How to start your New Year declutter!

It’s a New Year and a great opportunity for a fresh start. If you’re keen to be better organised this year you’ll need to start with a New Year declutter; let me show you how!

If you’re keen to be better organised this year you’ll need to start with a New Year declutter; let me show you how!

Welcome 2019; it’s a New Year and an opportunity for a fresh start! Clearing out the old, unloved items and things that are no longer useful is a great way to set you up for the year ahead. You will gain more space, greater clarity and focus, a calmer environment and become more conscious about what you bring into your home. You will also save yourself time, money and effort finding the things that you do need.

 

What is decluttering?

Decluttering is the process of removing the possessions that are piled up or stuffed in drawers and cupboards, filling your home and your head with physical and mental noise, but no longer adding value to your life. Think of the items that are no longer useful or loved, old or broken, that you know you should do something with but haven’t got to or can’t face making a decision about.
 
A great way to set yourself up for change is to tidy away the old and pass on the things that you no longer need.

 

 

My 5-step guide to starting your New Year declutter!

Before you start any practical work, you need to get clear on what you want to achieve and why. Try to visualise what you want your home to look and feel like. What benefits will this change bring you and your family? This vision will help to guide your approach and keep you motivated when it feels hard!

 

  1. Prepare your space; make sure you have some space to spread things out in front of you. Have bags ready for donations, recycling and rubbish.
  2. Start with a small task that will be easy to achieve or feel like you’ve made a difference. It may not seem worth it but starting small gives you the fundamentals for good organisation.
  3. Your pen pot is a great place to start. Pens clutter every room but you can never find one when you need it. It’s a quick task and will save you time everyday. Zip round the house and gather all pens in one place. Pick up each one (therefore connecting with each item) and test it’s value (does it still work/do you love it?)
  4. Practice your decision making skills – if it is no longer useful or you don’t love it, can you foresee needing to use it in the next 6-12 months? If not, someone else could benefit from it; do you want to sell or donate it?
  5. For items you choose to keep, decide where it should live in your home. Giving it a home will enable you to tidy it away easily and find it again when you need it
Congratulations you’ve achieved your first declutter task! It may not feel huge but you’ve started on your journey. Celebrate! Go for a walk, have a cup of tea, read a chapter of your book (guilt free). 
 
 

Now pick another small task and repeat! 

Here are 10 other quick declutter tasks you might like to try.
  1. Kitchen cutlery drawer
  2. Underwear drawer
  3. T-shirt drawer
  4. Under the bed
  5. Desk drawer
  6. Cupboard under the sink
  7. Bathroom cabinet
  8. Towel cupboard
  9. Shoe collection
  10. Coats
 
If you struggle to get started or staying motivated ask for help. A friend or relative may be able to help. If you need expert advice or practical support, I’m here! Call me on 07970 989955.
 

 

 

About OrganisedWell

Would you like help getting organised?

Laura Williams, Founder and Professional Organiser

If you need guidance, ideas and practical support to make more of your home, organise your possessions in a way that supports your best life or to get started with your decluttering project, then give me a call.

I provide tailored advice and practical support to clients looking to make changes, to create calm, ordered space and free up time and money to focus on the important things in life. I specialise in organising rooms, garages, wardrobes, paperwork and much more; see my services or get in touch.

Can decluttering be good for your mental health?

If you’ve ever found yourself getting frustrated at the possessions lying around your home, been unable to concentrate on a task when surrounded by stuff piled on surfaces, or if you’ve tried to read a book, mediate or have a quiet cup of tea but couldn’t relax until you’d zipped round and tidied up everything first, then you’ve been affected by clutter. I share why I believe that removing clutter from your home is good for your mental health.

I believe that removing clutter from your home is good for your mental health, even if you don’t have that much.

Google says clutter is ‘a collection of things lying about in an untidy state’. Interestingly we’ve used this term increasingly over the last fifty years.

If you’ve ever found yourself getting frustrated at the possessions lying around your home, been unable to concentrate on a task when surrounded by stuff piled on surfaces, or if you’ve tried to read a book, mediate or have a quiet cup of tea but couldn’t relax until you’d zipped round and tidied up everything first, then you’ve been affected by clutter.

Research published in 2011 in the Journal of Neuroscience found that clutter means we have too many stimuli in our environment, which can make it hard to focus.

Humans are innately organised but we all have different styles that determine how we feel about clutter. Clutter can cause stress and lower self-image. It can cause anxiety about how and when we will be able to regain control or how others will perceive us. It can also take us longer to finish simple tasks making us feel incompetent.

According to a Lovespace survey:

a whopping 80% of people in the UK admit their mood is influenced by the state of their house with a less cluttered living space making people much happier!

The good news is, we can maintain a less cluttered home by sorting our things regularly and being more conscious of what we bring into our home.

