Decluttering Your Home

by Diane & Jim LaPine - The Cornerstone Team at William Raveis Real Estate 09/08/2019

No matter how you look at it, decluttering a home is a big job, yet the rewards are very promising. For some people, however, the challenge is not knowing what to do. Here a few easy ways that you can start getting rid of clutter in your own home.

Your medicine drawer is probably one of the most natural places to begin decluttering. Throw away all expired drugs, skin care products, toiletries and every other thing that you don't use any longer. Keep the most frequently used items directly in front, and at eye level, so you quickly access them next time. 

Now you can move to your bedroom. Look for items that you no longer use, such as bad chargers, pens that no longer write or even old shoelaces. Arrange your bed and fold all articles of clothing strewn about. Go through your cabinets and dressers, one drawer after the other. Take out clothes that you no longer wear and bag them for donation. Tackle your dressing table and go through the items there, some things are probably not going to be used anymore, so you should discard them. The goal decluttering is to make your home as light as possible. 

If you have a reading table, you want to put back your books in their proper places on your bookshelf. Do away with irrelevant papers like old brochures, newsletters, and pamphlets. If you think that you may need some information there, take a picture of it and save it to the cloud.

Having earned some momentum, you can move to your kitchen, which is often harder to declutter as it is the center of so many activities. Thoroughly assess each area of the kitchen and put everything back where it belongs. That includes items like knives, work boards and so on.

Open up your drawers and cabinets and do away with all unusable items. Look for things that you don't use but keep for some sentimental reasons and pack them up to donate if you don't feel comfortable about throwing them out. Keep things that you don't need in storage.

Finally, you are ready to move to the living room. Your living room will probably require more regular decluttering than any other part of your home. Put away things that you don’t need, such as magazines and phone chargers. Assess the electronic and sound system too, store away some of the things you don’t use and donate what you don’t need. If you need ideas on where to donate, run a web search of charities in your locality to find out too for options.