How to Declutter your home for Spring

SPRING is the time of year to clean and clear out clutter - to make your home free of junk!  That's really easy to say, but not so easy to do!    Have you looked around your home and wondered where to start?  Don't miss these tips for How to Declutter your Home for Spring.

If you want to declutter and don't know where to begin,  I can help!  My 3 step process is simple and will work for or clearing out closets, drawers and everything else.  With a little bit of elbow grease, you can clean up any space in your home!  

3 step process for decluttering for Spring 

• keep
• donate
• toss

It really is that simple.  Let me explain!  

You need 3 boxes or baskets.  I like to use open top baskets or boxes so I can see what is in each.  Move these into the room or area you are decluttering and put a sign on each one.  One sign should say Keep, one sign should say Donate and the last sign should say Toss.  

Start with 1 pile, drawer or corner of the room you are decluttering.  Try to ignore everything else in the room and only attack 1 spot at a time.  Go through each and every item.  Make a quick decision and put it into one of 3 baskets:

Keep, Donate or Toss.

Don't take too long to think about where to put each item.  You can evaluate again later.

Keep

Items to keep:  items that you currently use, items that you have a plan for using, or items that are sentimental.

Rule:  All keep items MUST have a place to go, or you cannot keep them.

Donate

Items to donate: items that are in decent condition but are no longer useful in your home.  These items make include:  toys, games, clothes that no longer fit or that are no longer worn, housewares, furniture, decor, dishes, etc.

Rule:  Donate anything that you have not used in one year.

If the item in your donate pile is in great condition, you could try selling it in on a Facebook sale page.

Toss

Throw away anything broken, out of date or non repairable.

What to do after the first sort

Keep:  After the initial sort, go through your keep pile again.  It will most likely be the biggest because we get emotionally attached to our possessions.  Go through the pile a few times and pare down the items you would like to keep and those you can part with.  Keep in mind the space that you will use to store the keep items.

If you have sentimental attachment to things, but don't have the room to store them, take a photo of it and then donate the actual item.  It's the memory of the item you want to hang on to, not necessarily the stuff.

I am a fairly sentimental person, so I have to be very intentional with the stuff I save!  My kids each have 2 totes.  One is full of sentimental baby/child items.  The other is filled with file folders for documents and papers.  That's it.  I am also working on paring down the amount of home decor, holiday decor and everything else that clogs up my house.

Donate:  After going through the keep pile, move to the donate pile.  It is important to take action on your donate pile as soon as possible, or it will become another pile, and you will have to go through this process again.  I bag my donate pile up immediately and put it in my trunk.  Then I can drop off the items at the thrift store drop on my way to school pick up or other errands.

Trash:  After you have taken care of your donate pile,  move to the trash pile.  Immediately bag all trash and dispose of it.

Now you can move onto another area of your home.  Use your 3 baskets to repeat the process and before you know it, you will have decluttered your home for Spring!  

For more cleaning ideas, check out:  6 housekeeping hacks to work smarter, not harder,  Why you should have a Cleaning Schedule,  My favorite Cleaning products