Declutter Your Home

by Raymund Tamayo

A home that is simple, clean, and uncluttered takes away so much stress. 

Try to imagine when you walk into your living room after going out of bed in the morning. 

Uncluttered. Without toys, books, dirty clothes, and all the other unnecessary things lying around all over the place. 

It gives your heart a sense of peace and calm as you greet the new day.

I have been a declutterer and simplifier since January 2010. I must say that it has made a huge impact in my life. 

It has given me so much joy spending time in our uncluttered rooms. 

Everything is still not perfect… I believe this is an ongoing lifestyle. And we can’t completely take away clutter especially because we have children at home. But we can reduce.

It’s not just at home, this applies even in the office. When things are organized, you spare yourself the stress of trying to find the things you need right at the moment.

Here are four simple tips on how to start decluttering your home.

1. Do not hurry. Do not attempt to declutter everything in one day. Set aside small sessions of time to do your thing. Decluttering takes a lot of planning and effort that doing an entire house in one day can be draining. It is not only physically strenuous, but mentally exhausting as well.

Decluttering forces you to make quick decisions about your stuff, such as whether to keep them, give them away, or thrown them in the trash. You may not notice it, but those kinds of decisions take a lot of mental energy.

Instead of decluttering everything in an entire day, schedule 15 to 30 minutes of decluttering sessions three to four times a day every day. That would be easier to handle.

2. Prepare three boxes or containers. One for keeping, one for giving away, and one for the trash. Make it as easy as possible to segregate your clutter by having three containers ready. After collecting the trash, place the container outside of your house and make sure it does not get the chance to get back inside.

3. Start with the floors and counter tops. When decluttering a room, always start with the floors and counter tops. These are the places where clutter easily congregates. You will be able to feel a lot of progress in your work if you clear all floors and counter space of everything. 

4. Let go of things that are not useful, beautiful, or joyful. If it is not useful, if it is not pleasing to the eye, if it does not make you happy, then why is it in your home?

As I have mentioned, decluttering is a continuous process. After taking out the clutter, it is expected to come back in sooner or later. Thus, make decluttering a habit in order to keep your home clutter-free.