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Four Steps to Follow When Decluttering Your Home

Aug 08, 2022
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So everyone says that the secret to finally decluttering your garage is just to do it…but no one really talks that much about how it can be done. When you’re finally starting to declutter, you find yourself lost on how you can fit everything in an organized manner without doing any major renovations and when you’re working in such a limited space. Some are committed to letting go of some of their things, but when they’re already in the moment, they find it so hard to decide whether they’ll keep an item or not. Some even have budget issues that make them stop when they’ve already started cleaning up. It can really get stressful and frustrating to declutter when there are just too many things in front of you. There is a four-box method as per Life Storage that can help guide anyone on how to let go of items and organize those that will be kept for a clutter-free space. First off is to get boxes and label them. You need three boxes and one garbage bag or trash bin. To make your decluttering easier, print big labels for each box that you have. One box will be labeled The Keep or Put Away Box, another the Donate or Sell box, and the third one is the Storage Box. The trash bin is for the items that you will be tossing away. So for the first box, you will put the items that you use every day. This means you just need to put them in their rightful spot, where it is most convenient for you to grab them when you’re about to use them. You can even place the item in its spot at the very moment instead of putting it in the box. Next, for your Donate box, you will fill it up with items that are still valuable and functional, but you are no longer using. When trying to determine what you’ll put here, ask yourself first if it’s something that can still be used or if someone can find value in it. Do not include items that are no longer working or clothes that have holes or already have significant stains. Your Storage box will have the items that you don’t really use regularly but are too valuable for you to let go of. These can be items that you use seasonally, such as ski gear or winter clothes. Your garbage bag is for items that cannot be donated or sold already and have to be discarded. Again, ask yourself first if the item can still be used by another person; hence, put it in the donate pile instead of this toss-away bag. Since you already have three boxes, you are ready to declutter—tackle one area after another. Don’t declutter one spot; leave it unfinished, then move to another. For decluttering to feel less overwhelming, do one spot at a time. Set your eyes in one corner and focus on that. To not set your expectations too high, do not plan to declutter your whole house for one day. It takes time to clean and declutter your home correctly. And then, while you’re decluttering, you have to assess each of your items on its own, one by one. Give yourself time to reflect on an item’s purpose in your life and if it’s something that you still need, can donate, or have to already throw away. This leads us to our next step, which is to ask yourself the right questions about every item in your hand. First, know if you want to put away, donate, sell, store, or throw away the item. There will be some things that you already know what to do with them. But there will be more that you wouldn’t know the answer to this first question. Ask yourself, how frequently is this item used in your household? Do you have a specific place where you could store it? If the answer to the latter is yes, but you are still having doubts about whether you should continue keeping it, ask yourself if you’ll buy the item in case you see it in the mall and still don’t have it at home. You can ask yourself a more profound question and be completely honest with your answer to whether or not the item has a valuable sentiment attached to it. Will you miss it, or is it worth the extra bucks should you decide to sell it? And as the famous Marie Kondo says, ask yourself if the object sparks any joy in you. These questions can help but are not a guarantee that you will be making the right decision. Just remember that it’s really hard to say goodbye to clutter, more so if it’s something that is very important to you. If it takes valuable space, though, you can also just take a photo of it for keepsakes and then discard the actual item. Or you can put it in a “Maybe” pile if you’re really having doubts. You need to understand why you want to keep an item. When you have a clear understanding, that’s when you can entertain thoughts of why you should let go of it already. If it hasn’t been used for a year already, then that’s a strong reason why you should consider letting it go. You have to declutter consciously and to stop adding senseless objects to your home. The last step, according to Life Storage, is to empty all your four boxes and then repeat the whole process. Before you declutter again, you need to empty your boxes. Everything in the trash bin will be thrown into your trash can. In the Sell box, you can set it aside in a secure place so that you can start selling when you’ve finished decluttering everything. Make sure to pile them in categories so it’s easy to add to it after every area you finish decluttering. The pieces for donation must be taken to your car so that you can easily drop it off in the charity you are donating it to. The store items can be placed in the area that is close to where you will be keeping them. And then obviously, your keep or put away box, the items must be put where you’ll place them at your home. After the boxes have been emptied, you can start decluttering again. Once you’re done decluttering, sweep, brush, and mop the areas before you install intelligent storage solutions. For the garage, you may use ceiling storage racks or wall shelves to free up floor space and maximize the storage capacity of the space. Happy decluttering!