Declutter Your Home with These 5 Tips

It’s hard to thrive in a cluttered home. Broken toys, mismatched dishes, old DVDs, and snares of electronic cords can stifle productivity, cost us time, and create frustration.

You’ve worked hard for your home, so it should be a comfortable and relaxing environment. And if you’re renting and hoping to buy a home in the near future, or you’re selling your home and need to stage it, getting rid of junk is a necessity. So allow us to share our five tips on how to take out all that extra stuff and take back your space!

1. Start Small

The most common complaint about organizing is finding the time, but if you have even a few minutes while you’re baking a pizza or talking on the phone, you can tackle a small project and reap big benefits. Take on just one drawer or pantry shelf and save the rest for another time.

Another approach is to set a timer for 5-10 minutes and do some organizing, with the promise to yourself that when time’s up, you can move on to something else. When you feel good about your accomplishments, you’re more likely to keep up the good work!

Expert Tip

All that spare change can really add up! Banks typically won’t accept coins unless you roll them yourself. But you can invest in your own rolling machine or visit a Coinstar kiosk at your local supermarket or big box store. Coinstar converts your change to cash (for about a 10% fee) or as an e-gift certificate (at no cost) to popular outlets like Amazon, restaurants, and airlines.

2. Remove Trash and Recyclables

Simply taking out all the piled-up trash is a great start, not only because it quickly frees up space and your line of sight, but it also helps avoid odors and pests. (A clean house boosts screen appeal if you’re looking to post your home for sale online.)

As for those recyclables that you swear you’re going to take to your local facility, you might try a recycling app for options in your area. Scrap metal facilities take aluminum cans, tire rims, and pretty much anything metal. And you might get paid for it, too!

Got old electronics, batteries, or paint cans? These are dangerous to the environment for dumping, but many communities have periodic “waste days” where you can deliver these items for disposal free of charge! Check with your local government app or website for dates. And without all those wires eating up space, you can check out the latest cool tech to make your home more secure and efficient.

3. No Place Like Home

Some simple solutions can give random items a home – somewhere you can always find them. Bonus points if you group similar items together, like a toolbox for all your tools, not a random wrench chilling in your kitchen drawer. Install hooks for keys, purchase a simple spice rack or silverware tray to organize cooking items, and grab some inexpensive storage boxes for photos, jewelry, or memorabilia like ticket stubs and dried flowers. These boxes can come already decorated, or you can enlist your kids to paint them!

4. Three’s Company

It can be painful to go through a closet and just throw items out. Make the task more manageable, and less emotional, by sorting them into three piles: keep, donate, and toss.

Keep items you still wear at some point during a given year – don’t hold on to “dad jeans” you don’t need, ill-fitting pieces, or those tragically out-of-style items. That said…if you’re hoping to recoup some of the cost on high-dollar dresses, handbags, or vintage items (hello, Members Only jacket!), ask a consignment or vintage shop about their purchase policies.

Donate clothes you don’t need anymore. Not sure where to start? Check with domestic abuse shelters and other nonprofit organizations to make sure your clothing finds a good home. Gently-worn undergarments like bras and socks that we might normally just throw away are often more appreciated than a fancy tie.

Toss the items that, to borrow from Netflix decluttering queen Marie Kondo, do not “spark joy.” Studies have shown that shame is a terrible motivator. There’s no sense in hanging on to shirts that might fit again if you “just lose some weight.” The same “joy” principle applies to your kitchen or bathroom. Get rid of (or recycle!) those cracked plastic Thai food containers, stale soaps, stained towels, or unused cleaning products.

5. Take Your Time

If you try to take on everything at once, you may get overwhelmed. Clutter didn’t all sprout up in one day, so you can’t expect to get rid of it in a day either. Schedule short periods of time on a regular basis to work on decluttering and organizing. And don’t forget to reward yourself for your success!

Tackling your decluttering because you’re looking to buy a home? We’ve got four great tips for first-time homebuyers. And remember, Atlantic Bay is always here to help. Just give us a call!