With holidays approaching, the chaos that comes with entertaining guests and traveling will soon begin. If you were planning to tidy up your home and reduce clutter this year, perhaps it's time to put that pressure aside for now and take things slow, doing as much as you can in a gentle manner until all this is over.
I help clients clean up clutter throughout the year. Here are some strategies that can make this arduous task a bit easier.
Be more realistic.
One thing that can derail your decluttering plan is unrealistic optimism. Have you ever said, “We’ll clear out the garage on Saturday and then do something fun on Sunday!”? Things that haven’t been properly dealt with for years cannot be sorted out in just one afternoon. When dealing with items you want to get rid of, you have to make too many choices, and that’s where confusion and exhaustion arise, turning what seems like a simple process into something difficult to handle.
But don't lose heart – you can make progress and get your home in order before next year arrives. Just imagine, when spring comes and you return with an optimistic mood, you won't have to include this task on your to-do list anymore.
Taking it slow is the key.
Do you still remember the Tortoise and Hare race? Being slow but steady is what wins the race, and it can also make your home feel more spacious and tidy. You can try the “five items a day” method (or three, or two items a day). Place a cardboard box in the back hallway, garage, or any other temporary storage area. Every day, pick five items and throw them into the box – or directly into the trash can.
These items can be anything; on a day when you're not in the best of moods, you might throw away a dried-out gel pen, a charging cable that no longer matches your phone, or a stack of expired coupons. Then, one day when you're feeling better, you might find five pairs of shoes that you've never worn and pick out five books that you no longer want to keep.
These small actions may not seem to have much impact on the problem, but they do. After a few months, you'll find that the drawers are not so crowded anymore, and the surface of the desk is starting to become visible again. Keep it up.
Don't be afraid of the trash can.
Recycling is important, but at a certain point, some things are indeed just trash. Feeling guilty about landfills and keeping those items around doesn’t help the planet at all. If you really want to make a difference, try to buy less.
Schedule difficult tasks into your agenda.
Maybe you have a broken lawnmower at home. Is there any place in the community that recycles old equipment? Perhaps the high school workshop nearby would be willing to take it. Maybe some handy neighbor could fix it for you. Spend a little time doing some research, and then pick a day to take the lawnmower to its next destination.
Removing these tricky items from the house will be of great help. Accepting that this may require some creativity, time, and effort; if you don’t expect it to be easy and done immediately, then you won’t get discouraged so easily.
Perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask someone to carry those bulky items away. Alright, then let's do that.
Turn organization into a game
When the coffee is ready, take a look in the kitchen; there’s definitely something that can be thrown away. Once the shower water gets hot, find something in the bathroom that you don’t need anymore. Try to clear out one item from each room in the house. Then do it again the next day.
You can also make a bet with your partner, roommate, or children. Who can throw away the most things in a day or a week? Launch a challenge! Offer prizes! Turn family management into a game, not a chore.
Organize in stages
Perhaps what makes your life difficult is not just the clutter. Look, you're tired, and life is full of challenges. If your home is always in a mess, you can try this: stand up and put 10 things back where they belong. Put the cups in the dishwasher, the shoes in the closet, the magazines in the recycling bin, and so on. Set an alarm for one and a half hours, then get up and do it again.
You can call it laziness, or you can call it reality; once the task is done, it's done, whether it took you an hour or five hours. Which household can ever remain spotless and tidy forever? Don't be fooled by those TikTok dynamics; very few of us actually live in a meticulously arranged space without a single piece of clutter or dust. We live in homes, and life is inherently messy.
Be kinder to yourself; spend at least as much time actually managing your belongings as you do blaming yourself for not doing so. This way, you'll feel better mentally, and your home will also feel more comfortable.
