There’s only one month left until 2021, a new year and a new start. But rather than waiting until next year to come, let’s start enjoying each day as a fresh start. For a fresh start, the first thing that comes to mind is waking up to a clean and tidy room. If you find yourself with piles of clutter building up in your room to the point where you’re already used to it, then it’s about time to declutter!
Here are 5 tips to start decluttering:
1. Dedicate 10 minutes each day to declutter
Make it a daily habit to spend 10 minutes to declutter if hours of cleaning sounds too overwhelming. By taking small steps and cleaning every day, the clutter will eventually disappear and each item will have their own homes.
If 10 minutes sounds like a long time, you can rephrase it to “Discard 3 items each day”. This might give you more purpose to tidy up and find an item to give away or discard.
2. Use the 3-box rule
The 3-box rule refers to the “Keep”, “Donate” and “Throw away” box. Some people might find the need for a fourth box for items they haven’t categorized yet. However, the effectiveness of a fourth box varies from person to person. This is because we might take advantage of the fourth box to procrastinate decluttering.
From my experience, 3-box does the trick. By categorizing your belonging into “Keep”, “Donate” or “Throw away”, letting go becomes much easier since each item will have their own respective homes.
3. Container first, clutter later
Tackling the container first and the clutter later has been one of the most effective tips for me. This is because I organize most of my things in storage boxes and different containers.
As long as there’s a container, I can always find a creative way to hide my unwanted things. By removing the container first, the rest of the clutter will find its way to their respective homes (the 3-box rule) instead of being hidden away.
4. If you feel guilty, take photos
We often feel obliged to keep gifts from friends and family even when we don’t necessarily need it or have a use for it. But since it was given to us as a gift, we feel bad for throwing it away. If that’s the case, remember this. The sender wanted us to be happy and if keeping the gift doesn’t spark joy, I’m sure they’ll support you to get rid of it.
Taking photos of the gifts or any item you wish to discard can help you feel less guilty. That way you can always come back to the photo even after you’ve discarded the item.
5. Take out all your items
If you ever have the time for a huge cleanup, you should definitely try starting from scratch! Instead of discarding your possessions one by one, try the opposite. Choose one room and move all your items from that room to another. After you’ve taken out all your possessions, choose only the ones that you need and return them to their position.
By doing so, you’ll realize that most items that we find extremely hard to discard are not as needed as we think they are. Try tackling one room at a time.
In Summary
Instead of waiting for next year’s new year resolution as a motivation to declutter, we can start now for a fresh start tomorrow. If these tips helped you, don’t forget to share them with your family and friends!
