When have you last decluttered your house?

If you have never thought about it- read on to find out the best decluttering tips for beginners.

The best decluttering tips for beginners

It is easy to gather so many items around us that cause overflowing of a space.

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The more items we place around ourselves the less space we have and this, in turn, makes us unhappy.

As humans, we like lots of free space and tidiness, but it’s in human’s nature to be lazy too, hence if the latter takes over the first it quickly results in a messy house. Even if you organise your clutter and push it to the sides, it still is the clutter, just pushes aside.

Look around your room right now and think- what could you easily remove right away that you don’t need but you just keep it there as you don’t know what to do with it. Or it might not be yours but your partners/ kids/ parents. Why is it there? Does it serve any purpose? If the answer is no, you should get rid of it.

But it might not be as easy said than done and you might wonder what I am going to do with it all.

And this is why I have written this post with my best decluttering tips for beginners

I am in favour of a minimalist lifestyle and never liked gathering many items.

Now having kids does not help, but trust me if I say, my kids do not own many toys. Not because we don’t buy it for them or we don’t get them from others as gifts. We keep putting aside those that cause clutter and the kids mess around with just for the sake of making the mess.

I am not perfect at keeping my house completely mess and clutter-free. Having a family means we started to accommodate items and although they might be put away, we end up having many things we don’t even use.

Recently we have moved houses and just before this, I had no choice but declutter. This made easier to keep only the most necessary items to take with us to the new house.

7 tips on moving the house with kids

 

You might not know this but there are few benefits of decluttering that may make you look at it from a different perspective:

• It clears out your house– a direct benefit of de-cluttering that will lead to many others
• It saves you time– once you have gotten rid of the things you don’t need and have fewer objects to move around or aside, it makes so much easier to clean and quicker too
• It saves you money– many times we end up buying things and leaving somewhere in the cluttered mess, a few months later we buy it again as either we forget we already have it or cannot find it
• It can make you money– that is if you find things you don’t need and end up selling it on Shpock, eBay, Amazon or Gumtree or a Sunday market if you prefer a direct sell
• It helps you relax and makes you feel good- imagine the house full of mess and clutter scenario- it instantly stresses me out! Why do you think people clean up and de-clutter their homes before having viewings to sell- because no one would feel good viewing a messy house and probably not buy it
• It helps you realise how little things you need around you and appreciate what you have
• Your house will always be visitors ready
• It helps you keep your house organised

We are living in an era of gadgets and online shopping 

We are also living in an era of credit cards and finances available to purchase whatever we like, whenever we like, before needing to earn and save for it first. This in turns encourages people to buy many more things that they need.

But think about how our ancestors used to live.

They had to earn the money to buy things and there were fewer things available to buy. They also had more time to keep their homes clean as usually the man used to go out and work and woman would stay home caring for the children and the house.  People would just visit each other so they took pride in keeping their house presentable all the time.

Perhaps we should learn a few lessons from them.

I am very house proud and believe in a minimalistic way of living. I do not splash money on unnecessary furniture, paintings, gadgets or items to place around my house.

Why bother spending money on things that don’t add value to your life. Only if it truly is needed and useful this is when I would get it.

Quality over quantity.

The best decluttering tips for beginners

So how should one declutter the house?

Well, there is so much online available on this subject and some websites are fully focused on decluttering only!

Just how much can one talk about one thing?…

I believe in one rule:

Keep what you need and what you don’t- get rid of!

But how you do it, will depend on how much clutter you have and how attached you are to it.

If after decluttering you still have few things that you think you might not need but feel somewhat emotionally attached to, perhaps you should change your mindset. Talk yourself out of keeping it. Why holding onto things that don’t serve you any purpose.

If you are a total beginner and have a lot of clutter, you should take each room at the time starting from the largest items first.

The big things take the most space and as soon as you move it out the way, you will notice the biggest difference, motivating you to keep going.

You might want to go through one room at the time or the whole house in one go!

