How To Declutter Your Home – An Easy Mental Shift That Has Me Decluttering Like Crazy

When I was a kid I used to have a lot of collections. A sticker collection, a collection of those cheap little plastic charms for my charm bracelet, and even a candy collection.

I know crazy right? I was the kid who would save my candy in the bottom drawer of my desk. Not sure what I was saving it for – but it was out of hand.

Now in my adult life I realized that I still have this "saving mentality" and I’m not sure it’s a good thing. So I had to figure out how to get rid of stuff and change the way I think about what to keep and this new mindset and decluttering method quickly became a repeatable Decluttering Method!

These tips for decluttering will help you with...

• how to purge your house
• how to declutter a room
• how to organize a room with too much stuff
• how to get rid of things

Through my own extreme decluttering, I’ve found the best way to declutter your space.

Figuring out this decluttering process even had me creating a declutter checklist to keep me motivated that I’m sharing and you can download too!

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Decluttering Your Home Fast

If you're anything like I was, the biggest thing holding you back from a decluttered home is your mindset. It's not that you don't know how to get rid of stuff, it's that you don't have the right mindset about what to keep and what to get rid of.

For years, I held on to way too much stuff and lacked the motivation to declutter because it seemed like an impossible job.

I hit my breaking point when going through boxes of “stuff” that had been stored in our office for years - I'm talking about boxes of stuff that had moved with us over 3 times, but had never left the box.

These things just sat in an empty room until those rooms had to become bedrooms for our kiddos and finally ended up in the office, which as you know had become a crap dumping ground that I finally overhauled during our shared office makeover.

I started out being really overwhelmed by the clutter , but my decluttering plan breaks up tasks into short chunks of time and makes it less overwhelming and in the end, it turned out better than I could have imagined. Take a look...

I know I’m not the only one with this problem.

I go on a lot of walks through my neighborhood and almost no one parks their car in their garage cause it’s so filled with stuff that it’s impossible! I was one of those people before I finally got my garage organized and under control!

So I’ve changed the way I think about getting rid of clutter and it’s allowed me to declutter like I’ve never decluttered before!

Benefits Of Decluttering

Having a decluttered home will produce so many positive benefits in your life like...

• being able to find things quickly
• being able to clean up quickly
• having company over without going into panic mode
• letting go of the past, shoulda-woulda-couldas, and guilt
• allowing the things you do use and love to stand out

My Best Decluttering Tips

Decluttering Tip #1: Change your mindset.

My old mentality of holding onto something cause I might need it someday is so bogus! How can I expect the things that I really do love or that are useful or important to shine (or be found in a timely manner) if they are hidden by a bunch of crap?

And why were we so concerned with price per square foot when we were buying our home if we were just going to fill some of those square feet with junk that we don’t need or use?

It's time to stop thinking things like...

• I might use it someday
• I paid good money for that
• It will fit once I lose weight
• But so-and-so loved it

These thoughts only give you excuses to keep things you don't need and don't serve your goal of having a decluttered home.

Decluttering Tip #2: Set a criteria for what to keep and let everything else go.

First ask yourself these three questions… Is it beautiful? Is it useful? Or is it sentimental?

This is where the key mental shift comes in…

If you hold onto everything because everything is special in some way, then really nothing is very special.

Think about that for a minute.

In order for the things that truly hold meaning or that are your best of the best to really shine and be appreciated, they can’t be crowded by the less important.

With that thought in mind I went through my things and limited what I kept down to the most beautiful, most useful, or the most meaningful things and let go of the rest.

But let's dive a bit deeper into this decluttering tip and get crystal clear so you have a very strict criteria for what you keep in your home.

By beautiful, I mean if you saw it today in a store would you fall in love with it and have to have it in your home? If the answer is yes, then by all means, keep it!

By useful, I mean it actually gets used regularly or it makes your life easier in some way.

A perfect example of this is leftover project supplies. If it is something that can be used on many different projects, by all means keep it. But if it was leftover from a very unique project and will most likely never be used again, get rid of the clutter!

By sentimental, I mean it’s got to tell your story in some way.

Now I know this is the hardest category and if you're anything like me you're going to sit and ponder certain items so you may have to go through a space more than once so that you are left with the best of the best but trust me...

There is no freedom in holding on to every single thing, memory, or story. So pick your favorites and let the rest go!

Decluttering Tip #3: Declutter one small space at a time.

The biggest reason people quit the sometimes long process of declutter is because they take on too much at once.

Instead, pick a small space and using your criteria take decluttering your home one small spot at a time.

My online decluttering course, The Declutter Method, lays out a fool proof plan for decluttering your home and breaks down 5 main areas of your home into small manageable tasks so you have a roadmap for success.

How To Declutter - Your Roadmap For Success

1. Start with one small area that is messy but doesn't contain a lot of sentimental items. (Here is a checklist by area of easy things to get rid of.)
2. Set your timer for 20 minutes and focusing on that one small area ask yourself the 3 criteria questions for each item. Is it useful? Is it beautiful? Is it sentimental?
3. Clean the area and put the keep items back.
4. Take the items you are throwing away to the trash right away.
5. Put the donation items in your car right away. If possible, take them to donate right away or make a plan to swing by the donation center in the next couple of days.
6. Each time you go to the space you've decluttered, stop and appreciate it. It will keep you motivated to keep going one small space at a time.

Trust me, figuring out how to declutter your house is a skill you can learn and your home and your mind will be all the better for it. It's so important to love where you live!

My Step-By-Step Plan To Declutter Your Home

In my online course, The Declutter Method, you'll learn the simple mindset and efficiency hacks, plus get a step-by-step decluttering plan that will have you decluttering entire spaces without making a bigger mess and burning out. Join the hundreds of students who have made huge progress and seen big results!