It can be very easy for your home to feel like a mess. We often bring a lot of stuff into the home, and if you don’t have anywhere to put it, this can result in clutter everywhere.
Decluttering and refreshing your home is easily achievable with a few handy tips. Getting your home back into good order can be great not only for organizing the home but also for making it feel more like a happier and more zen space for your mood.
In this guide, we’ll look at ten top tips to declutter and refresh your home when it needs it.
Start small and systematically
When it comes to tackling your home, however big it is, trying to do it all at once is an easy mistake to make. It can often hinder your efforts as a result, so it’s important to get into the mindset of starting small and going systematically around your home.
Tackle one area at a time, such as a singular closet or surface, to help avoid overwhelming yourself too much. At the very most, you want to be doing one room at a time, rather than taking on multiple. If you’re doing multiple rooms, then that’s a lot ot tackle and a lot of clutter that will likely be all over the place as a result.
It’s good to start in rooms that have the most clutter first. By tackling the hardest and most challenging rooms, you focus on the biggest chunk of your motivation you have on the day to get some of the hardest spots done first.
Declutter from top to bottom
When decluttering, you want to focus on decluttering from top to bottom, rather than just focusing on the items that are in your drawers or closets.
Dust and clean from high surfaces, all the way up to your ceiling fans and light fixtures, to lower ones, including your baseboards.
All of this decluttering in the way of cleaning helps to prevent dust from settling on any already cleaned surfaces and areas. When you tackle every part of the room from top to bottom, you know you’re doing a full and detailed job each time.
Use the four-box method
The four-box method is useful when you want to sort out the items in your room into different categories. After all, not everything in the room you’re decluttering is either going to be put away or thrown away.
Sort these items into four categories. These include:
Put away
Give away
Throw away
Undecided
When you put away items, make sure there’s somewhere to put them and that it has a home. If it doesn’t, then you need to make use of storage space for it to go.
Giving away stuff is a good way of decluttering your space, but also to make the most out of the stuff you have and ensure it goes to a good home. Throwing away stuff should only be done if it can be recycled, sold, or donated.
Try to recycle as much as you can, where possible, or donate if it’s in good condition. A trusted dumpster rental company is helpful for sorting out all of the stuff you get rid of effectively and efficiently.
For the undecided box, these are items that you should keep with you for a few days to see how you feel about them and whether your opinion changes.
Refresh with light textiles
Light textiles are something that can really help to declutter your spaces and make them feel less cluttered, even when there’s not much clutter in the room.
Replacing your heavy winter blankets and rugs with lighter materials such as linen or cotton is a great way to instantly lift the mood.
Rearrange furniture layout
When you’ve cleared all of the clutter from your rooms, it’s a good idea to look at rearranging the space so that it suits you more.
Changing the flow of the room by moving furniture, from pulling items away from windows to maximizing the natural light available.
Start with one room at a time and focus on moving everything out and then placing the bigger pieces of furniture first. You can then incorporate the smaller items of furniture. It’s also a good time to look at decluttering any furniture that might be taking up more of the space.
Bring nature inside
Nature is a beautiful thing and certainly something that many households find useful to incorporate into the space.
Incorporating houseplants or fresh floral prints to your walls and shelves is a great way of adding color, life, and a relaxing, natural ambiance to the space.
Consider what indoor plants you want to add to the space, and make sure you have the time to
Create a paperwork system
Dedicate a specific and organized box that’s labeled for important documents. This helps to prevent clutter buildup in your home office or at your front door porch, where letters and paperwork tend to accumulate.
Add scents and ambiance
The use of aromatherapy oils and candles helps to create a fresh and clean scent. It also helps with complementing the visual refresh you’re after when you’ve decluttered the home.
Establish a one-in and one-out rule
A good way of staying on top of the clutter is to establish a one-in, one-out rule for everything. For every new item that enters the home, you’ll then want to remove something old.
By doing this, you’re going to find there’s a lot less clutter in the home as a result. You will also find that you’ve got a more conscious-spending attitude when you think about something you want to buy, which will then mean something has to be gotten rid of in the home.
Implement the 12-12-12 method
Finally, when decluttering, implement the 12-12-12 method. This is where you locate twelve items to throw away, twelve to donate, and twelve to return to their proper home.
Decluttering and refreshing your home is a great way to get the most out of your home and to feel good in it, too.
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