Although having a messy home can cause some stress, you don’t need to completely organise everything in one day. Here are some ways to learn how to declutter your home by getting rid of unnecessary items, organising your commonly used items, and setting up easy routines to keep your home tidy.
With a small home, busy family, or just a room full of items you no longer use, you can create an easy plan to declutter your space. Start small and work consistently to get the best results.
Table of Contents
1. Start Small
An easy place to start decluttering is to pick one small area.
Pick a drawer in your kitchen, a drawer in your bedroom, a shelf in your bathroom, or one section of your wardrobe. By completing a quick task, you’ll see an immediate result.
Allocate 15-20 minutes to declutter one section. When you’ve finished, you can move onto another area when you get the chance.
2. Categorise Items
Start by deciding what you want to keep.
- Keep – Items you use regularly or value.
- Donate – Items you can still use but aren’t needed anymore.
- Sell – Items you don’t want but could have some value.
- Bin – Damaged, expired, or items you can’t really repair or recycle.
When decluttering your kitchen, if there are multiple tools doing the same thing, keep the ones you use the most and give away the others if appropriate. Don’t move the items you don’t want.
3. Declutter Your Wardrobe
Clothes can take up a lot of space in your wardrobe if you’re not wearing them regularly.
Remove any clothes that don’t fit, are too damaged, or aren’t suitable. If you’re going to wear them again during a particular season, keep them.
Organise Clothes
Sort your clothes into sections: T-shirts, trousers, jumpers, and everyday clothes. Only use dividers in your drawers or organisers on your shelf if they’re helping you with a specific issue.
Having fewer items of clothing that you can use will make it easier to get dressed.
4. Declutter Kitchen and Bathroom
Often kitchens and bathrooms can get full of items you’ve forgotten about.
Check your kitchen for any duplicate tools, unused containers, expired food, and rarely used appliances. Keep the items you use regularly easily accessible.
Check your bathroom for any toiletries, make-up, cleaning products, and medication. Follow the advice for expiry dates and disposal, especially with medications and household products.
Label your containers if helpful, but don’t purchase lots of storage items before decluttering.
5. Declutter Paperwork and Digital Items
Not only can physical items cause clutter, old paperwork, screenshots, downloads, and unused files can make your life more disorganised.
Create an easy filing system for important documents such as bills, warranties, receipts, and personal information. Any documents with sensitive information can be shredded.
Delete any duplicate files, unsubscribe from any unwanted emails, and sort your important documents into easy-to-find folders.
6. Use Storage
After decluttering, you can organise your items.
Use baskets to store commonly used household items. Use drawer dividers for small accessories. Put seasonal items in labelled containers. Use vertical shelves if you don’t have much floor space. Put everyday essentials in easy-to-reach areas.
Your storage should make it easier to find items. Don’t fill all your shelves with containers as it can just hide the clutter.
7. Set Up Easy Routines
Creating a few easy routines will make your home stay organised.
Spend a few minutes each day putting items back in their correct place. After cooking, wipe your kitchen counter clean. Put your clothes away and sort through your mail.
For certain items, try using the one in, one out rule. If you buy a new mug, try donating one you no longer use.
8. Get Into A Habit
The best way to keep your home organised is to know why you’re getting cluttered again. Often we get cluttered due to impulse buys, not wanting to let go of items we don’t need, and not giving items a place to go.
Before adding anything new to your home, ask yourself if you really need it, where it can go, and how often you’re going to use it.
If you live with family members, set some easy rules for organisation. Everyone can help put shared items back in their correct place.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need to spend a lot of money on organisers or spend your whole weekend decluttering to learn how to declutter your home. Start small, sort your items into categories, and create easy storage.
By taking a bit of time to declutter regularly and being more mindful of what you’re bringing into your home, you’ll create a cleaner, more functional space.