A new year can be a fresh start that motivates you to complete all the household tasks you’ve wanted to do but haven’t gotten around to – like decluttering your home. But how do you even start such a big and vague task as “decluttering”? Well, at ABC Blind & Drapery, we want our clients to go home to a happy and clutter-free home, so we did some research on the best ways to organize your space.
Here are our suggestions for decluttering your home:
visualize
First off, you want to visualize how you want the space to look. Before you throw anything away, it’s important to consider your goal for the room. Start by asking yourself: What does it look like? Where do you see your things? What is your purpose for this space? This step will help motivate you to make it to your end goal, your vision for the room.
compartmentalize
Once you’ve visualized what the room will look like, you want to concentrate on one section at a time. Marie Kondo’s KonMari method recommends gathering all similar items and grouping them together before deciding what to keep and what to get rid of (for example, tshirts, books, movies, etc.). By focusing on one section at a time, you avoid forgetting about things in other rooms, such as your jackets in the hall closet or shoes by the door. This method will help you assess how much of one thing you own, and how much of it you really need.
decide
This step is the hardest for the majority of people. It’s time to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Sharon Lowenheim, known as the Organizing Goddess, recommends the “use it, love it or lose it” method. Do you use it regularly? Do you love it or does it somehow improve your life/happiness (like family photos or personal letters)? If you answered no to all three questions, it’s time to consider letting go of the item.
With each item, you’ll want to set it aside as either keep, sell/donate, store or trash. For the keep pile, it’s stuff that is useful in your everyday life. For the sell/donate pile, you’ll want to decide if you want to try and make money off the item or give it to a local charity. Store is for the sentimental items, those photos and letters that bring value to your life but you don’t necessarily use every day. And last, the trash pile. This pile will primarily be used for the stuff you’ve kept around for years that holds no value at all, like old bills or expired coupons you thought you’d use.
organize
Now that you’ve gone through everything, it’s time to give everything a home. If your stuff doesn’t have a designated place, your room will quickly become cluttered again. Storage bins can help organize the stuff in your “store” pile, so as to give them a place to be that won’t crowd your room. If you don’t have much space for bins, you can get creative with wall shelving that displays some of your items. Once everything has a place, it’s time for the last task – take a step back and look at the entire room.
step back
Does your room still feel cluttered after you’ve sorted through all of your stuff? Then it’s time to look at the big picture. Do you have too much furniture? Or is your room simply not big enough for all of your belongings? If so, you might consider selling a piece of furniture to open up some space.
Another way to make the room appear larger than it is would be is to choose lightweight window treatments. If your window treatments are bulky or heavy, they may make your room feel smaller than it actually is. We’d recommend choosing a window treatment such as sheer curtains that can also be easily swept aside to allow more natural light into the room. The more natural light that shines through, the bigger your room will feel!
We hope that after reading our decluttering tips, you’re feeling light as a feather! And if you’re ever in the market for new window treatments, we’d love if you’d consider the possibilities with ABC Blind & Drapery.