How to get started with Decluttering

Decluttering our home can bring mental health benefits

The New Year is a natural time for us to take the next steps towards creating the life we want. Popular resolutions revolve around improving our diet, fitness and wellbeing.  Taking stock of our life at the end of the year, then starting in January, considering what we want to remove from our life and what we want to keep, helps us move towards our personal goals. In the home, this may involve tidying and decluttering, to improve our environment’s feel and function.

Decluttering and tidying our home can have mental health benefits. Living in a visually cluttered environment can add to our stress levels, whereas being in a clear home can help us feel calmer.

But how do we get started with decluttering? Looking around our home can be overwhelming – it can be easy to identify problem areas where clutter has built up, but coming up with the solutions can be trickier.

Here is my step-by-step guide to getting started with decluttering:

1. Before doing anything, sit down, take a breather, maybe get yourself a cup of tea and grab a notepad.  Look around yourself and mentally walk through your home.  How do you feel in it currently? How would you like to feel? On your notepad write 3 things – your home tidying goals.  For example, “I would like to feel calm at home”, “I would like more space to welcome friends”, “I would like a clear table for hobbies” etc.  These will be personal to you and your situation.

   
   

2. Hopefully you can now identify the area that needs your attention first. The place which if tidied, will greatly improve your environment. Here’s an example of how to choose – your garage might be full of clutter, however it might be somewhere you don’t go often, whereas your hallway might get clogged up with clutter and it is an area you see and use everyday. In this scenario, I would choose the hallway to start decluttering.

   
   

3. Go over to your chosen first area.  Have a look around and make a note of the categories of items there.  What would you like to be the function of this area? Anything here that does not support this, take out and put to one side.

   
   

4. Grab a black bag and a recycling box/sack. Start picking up the waste and recycling, for example, broken items, out of date catalogues and papers etc. This is what we call a ‘quick win’. Your area will start looking tidier by completing this task.

   
   

5. Next, systematically look through all your items. Starting with items you can see on surfaces or floors, think about your goal and how you want this space to function, consider each item and decide if it should stay here or not. Have a box on hand to put items not needed in the space. You may like to consider the usefulness of the item and whether you like it or not. If you are struggling to make decisions it is ok to have a ‘not sure yet’ pile. Once you have gone through more of the space you can go back to these. Remember, your time and space are more valuable to the quality of your life, rather than your items. Each item you choose to stay will demand your care and attention to store and maintain it.

   
   

6. Now you have decided on your items to stay, that belong in the space, you will need to work out how to display and organise them. Again, keeping function at the front of your mind, what things need to be on hand and what things can be tucked away in cupboards. Try to tidy away as much as possible with only the essentials out. This space should now be functional, and joyful.

   
   

7. Take a short break and feel the sense of achievement.

   
   

8. To complete your decluttering project, the next task is to go through your items removed from the room. Grab some boxes/bags and sort the items into piles to donate, store or sell.

   - Are there nearby charities who can accept the items? Some charities provide post bags, you can fill up the bag and post it back to them. Some have collection boxes in supermarket car parks. Chose the easiest option for you and give yourself a day/time to drop these off, the sooner the better!

   - If you decide to keep anything, choose where it will go straight away. If there is not currently space, rethink and consider if you really need to keep it. It is more important to have a clear home today, than keeping hold of something that may (or may not) be useful in the future.

   - Valuable items, such as gold jewellery or designer clothing, you may like to sell. Again give yourself a timeline for doing this, the sooner the better. There may be someone in your area who runs a service to do this for a fee. If it realistically is a task you will not get round to doing yourself, pay someone else to do it for you! Online selling can be time consuming.

I hope this short guide to where to start with decluttering has been useful. Feel free to email me or to reach out on social media if you have any questions. Homes with Heather can help with all sorts of decluttering projects. Honestly, starting is the hardest part of decluttering. Once you start seeing the benefits it gets easier to continue.

Happy New Year everyone! Here is to a clear, calm and clutter-free 2025!

If you’d like to read more about decluttering I recommend the following books:

The life changing magic of tidying by Marie Kondo

How to Clear your Clutter by Karen & Richard Kingston