organising them before placing them into drawers or up onto shelves.

6. Assess your reject pile and decide which items can be sold with these questions:

• Does it fit?
• Is it your style?
• Is it lightly worn?
• Is it expensive?

If you answered ‘no’ then you can attempt to sell it for a profit so you didn’t entirely waste money buying it.

7. If there isn’t anything wrong with the items that you do not want to keep, consider giving them away. Ask yourself these questions:

• Can you sell it?
• Is it torn or broken?
• Is it discoloured?
• Is it underwear?

If the answer’s ‘no’, then it’s time to go!

Linen cupboard

Do you store bed sheets and bath towels for all your family in your linen cupboard when it’s now just the two of you?

The linen cupboard can be full of odd sized sheets that no longer have a use, patterned sheets that have outgrown the kids, ripped and torn sheets, stained and aged sheets and excess of unused and mismatched items.

1. Take everything out shelf at a time. Sort into like piles. If in good condition (and you have a current use), keep. If ripped, torn, stained or no longer used, throw out, give away or donate.

2. You are now left with what you will use and need. Put everything back, in order.

3. Arrange sheets by size and keep them in their sets. If you have different sized beds, l would suggest to label the sheets to keep it easy and simple.

4. Now you’ve made some space, you can keep your stock of spare toiletries in the linen cupboard (e.g. deodorants, toothpaste, tissues, toilet paper).

TIP: Keep spare bed sheets in the rooms where they are used. When you take off sheets to wash, the clean ones are there ready to use. This will free up your linen cupboard to function better and allow space to store other items, e.g. photo albums.

The rest of the house

The more we clutter up our houses, the more cluttered our minds are, the less exercise we do and the less healthy we become. Clutter also saps our energy and the great irony of this is that you won’t get the energy unless you do clean up.

There’s also another good reason to get rid of clutter in our life: it helps us unwind and feel refreshed. 

Before you start, close your eyes. Think about that feeling you will have once your house is decluttered: happy, relaxed, rested, calm and stress-free.

So let’s get started. Give it a go this weekend and see how much better you feel for it!

1. Pick a room

2. Visualise and write down how you would like this space to look and make you feel.

3. Sort through all items in the room… and we mean all the items!

4. Keep only the items you need for the room in the room.

5. Remove the items that do not belong. This will become obvious once you have decided what you are keeping.

6. Find a home for the items you are “taking out” of the room. If there is currently not a designated space in the home you will need to make one if you intend to keep the item. If it’s an item you have not used in a long time, say over 6 months, and no longer need, discard. Throw away, give away, sell or donate.

7. Move on to the next room!

The shed or garage

A shed, a garage – whatever it is, it’s a big room full of junk and it needs to be cleaned out! Yes, they’re the perfect space for storage but when you can go years without finding that old newspaper or dress you’ve saved for a special occasion, it’s safe to say some things could be toss.

Here we go!

1. Take time to think about what the purpose of the shed is going to be. The purpose you give the shed or garage will effect how you organise it and what you keep.

2. Take out all of the tools and other items that you have in the shed.

3. Once you have the shed completely cleaned of all tools, items, and materials, begin to clean the shed as well. Get rid of any dirt, dust, spider webs, and trash that you find.

4. Create two piles for your shed: what you want to keep and what you want to toss. Be wary of keeping things you think you can fix!

5. Refill and admire your work!

When was the last time you decluttered your home? What did you donate or give away? What did you keep?