Decluttering your home can be an overwhelming task. Between the many drawers, cabinets, rooms, and storage bins, it can be hard not to feel stressed. But rather than focusing on the end goal or a specific room, let’s try a new approach.
If your stuff isn’t serving you, it won’t be serving you any better packed away in a box somewhere.
melissa camara wilkins.
Focusing on a single drawer or room can be helpful, but let’s try looking at common items that we tend to accumulate. For example, instead of focusing on the entire kitchen, focus on the cups. Instead of focusing on the entire closet, focus on the accessories. This approach takes the pressure off of having to finish a single space, and more on what we can declutter right now. You can even apply the 2-minute rule to this task to make it that much more doable! Here are 8 things you can declutter today.
1) Cups and Tumblers Does anyone else love buying cups and tumblers? It seems to be a common and reoccurring purchase for all of us. I’ve accumulated so many over the years and I finally got rid of more than 90% last year. My cabinets are much more spacious and functional since they’ve been cleared out. You really only need a few trusty tumblers, glasses, and mugs.
2) Magazines and Books Magazines and books can pile up fast and take up a lot of space. Go through your shelves and consider gifting, reselling, or donating books that you don’t want to keep in your collection. In the future, check out digital magazines and eBooks. If you end up enjoying them, add them to your collection. If not, you don’t have to worry about any physical clutter to get rid of.
3) Beauty Products When I first started decluttering, my beauty collection took the longest. If you have products that have been sitting around for a while, I recommend using checkcosmetics.net or checkfresh.com to check the batch/lot codes to make sure they aren’t expired. Keep what you use regularly, samples/minis you may need for travel, and say goodbye to the rest.
4) Charging Cables I can guarantee if you go through your drawers right now, you’ll find duplicate charging cables. A lot of our wireless devices, whether it be a speaker or headphones often use the same chargers. I recently went through mine and found more than 7 of the same cables that I haven’t used in years. I decided to keep a maximum of 3 of the same cables and gave the rest to friends and family.
5) Fashion Accessories Accessories are common items that accumulate quickly in our closets. We have belts, scarves, wallets, hats, and jewelry that all take up space. As fashion trends continue to change, I’m certain there are more than a handful of items we can donate for someone else to enjoy.
6) Socks When’s the last time you went through your sock drawer? I went through mine back in December and found a ton of mismatched and worn socks. I gained extra space just by rummaging through for a few minutes. If you come across a few that are lightly used but perhaps they’re too small or not warm enough, you can donate them.
7) Towels and Blankets Did you know that most animal shelters take lightly used towels, blankets, and flat sheets? If you have any sitting around that haven’t been used in a while, it’s a great way to free up extra space in your closet and help the animals. Each charity is different, so be sure to check with your local shelters to see if they accept these items.
8) Stationary With everything being digital nowadays, I found myself left with a ton of stationary that I haven’t used in years. If you have binders, folders, extra paper, notebooks, pens, pencils, envelopes, etc., consider donating them to local non-profit organizations. It’ll go to great use and you’ll free up space in your home office.
I hope this new approach to decluttering helps take the pressure off of having to commit to a single space, but rather the items themselves. The goal is to get started, and once you do, decluttering becomes much easier. What are some items that you tend to accumulate more than others? Do you have any decluttering tips you’d like to share? If so, I’d love to hear them. For more posts relating to productivity, visit my tag here.
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We definitely need a spring cleaning day. Even though we have a lot of books, we try to go through them and donate the ones we won’t read again. We also need to go through our closets and the kitchen cabinets.
That’s great to hear! I’m looking forward to going through my book pile this spring. Good luck decluttering and thank you for reading!
I definitely have some cables I need to get rid of and I’ve been eyeing that old jewelry. Thank you for the push. I’m not giving up my Stationary though. Nope.
xo Clare
No problem! I hope it’s a quick and easy process to declutter. Thank you for reading Clare!
