A home is a home, but it’s far from luxury. Learn how to get rid of clutter and junk to secure your luxury household and sanity.
About four to fifteen million people in the US are compulsive hoarders. Most of you shuddered when you read this statistic. That’s because there’s a high chance you could be among them.
You’ve probably resolved a million times to get rid of clutter and junk. However, the hoarder in you won’t let you get to it. That leaves about every square foot of your home drowning in clutter.
Compulsive hoarding is the behavior of keeping everything with reluctance to discard some of them even when they’re useless. The result is a house or room filled with junk and clutter. Some cases are so bad that the clutter limits movement in the household.
Some people are diligent about their cleanliness and can’t stand the sight of dirt. However, clutter and junk have nothing to do with cleanliness. In fact, a spotless house may be littered with clutter.
In this piece, we’ll show you how to get rid of that clutter and restore your home to its previous glory. But first, let’s deal with how to tell clutter and essential stuff apart.
How to Tell Clutter and Essential Stuff Apart
First, you have no mandate to decide what clutter is and what is not by yourself. You’ll probably end up making biased choices in favor of the clutter.
When throwing stuff out, anything that you want to stay there permanently should stay as a rule of thumb.
Anything that you wouldn’t want to stay where it is permanently should go.
To give you a better idea, consider these:
- The bowl of popcorn that never leaves that spot on the couch: clutter
- That Rubix cube you never get to finish: clutter
- The twelve comic books from five years ago: clutter
- Socks you never wear clutter.
- That porcelain vase that makes your living room look chic: essential
- Important work documents or your son’s graduation photos: essential
These few examples should give you an idea of what counts as clutter and what doesn’t. After you’ve done classifying every item, decide where everything should go. If you can’t find a spot for some items, then they should go through the window, not literally, of course.
A great approach to decluttering is going step by step. Focus on one small area of the room before proceeding to the next section. Ultimately, you’ll have covered the whole room, and you can proceed to the next room.
Why Is It Important to Declutter?
The main reason most people want to declutter is to clear the messy outlook of their homes.
That’s why decluttering shows up in most people’s New Year’s resolutions. Another reason is that they need to find something they lost ages ago.
Here are a couple of reasons why decluttering is so important:
- Working with clutter is a real headache. After you declutter, you’ll find cleaning your home is much easier and faster.
- The more stuff you have, the bigger the messes you make unintentionally. For instance, take rummaging through heaps of paper to find one document, then leaving a bigger mess after you find it.
- It makes hosting guests more pleasurable. We know how embarrassing it is to host guests in a messy household. Just declutter your home, and you won’t have to.
Most importantly, getting rid of clutter and junk is important for your overall well-being. Clutter could significantly increase your stress levels and ruin your entire mood for the day.
This is especially true for people who spend most of their day at home.
The Best Approach to Get Rid of Clutter and Junk in Your Home
Beneath the mounds of junk and clutter is a stunning luxurious residence only fit for kings. However, before you get home, you have a lot of work to do.
Most people get exhausted by the mere thought of decluttering. However, if you do it gradually and step by step, it won’t be as exhausting.
Learn how to get rid of clutter and junk by reading our tips below.
1. Lay Out a Decluttering Strategy
Having a clearly defined plan is the right way to kick things off. Map out the entire house, ensuring you include every room. From the mapped-out plan, identify the clutter hot spots.
Next, give each room clutter scores in terms of the amount of clutter in each room. Then set dates when to complete decluttering each room. Finish one room before proceeding to the next; never do two rooms simultaneously.
2. Collect the Trash and Discard It
Trash makes up a huge part of the clutter we have around. You’ll find trash everywhere in every room. Sometimes it’s not even trash; it’s stuff you don’t need or already have. In which case, hire a local moving company to transport them to someone who can use them. You can also do garage sell to get rid of them.
The most notorious areas are the kitchen and rooms.
If you have a lot of trash to throw away, you can hire people to haul away your junk.
3. Gather All the Essentials
We often misplace essentials in other rooms—for instance, plates and cups in the bedrooms or the likes.
Gather everything that you won’t throw away and keep them nearby.
After gathering them in one place, sort them according to where each item goes.
4. Throw Away the Clutter
This is the part that everyone hates. If you can’t find a permanent place for anything, then it has to go. It may hurt to throw away a few things, but you’ll get over it.
5. Keep What You Have to Keep
Sometimes there are a few essential items that may have no place. If you absolutely must keep them, then find a good spot for them. It may be temporary, and then you’ll transfer it to another place, like your office, the next day.
If you can, you should consider a garage sale. That way, you can make a quick buck out of all the junk you discard.
The Perfect Time to Declutter Is Now
Don’t even think about postponing your decluttering exercise, especially now that you know the right way to get rid of clutter and junk properly.
Also, when tossing out the trash, remember you can always recycle the recyclable stuff. You’ll do both you and the environment a favor when you can do this.
For more articles on all things luxury and travel, please check out our other pieces.