Decluttering Your Space and Your Life

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Carline

Carline is an advocate for women's empowerment and environmental issues, such as plastic pollution and its effects. She is a passionate writer who wants to make a difference.

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Decluttering, especially while on social isolation, is a thing now. You may be disinfecting, but are you decluttering?

It seems like the world changed overnight and all of a sudden, you’ve got nothing but time on your hands.

Remember the clutter in your garage or under your bed? What about all of those items that you have been dreading to sort for charity? Or throw away? You can deal with it now. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.

Decluttering is a process and there are tons of ways to do this, including the Kon Mari method by Marie Kondo. In this article, we have included simple, systematic ways to declutter your entire home while minimizing your risks to yourself and your loved ones if you are on lockdown.

After you’ve completed decluttering, it’s not just your house that will become fresh.  You’ll feel renewed and relieved, too. It will take less time to clean and organize.  You will have less stress and fewer obstacles in your way (literally).

During this process, you will likely notice that you have new spaces that you did not realize you had.   You can make these into your new chill-out spaces, such as a meditation space, yoga corner, or woman cave.

This journey will be fun with lots of surprises along the way!

Here are tips for decluttering:

1. On your first day, get a trash bag and 4 boxes

Label the 4 boxes with:

• To recycle:  you can put plastic and glass containers that you can still reuse
• To mend:  broken toys, loose or tight clothes that you can still repair
• To donate:  this includes clothes, toys, that are still decent to give away but you’ve chosen to let them go
• To sell:  high-value bags, shoes, books, etc. that you can still resell online or with a garage sale after the coronavirus pandemic

2. Now that you have those boxes, you can start with your bathroom

Why? Because you don’t usually hang out near the medicine cabinet with your shampoos.  Chances are, you forget that there is the stuff that needs to be disposed of there.

Go to your medicine cabinet and see if you have any expired medication. Do this with your skincare products, too.

Next, move on to your cabinet drawers, looking for stuff that does not belong there. Put these items in their designated box or in the trash.

3. Next step, your bedroom

The bedroom is the most sacred space in your home because it is where you revitalize at the end of the day.  It should be serene and free of any clutter.

The first step is to make your bed. This is not only aesthetically pleasing to look at but it removes the stagnant energy from the night before.

Go to your bedside table check for unused pens, notebooks, anything you can see that doesn’t belong there. Remove it and put it in its designated box. Check each and every drawer.

4. Your makeup counter

Check for expired makeup, makeup that you haven’t used, or those that you just tested. Put them in the “to sell” box or to discard.

Put the makeup that you use in areas that are easy to see at first glance. We tend to forget about makeup when it’s not easy to see.

5. Closets

This is where you can apply the Konmari method by Marie Kondo.

1. Put them in a pile
2. Hold them one by one feel if it still sparks joy
3. If it doesn’t spark joy, thank them for serving its purpose. Put them in the “for-donation” box.
4. If it still sparks joy you can put it back when you rearrange. Or put them in the “to-mend” box.
5. Sort and arrange by type (shoes, bags, jackets, shirts, dresses, etc.)

6. Entryway

Some people have hall closets and some don’t. If you happen to have one, you should always make it a habit to declutter it. Because entryway greets you when you enter your home, it is prone to clutter and it messes up the view of your home.

This could be the space where you often leave your coats, shoes, bags. You can buy a coat stand online and a small shoe cabinet that’s meant for shoes that you usually wear when you go out. This way, your items are not scattered.

7. The kitchen

The kitchen is the most challenging part of the house to declutter.  It is where you cook and eat every day so keeping kitchen cabinets clean and organized can be a real challenge.

Don’t worry you just have to do it step by step.

• Start by emptying one kitchen cabinet, your silverware perhaps.

It would be great to invest in an organizer like this Galashield Silverware Organizer for Kitchen Drawer from Amazon.

• Next, look at your cutting boards. Arrange them by size.
• Then, review your knives.

It’s best if you could this Steel Magnetic Knife Bar from Amazon :

It’s a magnetic strip that you can hang on your kitchen and you can just stick your knives there, making it easy, convenient, and sanitary.

• Your pantry is next.

There may be expired food items and spices so check the labels and discard the expired ones. Sort the items and place the ones you consume daily near the opening, such as cereal, crackers, etc.

• Check your fridge for expired items, empty sauce or bottles.
•  Check the space under your kitchen sink where the cleaning tools are.

Look for expired items or cleaning supplies that you don’t use.

• Next, clear your countertops as much as possible.

Put the counter items you use every day on spots where you can easily see and reach them.

8. Lastly, let’s look at your receiving area/living room

You’re almost done, you can do this!   Make this space as Zen as possible.

You may have books here, remote controls, magazines, board games. Place them in a permanent space. For gadgets, flash drives, chargers, CDs/DVDs, put them in a permanent drawer under the TV.

For the remote controls, it would be best to hang them so you’ll always know where they are and it won’t add to the clutter.

There’s this Remote Control Holder Hook that you can buy on Amazon:

This sums up our decluttering list.

Decluttering is an art.  It’s an activity that’s both mentally and physically challenging and won’t be boring when you do it properly.

Wishing you positive vibes in your homes!

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