Too many individual socks is my issue. I need to declutter my books too.
Same, those two things can pile up quickly. Thank you for reading Jamie!
I hate clutter and it definitely impacts my mental health when I see clutter building up in my space! These are all super easy things to de-clutter and sometimes it just takes you to focus on one small area to have a big difference!
I agree, I feel much better when my space is free from clutter. Thank you for reading Jenny!
I have so many cups that haven’t left the cupboard in months, that’s probably a good place to start. Towels are also a good idea, but stationary is something that is very hard to leave. In my opinion, socks leave on their own anyways. Thanks for sharing!
I agree, socks tend to go missing or you’ll just find one of them haha. Thank you for reading Sejal!
These are some really good things to declutter and to help you feel more organised and productive. Thank you for sharing your list!
Lauren
Thank you for reading Lauren!
Nice tips for decluttering. My daughter has a knack for it and helps us quite a bit. But, after reading this, I now have more to do
That’s great that your daughter has been helping you out! I’m looking forward to doing a thorough job for spring cleaning. Thank you for reading Wendy!
We often take for granted some of the tiny things because they do not take up too much space but soon become too much to handle. Being a dance teacher, over the years I have collected a lot of connecting wires and cables to play music. I don’t know what to do with them since they are old and now every music playing gadget is wireless. You have mentioned some very good ways to discard the stuff and declutter the home.
The Best Buy’s in Canada have a recycling program for cables and wires. Perhaps there’s something similar in your area! Thank you for reading Ranjana!
I agree with these picks. Some many times we buy things and don’t really use them or keep them too long. Thank you for the reminder!
I agree with you! It’s nice to clear out our space and donate what we don’t use so that someone else can enjoy them. Thank you for reading Lanae!
I definitely like the idea of decluttering and reorganizing in smaller more manageable projects rather than tackling a whole room! Great tips! Have a wonderful weekend.
Thank you Jodie, I’m glad you enjoy this method. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely weekend!
I definitely need to have a good clear out of magazines etc.
Yes, magazines pile up so quickly! Thank you for reading Nikki!
Lately, I’ve been decluttering my apartment from no longer using some of the bedsheets to cleaning my kitchen. My plan for spring break is to do a spring cleaning closet and donate unused clothes in good condition.
That’s great to hear Michelle. It always feels good to clean our space and let go of what we no longer need or use. Thank you for reading!
I love buying cups haha and I had many of them while just using only one or two of them.
Me too haha! Like you said, we really only need a few cups. Thank you for reading Fransic!
I do love having a declutter! I like to declutter my clothes every now and then. I need to go through my sock draw and throw out some old socks! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
I find that closets usually take the longest, so decluttering often is a great idea! Thank you for reading Lucy!
Great tips! I love hacing a little declutter at the weekends, ready for the new week 🙂 thank you for sharing these ideas x
It’s a great idea to do a bit here and there, especially on the weekends. Thank you for reading Eleanor!
This is great advice on things we can declutter! I used to have a big stack of magazines, but then I switched to reading them on Libby. I also read and listen to a lot of books on Libby, and I rarely buy physical books nowadays.
Also, that’s a good tip on checking the batch codes of beauty products and donating lightly used towels and blankets to animal shelters!
Thank you Karalee! I’m glad to hear that you’ve switched to Libby. Magazines can pile up so quickly! Thank you for reading!
Oh this is so good! I love the quote you used at the beginning of the post too. It’s so true! I’d like to think I’m pretty good when it comes to decluttering. I tried to throw a load of my daughters old comics away earlier on in the week and my other half stopped me. We’re quite different when it comes to hoarding/decluttering. Socks is a big problem in our house though. I’ve got a box full of odd ones, I need to make a cull I think. Fabulous post!
Claire.x
http://www.clairemac.co.uk
Thank you Claire! Socks can definitely be a problem, I find that I’m always going through them as well. Thank you for reading!