Decluttering Your Home For A Calmer And More Purposeful Life

*This is a collaborative post on decluttering your home

Everyone has a bit of clutter lying around their home: it might be a cutlery set left to you by a beloved grandparent that you never use but can’t bear the thought of throwing away; college notes and textbooks that you hang onto ‘just in case’; or simply the accumulation of clutter from everyday life. However, if left to build up, household clutter can soon make for a stressful and chaotic home environment that you do not want to spend time in. With the growth in popularity of tidying experts like Marie Kondo, there has never been a better time for you to get on top of your clutter and back in control of your home. Read on for tips on decluttering your home for a calmer and more purposeful life. 

Create a storing system

As you go through your home, you will need a storing system to help you keep on track of the items you have organised – and to reduce the temptation of items you have decided to throw making their way back into the ‘to keep’ pile. Marie Kondo’s KonMari method is a popular decluttering method. Or, as a simpler alternative, gather three boxes and label them as ‘Keep’, ‘Get rid of’ and ‘Put in storage’. The items that you put in storage might include things that you want to keep but do not use all of the time, such as seasonal decorations, bulky and expensive household maintenance appliances, and sentimental items. The items that you decide to get rid of should be further organised into those things that can be donated to a charity shop, those that you are planning on reselling, and those that simply need disposing of at the rubbish dump.

When decluttering your home, dispose of large items

You may realise that you have several large items that you do not use any more or that are broken, but do not know how to dispose of them responsibly. For instance, cars, TVs and washing machines might spend years sat in your driveway or home as eyesores because you do not know what to do with them. Fortunately, however, there are businesses who specialise in removing and correctly disposing of large obsolete objects. Look into scrapping a car in Essex for a convenient and straightforward process of responsibly disposing of an old car that is no longer roadworthy. Charities such as the Salvation Army and British Heart Foundation will remove any larger electrical items, such as TVs and washing machines, and either repurpose and resell them, or dispose of them correctly. 

Forget about sunk costs

It can be difficult to part with items that cost a lot of money, even if they are unused and the sight of them is a painful reminder of an expensive mistake. However, it is important that you forget about sunk costs and accept that you will never reclaim the money spent on that item, and instead simply let it go. If the item has enough value – for instance, if it is a designer handbag or a top of the range games console – you could try to resell it. However, you will need to accept that you are unlikely to recoup the original cost of the item. 

Ask yourself if an item sparks joy when decluttering your home

When you are decluttering your home, you need to be tough with yourself and as practical as possible to ensure that your efforts are successful; otherwise, you may find that you are still holding a lot of items that have ceased to have a purpose other than sentimental. One way of whittling down your possessions is to ask yourself whether the item in question sparks joy. If it does, you will feel light and happy, in which case, keep the item. However, it might conversely spark negative emotions, such as the obligation to hold onto it in case you need it in the future, or it might be attached to unhappy memories. If this is the case, relinquishing the item will also help you to relinquish your fears. By choosing to keep only those items that spark joy and pleasant emotions, you ensure that your home becomes a happy environment in which you can relax and recharge, rather than a place of overwhelming and draining clutter and attached memories. 

Conclusion

Decluttering can be an overwhelming and emotional process. However, if you dedicate the time to it, you will be rewarded with a clutter-free living space in which you can fully relax and unwind.