I’m a big fan of decluttering & have talked about it a lot on this blog. I put my clean & tidy home (& the fact that it never gets too overwhelmingly messy at any time!) down to the fact that I regularly have clear outs & get rid of anything that isn’t needed.

One of my favourite quotes is by William Morris

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

I firmly believe that the way to a clearer mind; is a clearer home so read my top tips & rules to get rid of the junk & life the minimalist life –

1. Don’t put it off –

We’re all guilty of procrastination but if you keep putting off decluttering then you’ll never get round to it. If you’re routing through mountains of mismatched tupperware lids in the kitchen cupboard of doom for something & have 5 minutes to spare then utilise that time to sort it out.

Make it a regular thing & get into a routine such as going through a room a week (a cupboard/draw a day) in rotation.

2. Let it go –

In the words of Elsa from frozen…just let it go. Memories are best kept in our head & not in our homes. It’s all too easy to become sentimental about material objects but part of decluttering is letting go of things. Yes that cinema ticket from 10 years ago may remind you of a great evening with friends but realistically how often will you look at it, do you need it to remember the evening, did the evening really mean that much to you?

If you’re a natural hoarder then this concept is going to be hard for you to grasp but you need to realise that you cannot keep every single thing that has been given to you (or you’ve bought but fallen out of love with…)

3. Go digital –

Linked to the above, choose to display precious family photos with a gallery wall then put the rest of your images on a USB or external hard drive as well as backing everything up. How often do you get out & look at photographs or photo albums vs how much space they take up.

This is also hugely space saving when it comes to digital documents & organisation too.

4. Be charitable –

One of the best things about living a clutter free life is that by doing it, you are not only helping yourself but you can also help those in need too. One mans trash is another mans treasure as they say so take a trip to the charity shop with all your unwanted goods or see if you can find a local woman refuge that is taking donations.

5. Everything should have it’s ‘home’ –

The key to decluttering is categorisation; everything should have it’s home & if it doesn’t fit into one of your categories then the likelihood is that it isn’t needed. Group things according to relevance, priority, similarities or whatever suits you & make sure to label them.

6. “Do I need this?” –

When going through your stuff, you need to be asking yourself the above question. If you’re really bad then find a cut throat friend to go through things together who you know won’t accept your answer of “well, maybe one day I’ll need that, even though I’ve never used it & it’s been sat in my drawer for the past 3 years”. Think practically as well as functionally.

At the end of the day; you don’t need more space, you need less stuff! So get those bin bags out & get decluttering…you’ll be surprised how amazing it will make you feel.

Love,