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If you’re reading this post, you probably want to start decluttering but you feel overwhelmed.
That’s okay. Many of us feel the same and find the thought of getting rid of things stressful.
The key thing is deciding that you’re actually going to do it. Reminding yourself of the benefits and envisioning how you will feel when it’s done.
I spoke about The Benefits of Decluttering in this post on my other blog so if you need a little reminder and encouragement to get started, go have a read.
If you’re ready to get started, read on!
You might also enjoy…10 Habits to Keep Clutter at Bay
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It helps to have a plan of action if you’re thinking of decluttering, particularly if you feel overwhelmed by the thought.
So before jumping right in, there are a few things I would recommend doing, to get you off on the right foot.
I would highly recommend starting with an area that you want to relax in. Perhaps your bedroom so you can enjoy a peaceful read in bed before you go to sleep.
Maybe your living room so you can relax in a calm environment when you get home from work.
Or maybe your bathroom so you can have a nice soak in the bath after a hard day.
I suggest starting with one of these areas because you’ll really feel the benefit of it and it’ll spur you on to continue to other rooms in the house.
The thing with decluttering, especially if it feels you have a mountain to climb, is that it’s very easy to get sidetracked and lose motivation.
Focusing on the room that’ll bring you most enjoyment first, will give you much more enthusiasm to continue than if you sort the attic out that you barely set foot in anyway.
Don’t try and tackle the whole thing in one go you’ll run out of steam and end up in more chaos than when you started.
Choose one area and focus on it until it is done maybe just a set of drawers or a cupboard.
Once the area is complete, move on to the next. As you clear, clean and organise each area it’ll have a snowball effect and push you to carry on and finish the job.
This might seem counterproductive but I advise doing this before you start to give yourself the best chance of making progress.
Go into the room you’re planning on tackling first with a box or a bag and pick up everything that doesn’t belong in that room.
Take cups and dishes to the kitchen, return coats to the coat rack and shoes to your shoe cupboard.
Returning items to their proper home will not only allow you to see everything you have when you start decluttering. It’ll also allow you to make more informed decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.
For example, you might start decluttering your shoes and think, ‘oh these trainers are a bit worn, but I’ve only got the one pair so I’ll keep them’. Only to later find when you progress through the house that there’s another pair tucked away in a cupboard which you’d forgotten about.
Returning items to the room they belong to also stops you procrastinating when you actually get started. It helps to eliminate distractions so that you can make some solid headway.
Again, this might seem counter-productive, but if you’re anything like me you’ll find the mess distracts away from the task at hand.
I was particularly bad at this during my study days I’d go and do the washing up instead of studying, or run the vacuum around.
Plus, cleaning will remove any ‘surface’ clutter i.e. clutter that isn’t actually clutter but is just chores that need to be done.
You’ll be able to clearly see the actual clutter that needs to be dealt with, rather than bits of rubbish, washing or dirty dishes.
You might also enjoy…How to Declutter Your Bathroom in 5 Easy Steps
Once you’ve eliminated the surface clutter, you’ll have a much clearer vision of what is actually there to be dealt with, and that’s why I believe you should give the space a clean first.
After you’ve done that, there are a series of steps I would suggest to help you tackle the task at hand.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of getting started, chances are you’ll make excuses and keep putting it off.
Set aside some time in your diary and actually schedule it in like an appointment. Whether you give yourself an afternoon, a few hours, a day or an entire weekend it’s completely up to you.
But book it in so that you can’t sack it off for some other activity.
Generally when you declutter an area, you’ll want to put items into the following 4 categories: Keep, Sell, Donate and Trash.
Having boxes readily available will make the process much quicker.
If you are feeling seriously overwhelmed with the thought of dealing with the stuff you purge, you might want to consider scrapping the sell category and just donating things instead.
Whilst I would recommend trying to sell things to try and recoup a little money, having a mountain of stuff to sell might be equally as overwhelming as the task of actually getting rid.
The best thing to do in this case would just be to deal with the stuff straightaway and get it out of the house as soon as you can.
So we’ve mentally prepared ourselves, we’ve cleaned and returned items to the respective rooms they live in. We’ve got our boxes ready and the time we scheduled into the diary has arrived.
Now what?
Set a timer for an hour and make a start. It’s surprising just how much you can do when you’re under a time constraint.
Knowing that you’re on the clock stops you procrastinating and makes you much more productive than you otherwise would be.
It creates a sense of urgency and a drive to achieve.
Once the timer goes off, reward your progress with a cup of tea and chill for 5. But don’t forget to time your break too!
If you’re not careful, you’ll sit down and find yourself an hour deep in your social media timelines instead of getting back to work. When that happens it’s hard to get yourself going again!
Take your first small area perhaps a drawer and empty all the contents out.
Then begin to sort those contents into your categories.
If you’re finding it hard to make decisions, refer to this post: The Questions to Ask When Decluttering
Try not to overthink each decision. Just ask yourself ‘Do I love it?’ or ‘Do I use it?’ if the answer is no, then get rid.
I know our emotions are much more complex than that, but the more you hesitate and dither over a decision, the harder it becomes.
Just go with your gut and toss it into the relevant box.
Once you’ve dealt with every item that came out of the space, put the ‘keep’ items back.
As you go reconsider, ‘Do I need to keep this?’ you might find on second glance that more items end up in the donate box.
After you’ve returned all the keep items to their original home and have an empty keep box again, move on to the next area and repeat the process.
Once you’ve finished (it perhaps won’t be the entire room in a day but once you’ve finished the time that you scheduled) deal with the 3 other boxes as soon as you can.
If you’re donating to a charity take the box straight to the car, even better drop it straight off if you can.
If you’re giving something to friend or family member put it near the door where you’ll see it when they visit, put it in the car to take with you next time you see them or make the effort to go and drop it off to them.
Sort anything that you can recycle from your trash box and take it all to your nearest waste drop off facility.
The key here is to keep up the momentum and deal with it straightaway. If you put it aside to deal with later it’ll likely become clutter again.
If you have items to sell, take pictures now so that you can list them on Facebook or Ebay as soon as possible.
It’s not an easy process to start decluttering when you feel overwhelmed.
And there’ll be times you’ll no doubt wonder why you started. Just remember that sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.
Remind yourself of the reasons you’re doing this.
Hopefully you’ve found this post helpful. I’m by no means perfect and decluttering remains an ongoing process for me too.
But I can definitely feel the difference in my home and the way I live. And it’s noticing these changes that spurs me on to keep going.
I hope it’ll do the same for you too.
You might also enjoy…How to Declutter Your Bathroom in 5 Easy Steps
