“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” ― William Morris
Remember getting sold on you from this article?
It’s time to test, how sold you are on you?
- Do you own things you hate? Clothes, books, or furniture?
- Do you own things you don’t like?
- Do you own things you don’t need anymore?
- Do you own things that are broken?
If yes, then you are not sold on you.
Because if you were sold on you, you would only own things you love, like, or that spark joy, like Marie Kondō always says.
Ask yourself: Do I love all my things?
If not, it’s time to let them go to make room for the things you truly love.
How To Start To Declutter Your Home?
Start with the easy stuff. Clothes, books, and DVD’s first. Sentimental items last.
Broken things get either fixed or thrown away.
The clothes you haven’t worn in a year, give them away to people that need them.
Christmas presents you still don’t like, sell them on eBay.
The old sentimental items from your last relationship? If you don’t plan on getting back together, throw them away.
If you can’t decide or can’t let go of particular items, put them into a box. If you can’t remember what’s inside the box after a year, give it all away.
Why Is Decluttering So Important?
Because clutter is visually distracting and every time you look at messy stuff, your energy gets zapped away from what’s truly important.
Decluttering is not about “I don’t want this,” it’s about “I want this in my life, and I’m going to make sure that nothing else is in the way!”
Decluttering is simple, but of course what’s simple is not always easy. So if you still don’t know how to do it, here is a simple process.
How To Declutter
Take every item you own, one by one, and ask yourself:
- Do I need this?
- Do I use this?
- Do I love this?
- Would I buy it again?
- Does it spark joy?
If none of these apply, get rid of it.
Remember to ask these questions to yourself in the present tense. There’s no point in saying “I might use/need/love it down the track” or “I once loved this so much, but now it’s aggravating me!”
The future has no room for clutter.
If you say “No” to all the questions above, it’s time to gift, donate, or toss it. If you find that you do need it in the future, you can still repurchase a newer version of it.
But most likely that won’t happen. Since I decluttered my home, six years ago, there was not a single item that I bought again, after I decluttered it.
And again, even if you might miss it in the future, you can still repurchase it. Also, you can create additional income by selling your decluttered stuff.
Especially let go of items you don’t want any longer if it costs under $20 to replace them. Unless you don’t have the money, but then your priority shouldn’t be to declutter your home, but to make more money and increase your income!
Let go of the just in case stuff!
Create time for what matters by getting rid of unnecessary stuff.
You can do it. Start today!
Start with your clothes, then your kitchen stuff, then books and DVD’s, then papers, and at last sentimental items. Or in whichever way you like.
Change your life piece by piece.
Pick one item and throw it away, and then pick the next, and after that the next one, until you are surrounded only by the things you love!
Start to declutter your home today!
Action Steps:
- Either take one weekend and make a big clean up where you go through everything you own and be done with it.
- Or set aside 10 minutes every day to declutter a specific part of your house and then declutter your home over the next few weeks. Only 10 minutes a day. Use a calendar or the alarm on your phone to remind yourself.
- Right now, start with one item. Decide if you want to keep it or if it’s time to let it go to make room for what’s truly important.
You can do it.
Remember, this doesn’t have to be a sprint. Do it at your pace.
Some people can declutter their whole home in a week or a month. Others need one, two, or five years to finally say: “That’s how I want my home to look like.”
This is also not a competition!
You don’t win by having the least amount of stuff.
You win by creating a life that you love.
Declutter your home at your pace and in a way that makes you happy!
