Time for a Clear Out: 7 Top Tips to Help You Reduce Clutter

According to a 2017 study, about 25 percent of Americans admit to having a “clutter problem” inside their homes. Additionally, more than 50 percent of Americans say that clutter and the disorganization it causes result in them suffering from stress.

Do you fall into one of these two categories? If so, you should make every effort to reduce clutter in your home in the near future so that you don’t have to worry about dealing with it anymore. In a matter of just a week or two, you could totally transform the look and feel of every single space throughout your house.

Decluttering your home won’t necessarily be easy. But it’ll be well worth it in the end when you’re able to move around inside of it without encountering clutter at every turn.

Check out 7 tips to help you reduce clutter once and for all below.

1. Work on One Room at a Time

When you first decide that you’re going to make it your mission to reduce clutter from your home, you’re probably going to be completely overwhelmed by the thought of doing it. The average U.S. home has approximately 300,000 items inside of it, which can obviously make decluttering a huge challenge.

Rather than trying to tackle the whole house at once, start with one room. Preferably, you should make it a room other than the garage or the basement since those two areas tend to gather the most clutter of all.

Begin by clearing out clutter from a spare bedroom, a hallway closet, or another part of your home that doesn’t have too much clutter inside of it. It’ll help get the ball rolling and leave you feeling accomplished when you knock out your first room.

2. Toss Things You Haven’t Touched in Years

One of the most difficult parts of decluttering a home is figuring out what to throw out versus what to keep. When you first get started, you’re going to find things that you haven’t seen in years and it’s going to feel like you should hang on to them.

But if you haven’t touched those items in years, there’s probably a good reason for that. Some of them might not work anymore, and others are likely outdated.

Whatever the case may be, you should toss anything that you haven’t used in recent years and part ways with them. It’ll be hard at first since you might want to keep some of those things for sentimental reasons. But before long, you’ll find that it’ll get to be easier and easier to break the emotional attachments you have to items you don’t use anymore.

3. Donate Items to a Good Cause

If you have a lot of items buried deep in your cabinets and closets that are still in decent shape but not worth keeping in your own home, think about donating them to a good cause. This will make you feel better about decluttering and getting rid of your old stuff.

There are so many organizations that are constantly looking for donations from homeowners. Some of them include:

• Goodwill
• Salvation Army
• Pickup Please
• And more

You might even be able to earn yourself some tax breaks by making donations to these kinds of organizations.

4. Sell Items That Are Worth Something

What if we told you that there was a way to get paid for decluttering your home? Would that you make you more interested in doing it?

Well, there is a way to generate some extra income for your household simply by going through everything you own and decluttering. You can do it by selling anything you find that might be valuable.

From old baseball card collections to retro gaming consoles, you probably have all kinds of things tucked away in the various crevices throughout your home. Some of these things can be worth real money and could help you turn your decluttering project into a profitable venture.

5. Find a Place For Everything You Keep

More than 80 percent of Americans wish their houses were more organized than they are. When you reduce clutter, it’ll allow you to turn those wishes into a reality for you and your family.

As you throw things out, it should open up space for you to find a place for each and every item that you have inside your home. From your kitchen cabinets to the shelves you have in your garage, you should use all the available space you have to store items.

There shouldn’t be anything cluttering up your garage floor or the open areas of your kitchen. By finding a spot for everything, you’ll automatically make your home look more organized.

6. Consider Renting Storage Space

If you put your home through a major purge and find that you still don’t have enough space for everything you want to keep, renting storage space might be a good option for you.

A storage unit will allow you to store things you don’t use day in and day out. It’ll also free up so much extra space in your home and make it easier for you to keep it clean and organized.

Click here for additional information on picking out a large enough storage space for your belongings.

7. Clean Up Clutter on a Regular Basis

The last thing you want to do is reduce clutter in your home only to have the clutter return in a year or two. As you move forward, continue purging items on a regular basis so that clutter doesn’t build back up in your home.

Reduce Clutter in Your Home Today

Does it feel like you have crap crammed into every nook and cranny of your house right now? It can, unfortunately, make your home feel so much smaller than it actually is.

Instead of continuing to live this way, reduce clutter in your home to make it feel larger. You’ll love all the extra space you have once you throw out, donate, and sell a significant amount of the stuff you have inside your home right now.

Decluttering your home is especially important when you’re trying to sell it. Read our blog to learn about why decluttering is so essential for home sellers.