Spring Cleaning – Ways to Declutter

Have you ever gotten overwhelmed by the amount of random stuff in your house? Do the shelves or tables turn into “collect-alls”? This happens more often than I would like to admit at my house. My desk drawers collect so many miscellaneous items they become crowded with junk to the point of never being able to locate something, my dining table has to be cleared off before most meals, the chairs have all somehow begun to double as coat racks, and our garage is basically a storage closet for everything but the cars. 

Strangely enough, I don’t think we have that much stuff. Before this house, we lived in a much smaller house with no issues and yet we have somehow managed to fill every crevice of our new house with ease. We have become victims of our own clutter. Luckily, there is hope. 

If you’ve noticed clutter is creeping in or has already taken over your home, follow along for some Spring Cleaning tips for de-cluttering your household.

• Step 1: Take a deep breath. No matter how big or small the clutter problem is, it can be overwhelming to try and tackle. Do not attempt to resolve the issue all at once.

• Step 2: Pick one room and focus on it. Do not try to clean multiple rooms at once. It may seem like multitasking will rush the process, but you run the risk of getting distracted or just moving one room’s clutter to another room.

• Step 3: Remove all clutter items from the room (i.e. if you’re in the bathroom take all of the contents off of the shelves, counters, drawers, and medicine cabinet) then sort them.

• Step 4: After sorting the items, dispose of the ones that are no longer necessary or expired and place the other items back in their correct designated location. Make sure that location isn’t just on the counter.

• Step 5: Clean the room then move on to the next. Wash the counters, sweep, mop, vacuum, etc.

• Step 6: Repeat steps one through five on the next room of your choice. De-cluttering your home does not have to be a one-day task. To prevent the return of clutter, think of ways that fit your lifestyle that can prevent clutter. You can use daily, weekly, or monthly sweeps of the house where you look for clutter and put stuff in its place.

• You may even make or buy some organizational baskets or drawers to help with the small items that are collected on counters. Set reminders on your phone or smart home device to remind you to pick up. If you have small kids, make a game out of it. If you have older kids, use an incentive that they can’t refuse.

Even the best of us can fall victim to clutter, but hope is on the horizon.