5 Decluttering Tips for Quarantine

 

Spending this much time indoors naturally leads to critically looking at our living spaces. Why do I have this, is this the best place to put this, do I really need this, etc. Decluttering your room saves time cleaning and organizing in the long run, but there’s an environmental side to it too. Getting rid of excess and focusing on what you have helps you see that you can survive on a little less and focusing on quality is important. One of the big keys to sustainable living is buying a few high quality pieces rather than a bunch of stuff that’ll be broken in a year, and so getting good at decluttering is good for the planet as well as your peace of mind. So today we’re going to look at 5 quick tips for decluttering.


Start Small


The first tip is to not let yourself get overwhelmed. It’s easy to look at a cluttered apartment, office, or room and feel like you’ll never get anything done. Relax, take a deep breath, and start with one or two little things you can work on. Trying to tackle a big project all at once just leads to procrastination, so ease yourself into it.


Visualize


Try and visualize what your ideal space looks like. It’s easy to look at beautiful uncluttered or minimalist rooms and drool, but in order to help turn your area into that it helps to visualize what that will look like for you. Doing this will also help you identify which parts of the room are your image for “clean,” think of overlooked areas that are still important for decluttering, and overall getting you into the cleaning mindset.


Focus On One Area


Another issue of procrastination and getting overwhelmed is trying to do everything at once. To help fight this, be sure to piecemeal your project. Focus on one desk, one drawer, one cabinet, or something similar like that. This will both reduce the project to something you can do and give you a visible sign of accomplishment each time you complete a task, turning the project into a positive feedback loop of sorts.


Plan Long Term


Using the one area strategy, you can then create a long-term plan for decluttering. One of the biggest challenges with decluttering is that your space starts to clutter over time as your cleaning it, which is why people sometimes feel the need to try and do everything at once. But planning long term should account for that. As you declutter an area you create new spots, new forms of organization, and new storage systems so that you don’t undo the work you’ve been doing.


Have a “Box” for Everything


Finally, we don’t mean a literal box, but a mental category. Make a yes box, a no box, and a maybe box. Sort everything you’re decluttering into the three boxes, then go through your maybe box again and again until all of maybe items become yes or no items. This easy system makes sure you don’t miss anything and also helps you really connect with anything you are not sure of to figure out how you really feel about it.

 

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