You can do it slowly over the few days/ weeks whenever you get some spare time, or just dedicate one whole day of full decluttering of your house. This will depend on your circumstances so just go with what works best for you.

Decluttering does not mean you have to get rid of everything you have- it means reducing the number of things that don’t add value, and putting away things that create mess and overflow of the space.

There are plenty of amazing storage solutions that will help you put away some of the clutter that sits around displayed as opposed to hidden away.

Storage solutions decluttering tips for beginner

Here are some of the available online storage solutions that I use in around the house that has helped me to put away the things that otherwise I would display around my house.

Storage for cupboards/ wardrobes

Cupboard baskets

They fit perfectly in the kitchen units and I have several across my pantry which helps me separate things like pastas, baking products, pulses, dry spices etc. I also use them in the bathroom units to spate small items like pads and small toiletries and razors etc.

Medicine box

We all have some collection of medicines, plasters and tablets to use when needed and I keep it in a big-ish plastic box with the lid that I put high up inside the top unit so kids cannot reach. These boxes are also tall enough to keep in the detergents. Plus these are stackable so can be used for any purpose like keeping toys organised.

 

Cutlery and utensils storage

Inside the drawers there are ways of keeping thing organises as opposed to mixed up.

 

Inside your bedroom wardrobe drawers

Items can be sorted with the help of dividers like these:


Documents and paperwork

I like to keep them in separate folders inside a box on top of my wardrobe.

 

Jewellery organisers

I don’t own lots of jewellery. I don’t wear it much hence I don’t buy any. I only have a few pieces that were gifted to me. I keep it in a similar box to this one but I bought it so long ago it no longer exists

Make-up storage

Depending on how much makeup items you have it’s best to have it all put away if possible so that it does not gather the dust. I don’t have much hence keep mine in small purses inside my dressing table. If you have a lot you could organise it in a storage like this

Smart storage pieces to hide away the mess

Wheeled vegetable tier

I have one in the kitchen where I store my vegetables and one in the bathroom where I keep some nappies, wipes and towels

Shoe storage

I keep all of the shoes under the staircase cupboard in the original boxes- do not ever throw them away, they come very useful. Only the shoes we wear every day I keep on a shoe rack like this put away under the staircase

Jackets and coats

Keep hanged only ones that you use currently and rest keep away in the main wardrobe. We use just a regular jacket rack to hang our coats one

Few points to add to decluttering tips for beginners

Keep things off the view and hidden away.

But remember – just organising it and putting away is not truly decluttering. You must get rid of the things you don’t need and organise those that you do need.

Kitchen is one of the spaces people tend to keep items lying around on the worktops and even in my house every day more items are being taken of the units and kept on display until I put them back on the shelves. Keep only the most needed items like the kettle, microwave or toaster and the rest keep inside the cupboards.

If you don’t have enough units, add some space by inserting shelves inside the units that are high or get some more portable storage units that can be rolled away. If you still don’t have enough space, you probably have too many items that you don’t need.

Look inside your units and get rid of all chipped plates, burned pots and pans and chipped mugs.

Do the same with every unit -including your fridge and freezer. Throw away items that had been frozen for too long or had expired.

Go through your documents and bin the envelopes, leaflets and old documents that no longer are needed. Don’t forget to shred them for your data protection.

Have fun with it and treat it as an improvement to your house and your wellbeing. It can be quite therapeutic to getting though de-cluttering and regaining the space of your house.

 

Once you have done it once, you don’t have to do it again for a while.

I suggest once a year is probably enough with few little general tiding sessions in between. I like to do a general cleaning before a festive period like Easter or Christmas.

It is so much easier to stay on top of the house chores once your house is clutter-free so you only need to do a bit of dusting, vacuuming and mopping and you’re done.

There were the best decluttering tips for beginners!

Let me know how did you get on with de-cluttering of your house and what has worked for you.

Good luck!

Thank you