Now that the Christmas madness has well and truly passed, I have found that the house is a little – well – crowded? There are lots of toys, books, clothes and other assorted items waiting for a home. So, I decided a bit of decluttering was called for – but where do you start?
- Make a home map. Write down a list of all the rooms you want to tackle, or draw a map of the house and list all the items in that room that you want to sort through. We started with the wardrobes in the kids rooms, the toy boxes in the playroom and the kitchen cupboards (why do we have so many saucepans?!)
- Stick with one room at a time. It’s so easy to flit from one area to another, especially when you might be up and down the stairs fetching bin bags or taking things out to the car, but try and focus on completing one area before you move on to another.
- Utilise storage. Before you rush out to buy more storage for all the ‘new’ stuff, consider whether you really need more. Could you clear out some old, unwanted items to free up storage space for the things you want to keep?
- Make use of auction sites. It’s so simple to sell on your unwanted items on sites such as BPI Auctions. Not only does it help with the decluttering, you can make some spare cash, and help someone else get their hands on an item they have been looking for!
- Do things the Kon Mari way. If you haven’t read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo yet, then do. I know a book about tidying sounds mind numbing, but it actually opens your eyes to new ways to keep your home clutter free. The author speaks about ‘joy sparking’ items. If something doesn’t spark joy for you, then should it even be in your house? It really helped me to let go of the things I was holding on to ‘just in case’. Let’s be honest – if you haven’t used them in the last 6 months, it’s unlikely you will use them in the next 6 months!
- If you have already done the Kon Mari method and you still have items that spark Joy, it is better to consider renting a self storage in London. This way, you will be able to keep these items and store it securely.
Over the last few weeks, we have made a really conscious effort to declutter, and I think we have done very well so far. A lot of stuff has gone to the charity shop, or been sold on to someone else. We haven’t needed to buy more storage, we have simply made more space by moving things that we don’t need on to a new home. It has made me fall back in love with my home again, and shown me that we do have more than enough space for our joy sparking items.
