7 Best Tips for Putting Clutter to Rest, How to De-Clutter Your Home

When my family moved to Ohio a few years ago, we bought a fixer upper that was about half the size of our old house. One of the main projects of this house at the beginning and even now has been removing the clutter from our lives. Learning from this experience, I wanted to share how to de-clutter your home.

 

How Did We Accumulate So Much Clutter?

The reasons for clearing clutter are many, but the big reasons are that:

a.) We do not have the space and

b.) I want to try to teach the kids to not be as hung up on material things.

When we had our large house, we had so much space! We had this old house with three floors of living space and a mostly finished basement. Slowly, we filled it with furniture, toys, books, clothes, among other things. One of the hardest tasks we had in moving was deciding what to do with it all!

Where to Start…

My closet was one of the hardest places to de-clutter. I had a walk in closet in my old house. I bought articles of clothing and just kept them…forever…in my closet! My husband had shirts from high school that he just kept in the dressers because he could. We had room! I have finally finished de-cluttering my bedroom.

To do this, I basically emptied my closet and drawers. I put it all in the office and brought it back into my room in stages. Downsizing my wardrobe was next on the list. From there,  I made a pile for keep, toss, and sell/donate. My clothes fit into my closet and dressers now. I took a lot of it to consignment stores so I could make extra cash, which went towards Christmas presents and extra things for the family. I thought I would be sad to see a lot of it go, but now I am excited about having a clean room that I can go to rest.

How To De-Clutter Your Home in regards to books

Another way we de-cluttered was by embracing digital technology. I bought the cheaper Kindle Fire for my kids and have been using services like Kindle Unlimited a lot more because we can read the books and “return them” to get more. We all love reading, so it made sense to go this route to save on space for storing books.

How We De-cluttered with Kid Stuff

As for the kids and their things, we got rid of a lot. However, if the big kids had things we could use for Crankles later, we set it aside and organized it in our storage room. I handed down some of Miss Crankles outgrown items. A lot of her things were pre-loved, and I just want to continue the cycle. I went through clothes and toys and also took many things to consignment shops. I ended up with enough money to pay for Christmas last year doing that!

The Truth of the Clutter

I did not realize fully how much stuff we had until we moved. Even if we would have bought a bigger home, I don’t think we actually needed that much stuff.

Going forward, I want to try to teach the kids to be a little less materialistic. Not only that, I want to stick to a budget. If we stick to a budget,  then we can use that money to pay off bills, go on more vacations, or have more field trip days. Less clutter also makes the house look cleaner. It is kinda nice to have more open space.

My 7 Best Tips on How to De-Clutter Your Home

• Ask yourself what is the purpose of the item. No purpose? Then get rid of it
• Is it broken?  Can it be fixed? If fixed, is it useful? If not, get rid of it.
• Is it a duplicate? If so, get rid of it.
• Could the money you spend on it be better spent elsewhere? If so, do not buy it.
• If you are cleaning rooms and find things to get rid of, make sure that you separate into piles of give or consign. Consigning is fun, you get money back, and you can use it for other things.
• If you aren’t consigning, do you know someone who needs it. Ask.
• When you consolidate and get rid of things that no longer have use, you actually will have a sense of accomplishment.

I hope that my experience and tips have been helpful. If so, don’t forget to share and follow me on Facebook for more useful tips and fun!