New Year, New You: Decluttering with Purposeful Planning

Aside from getting fit, decluttering and organizing your home is one of the top resolutions for the new year. It’s a time for fresh beginnings, a chance to let go of the past and embrace new opportunities. We’re filled with a renewed sense of vigor and are eager to become the best version of ourselves.

But resolutions can be meaningless without a clear strategy to achieve them. Instead of only focusing on the end goal, it’s more crucial to establish a solid system that will help you get there. That’s why in this post, I’m going to outline a plan for you to declutter, get organized and take control of your home. In order to find systems that will work for an array of personality types, I will lay out several strategies to use in order to help you find the one that resonates with you.

Decluttering Methods

Sorry to the packrats reading this, but there is an absolute truth to the fact that in order to get organized, you must first reduce your belongings. The less you have, the less you need to organize. In most instances, we generally have more than we need. We create emotional attachments to our belongings based off of our life experiences. But at the end of the day, a book is just a book, a T-shirt is just a T-shirt, a chair is just a chair. It’s not the person who gave it to you, the memory you have of the day you wore it, or a priceless artifact. If you don’t love it, have a place for it or absolutely want it…get rid of it. If it makes you feel better, source out a destination for it to go to so you don’t feel like you’re being wasteful.

There are a few different ways you can go about decluttering your home:

• Room by room – It can be overwhelming to try to tackle your home all at once. If you decide to declutter a room each month, you can realistically hope to have a decluttered and organized home by the end of the year.
• Item Type – Some people would rather declutter their home based on the type of clutter they have. For example, you may decide that you need to declutter all of your clothing, then sports equipment, followed by photos, etc.
• Timed decluttering – This method can help if you’re short on time but want to make sure you’re making progress on a regular basis. You would set aside a certain amount of time each day, week, or month to work on decluttering. You make sure you work for the minimum amount of time you’ve decided at the beginning and even more if you have more time to dedicate.
• All at Once – Maybe you don’t want to drag out this decluttering process and your family is onboard with that. Dedicate a long weekend to a total house declutter. Assign each person a room or category and get as much done as you can in the time you’ve set aside. You can fine-tune later if needed.
• By Area – It may be that you only need to declutter certain areas of your home. Things like closets, storage areas, garages and the like tend to be where items pile up. If you have limited time & stamina, it can be a good strategy to focus solely on these areas.
• Daily – Some choose to make decluttering a part of their daily routine. You can clean out a junk drawer in 20 minutes or less. Bigger projects like closets will take many hours to complete. Working a little at a time helps to break a big daunting task down to a more manageable size.

Make a Plan

You’ve chosen what decluttering method works best for you. Now, it’s time to make a plan in order to stick to your goal of decluttering. Here are some options:

• Put it on your calendar – If you use a digital calendar, set up a reminder a few days before and at the time you’ve decided to take on your decluttering.
• Inform the family – If you have family & friends to keep you accountable, then please let them in on it. Even better, enlist their help in decluttering.
• Declutter with a friend – If you have a friend trying to get organized, team up with them to keep each other on task.
• Create a timeline – Put your goals on paper! Creating a timeline will help you stay on track and allow you to look back on your progress.

Decluttering Questions

When decluttering, it’s important to remove your emotions from your belongings and view them for what they are. This is different than an item that has sentimental value. Something kept out of guilt or wastefulness has no place in your home. We want to keep only items we use, need, love and want. Here’s a list of questions to ask yourself when deciding whether to keep or discard an item:

• Have I used this item in the past year?
• Do I love this item?
• Would I purchase this item again?
• Does this item reflect the kind of life I want to lead?
• Am I keeping this item out of guilt?
• Can I replace this item for $20 or less?
• Do I have space for this item in my home?
• Do I have multiples of this item?
• Am I saving this ‘just in case’?
• Do I have something that works better?
• Does this add value to my life?
• Is this item functioning as it should?
• Is this item expired/out of style/not my size or otherwise not in great condition?
• Could someone else use or love this item more?

Decluttering Tips

While decluttering, it’s extremely helpful to have storage bins or boxes labeled as donation, give/sell & rehome nearby. In addition, have a trash bag handy for anything that is not salvageable.

Your donation box should have items in good working order and clothing that is not ripped or stained that can be donated to a charity like Vietnam Vets, Goodwill, Purple Heart, etc. You can use the boxes or bins to corral the donations until you finish decluttering and are ready to donate.

Your give/sell box should have items in it that you plan on selling or giving to a friend or family member.

The rehome box is for items you want to keep but don’t belong in the area you are currently decluttering. For example, a coat hanging up in your master closet that belongs in the front hall coat closet.

The Aftermath

After decluttering, you will be left with a bunch of items you either need to give away, donate, sell, or rehome. This can be a task even more daunting than decluttering. Most of us have a problem with simply throwing away items that still have some life left in them. This is why it’s helpful to determine what you plan on doing with the things you no longer need but could still serve a purpose for someone else.

My tip is to schedule a donation service ahead of time so that you get the items out of your home immediately. I use the Vietnam Vets link here: Schedule a Pickup – We Need Your Donations!. They have an online scheduling system where you can select the day you want them to come, and you leave your things outside for them to pick up.

If you want to sell your items, Facebook Marketplace is useful, or you could have a garage sale if you have a lot of things to sell at once.

The most important thing is that you remove the unwanted items from your home soon after you declutter. Do not skip this step and keep a bunch of useless stuff sitting around your house. If you’ve tried and failed to give the items a good home by selling or gifting to friends and family, it’s time to donate. As a last resort, throw the item away.

Are you inspired to declutter your home? If you need a little more guidance or want to learn about other ways to declutter, pop on over to my Decluttering Methods to Use for the Entire Home post or 5 Rules to Live by for an Organized Home post.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will focus on tips and tricks for organizing your living space. Feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you!