Decluttering feels amazing! You might be overwhelmed and wondering where you should start. Take it one room at a time (or one closet at a time) so it’s manageable. Before you start decluttering, get a container or box for trash, donations, put away, and recycling. We’ve created a room-by-room guide to help tackle your decluttering!
Kitchen
The kitchen accumulates all sorts of stuff because it’s where people gather to cook, socialize, and eat. Start with one area at a time–one drawer or one cabinet at a time. Remove items, wipe down the cabinets or drawers, and go through the items. Donate items you don’t use and recycle or toss items that are broken. Take a look at the remaining items and place them back into cabinets/drawers in an organized way. Finally, declutter the countertops. They can collect all sorts of items, so put them where they’re supposed to go. Only keep the items that you use daily on your countertops. Your kitchen will look amazing!
Family Room
Family rooms collect clutter–people hang out here every day, drop off their bags, and work on projects in front of the tv. Start with the coffee table and clear it off of papers, old magazines, and junk that’s accumulated. Find a storage solution for remotes so that they have a spot–it’ll help your coffee table look organized and hopefully will keep your remotes easy to find. If your family room has bookshelves or an entertainment center, go through each shelf and evaluate whether the items need to stay or go.
Bathroom
Medicine cabinets and bathrooms get lots of use, and also get cluttered easily. Empty out all of the bathroom cabinets. Get rid of any expired medicines and products, and discard items you no longer use. As you place items back in cabinets, keep the items people use the most at eye level. Place items that you use the most in the front of the drawers.
Bedroom
Bedrooms collect plenty of clutter, but you’ll feel so much better once you clean it up. Start with the nightstands. Go through any items on top and within the nightstands. If there are items that don’t belong there, place them in the put away bin for later. Next, tackle tops of dressers or bureaus to remove items that belong elsewhere and any items that can be recycled or trashed. Go through your drawers and get rid of items that you haven’t worn for the past year.
Closet
Once you have the drawers taken care of, it’s time to tackle your closet. It helps to declutter by type–shoes, pants, shirts, jeans, dress clothes, and coats. Use the same rule of thumb–donate items that you haven’t worn in the past year. If you have items that need repaired, set them aside so you can fix them later.
Office
Go through stacks of papers and determine whether you need to keep them (file them) or recycle (or shred if it has personal information). Clean out any drawers and organize your office supplies.
Entryway/Foyer
Go through coat closets and donate coats that you no longer wear or ones that kids have outgrown. Go through hats, gloves, scarfs, etc. that might need donating as well. Organize the items that remain so that everything is easily accessible.
Decluttering takes time, but makes a huge difference. Once your home is organized and decluttered, and you’d like help keeping it pristine, give us a call so we can help.
