Let Me Help You Get Control!
If I could help you get control of your home, is that something you’d be interested in? If you said yes, I want to introduce you to my Decluttering Challenge. It is a free series of email I created to help those of us who are overwhelmed by the “stuff” in our homes.
Today we are reviewing some tips for the first day, General Decluttering.
General Decluttering Tips
I do a general decluttering when I look around and get completely overwhelmed with “stuff”everywhere. I go through some phases where I don’t see it (perhaps this is denial?), then become aware of it, then feel almost choked by it yet paralyzed as I’ve no idea where to start, and finally I get angry at it and just want it all gone!
When I’m at this last phase I want it all gone and now! Can you relate?
Step 1: Gather Baskets
My first step is to gather laundry baskets. We have a basement, main floor and a floor for our bedrooms so I typically will get one basket for each floor of the home and go room by room, finding things that do not belong there and assigning it to the appropriate basket. If you are really overwhelmed, you could just do one room at a time.
Where To Begin?
Don’t know where to start? I always start with my bedroom because I can’t have a clear head if my bedroom a disaster. It’s also my sanctuary so I want to ensure it is ready for me if I’m in a desperate moment to escape family chaos. Second I do bathrooms and, finally, I do our main floor. It is open concept so even a few items out makes it appear cluttered.
Another trick is that I time myself. I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes and see how many rooms I can clear out. If it’s fun or a race it seems to not feel so bad.
When a basket is full, I take it to the floor it belongs and spend 15 minutes placing the items in the room where they belong. Again, depending on how overwhelming the house is, if it’s not so bad I will put it away where it belongs. If it’s a complete disaster in every room I just place it on a desk or a dresser to be dealt with at the time I do my room by room decluttering (more on that in the next post!).
Continue this step until all the rooms have only things that belong in them – or until the one room you are focusing on is free of all things that do not belong there. As I mentioned before, sometimes it’s a one room at a time thing and other times it’s just a lighter decluttering or putting back for the entire home.
If you are struggling with this, join my mini declutter course where I get into more details about how to evaluate clutter and get it gone for good.
Need more information? I also posted about the challenge earlier in the year. There is even a video of me explaining it.
