5 Tips for Uncluttering

The results of uncluttering can feel life changing. It may seem a little dramatic to suggest that too much stuff in your environment can be causing you stress, anxiety, and heaviness in your emotional being. But, it’s true. Things carry baggage and feelings that either agree with our current place in life or hold us back from living with clarity, focus, and peace. Our home should be filled with items that agree with and support us that we can appreciate and enjoy. Removing anything that does not fulfill that role is a very cathartic and wonderful feeling! Here are my top tips to get started on making more space in your home and in your life:

5 Tips for Uncluttering:

1. Place all your hangers facing the reverse direction. Each time you wear something, put in back in facing the correct way. In six months, take a look at the items still facing the reverse direction and remove them from your closet. Seeing the clothes you don’t wear often or don’t make you feel your best will make it much easier to give them away.
2. Take photos of each room in your house. Look at them and notice which areas of the room look congested and too cluttered. Imagine the photos of your home in an interior magazine and take inventory of what would not be in the photos in a magazine feature because the room would look too messy and cluttered. Got through the items in those areas and clear them out to make more space in each room.
3. Label 4 large boxes “trash”, “giveaway”, “store”, “relocate”. Place cluttered items in one of these boxes over the course of a couple weeks. This will give you time to get comfortable with removing items and also give you time to see what you really don’t use or need anymore. For items that you want to keep, but need to be in a more organized or purposeful place, place them in the “relocate” box. After a couple weeks, notice whether or not those items really need to be relocated or if they no longer have a place in your home. If you have to pull anything out of the “trash”, “giveaway”, or “store” boxes to use it, then you know you should actually be keeping the item.
4. Implement a 2 issue rule. For any magazine, newsletter, newspaper, or mailing, only allow the last two issues to hang around your house. Anything older needs to be trashed. If there’s an article or note you want to save, tear it out and keep it in a binder instead of holding onto the entire publication. Papers can accumulate very easily and take up lots of unnecessary space.
5. Re-assess your furniture. Do you use it all? Does it all make sense and work in your space? Is it covered in pillows and throws that make it hard to use and uncomfortable? Visualizing your space as a blank, empty slate and considering every piece of furniture as an element of necessity that takes up your precious space will help you weed out what you don’t actually need that makes your space heavy and cluttered. Place furniture items in storage if you want to live in your space without them before making the final plunge of giving them away if you aren’t sure, but chances are you won’t miss them.

It’s not always easy to go through your items and release those that once meant something to you or hold strong memories. Once you get started and feel how freeing it is, it will be much easier to go deeper and deeper into your space and honestly assess the belongings you keep in your space. Start slow and notice the positive changes in your mood, focus, and energy while in your environment when you clear it out and pare down! Happy uncluttering! Annie Sources: Unclutterer & Psychology Today