A good decluttering session can feel quite therapeutic because it:

  1. Creates a sense of confidence as we use our decision-making and problem-solving skills
  2. Creates order and control – we only keep the things we need and have the space to organise them
  3. Gives you feelings of gratitude and abundance – you might find lost things, forgotten treasures, things you can sell or give away. All of which makes you feel that you’ve gained or can benefit others
  4. It can lift the weight of guilt, the feeling that things are left incomplete, makes us feel lighter, freer, calmer and leaves us with a renewed sense of ‘home’

Here are five ideas for maintaining a less cluttered home:

  1. Keep a bag in the boot of your car for charity donations. As you come across something that is no longer needed, pop it in the bag. When it’s full, drop it off at your nearest charity shop
  2. Practice the 1 in 1 out rule – anything new coming into the home has to be exchanged from something that you no longer need or love
  3. Treat pending school holidays, birthdays and Christmas as good opportunities to sort out possessions that can be passed on for others to enjoy
  4. Engage the rest of the household in the benefits of decluttering their own things (they will know where to find what they want and they may even make some money selling old things)
  5. Focus on tackling one room and rotate rooms over the year

So what are waiting for… rally your household, pick a room, put some music on and go for it!

 

About OrganisedWell

Would you like help getting organised?

Laura Williams, Founder and Professional OrganiserIf you need guidance, ideas and practical support to make more of your home, organise your possessions in a way that supports your best life or to get started with your decluttering project, then give me a call.

I provide tailored advice and practical support to clients looking to make changes, to create calm, ordered space and free up time and money to focus on the important things in life. I specialise in organising rooms, garages, wardrobes, paperwork and much more; see my services or get in touch.

Not Making Time to Declutter?

As our lives flash by at the speed of light, it’s so hard to find time to tackle our homes, especially when the muddle has built up a bit. But can we afford not to when we spend 10 minutes everyday looking for things we know we have but can’t find?

As our lives flash by at the speed of light, it’s so hard to find time to tackle our homes, especially when the muddle has built up a bit.

We expect to fit so much in! We need to work, care for family, maybe care for pets, keep up with housework, the garden and DIY, ferry children to clubs and social commitments, want to spend quality time with loved ones, keep in contact with friends, have our own hobbies (if we are lucky!), maybe want to keep fit and more! There’s a lot of pressure.

People say to me that they don’t have time to tackle their clutter and I understand, it can feel like that. But actually we are making a choice, anything can be a priority if we make it so. What we have to decide is whether having a less cluttered home is a priority.

Decluttering can benefit us by:

  • making more space to play or work and creating a calmer environment
  • saving us money on replacing items we already have but can’t find (and possibly earning money selling some items)
  • removing the visual clutter and mental ‘noise’
  • enabling us to relax and not feel guilty about the state of a room
  • making it easier to see and find what we need, when we need it

A study by Esure home insurance found that we spend 10 minutes everyday looking for the things we know we have but can’t find. This is time we could be reading, having breakfast with family or getting a job done around the house!

a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days is spent searching for stuff, over our lifetimes.

These Top 5 Ideas Could Make Things Easier:

1. ‘Declutter as you go’

Have a ‘declutter as you go’ mindset and try to simplify at every opportunity; use the 1 in 1 out rule when you buy new items and clothes, if you come across something that you have not used for a long time. Ask yourself whether you expect to use it in the next 6 months and if not set it aside. You could set-up a small bag/box to add things for the charity shop or recycling centre and ensure you take it when it’s full. (I have a bag in the boot of the car and add to this when I come across things we no longer need)

2. Quick Declutters

Practice Saturday morning half-hour declutters. Engage the rest of the family, put some fun music on and have a competition – get everyone to rush around putting things back where they should be and removing anything that is no longer needed. You might ask children to rotate any pictures that you have up on the wall, adding new pictures created that week and deciding which pictures are to go into a keepsake box and which are to be recycled

3. Schedule Time

Diarise a day periodically to have a sort out in anticipation of new items entering the house (pre-birthday, Christmas and the start of school are good points in the year). Take the opportunity to remove any old/ill-fitting clothes, toys and books that are no longer played with. The promise of new items can make the removal of old items easier

4. Create Homes for Items

Allocate a space for everything (it may help to label drawers and containers) and as you leave a room, pick up items that don’t belong there and return them to their place as you move to the next room/upstairs. I have a friend who has a stairs basket that works really well, she adds any bits that need to go upstairs to the basket and takes it up when she goes, and vice versa when coming down

5. Make it a Routine

Treat decluttering like any other household activity (like ensuring you have clean clothes and groceries) and schedule it in to your weekly/monthly diary. I love the analogy of rocks in a jar. To ensure that we make time for the activities that need to be done, fit them amongst the important activities so they are not left out. If it’s important to you that you maintain a clutter-free home (get clear in your own mind why it’s important – what do you and your family gain – maybe less time wasting in the mornings, less stress, less expense) then you will ensure that you get to it.

Whether you blast your clutter every 3 months or declutter as-you-go, what’s important is that you find what works for you, enjoy your home and life is a little less stressful!

Would you like help getting organised?

If you need guidance, ideas and practical support to get better organised, see my services or give me a call.