Decluttering Truths For Beginners – 9 Things You Need To Know Before You Start Decluttering

Clutter happens to adjust faster in our homes than we do, reason being our tendency to hold on to things that are no longer needed. We keep buying new clothes without getting rid of the older ones. We buy kitchen tools with the intent of trying a new cuisine only to put it off for months. Besides, it’s always hard to let go of stuff that holds sentimental value in our eyes even if we haven’t looked at it in months. 

Decluttering, to be really honest, has never seemed like too big a task to me. In fact, I look at clutter as just a small side-effect of the larger benefit of having a home and a family. But what really comes across as a challenge is deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Combine it with the time it takes to cut down on clutter and you’ll be left wondering if decluttering is even worth it. 

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The truth is everything is worth a try if it sparks joy or frees up a little space in your home. And below are some decluttering truths that you need to face in order to make the task of decluttering a little bit easier: 

1. You Gain More Than You Lose After Decluttering

As a child, it never made sense to me why my Mom would ask me to declutter my cupboard and drawers every month. But as I grew up (and the clutter in my cupboard grew faster than that), the material things that I once valued a lot started becoming less and less important to me.  

Although it’s hard to let go of things that were once a huge part of your life, getting rid of stuff that you know you’ll never need again creates space for other important things. And even if you aren’t buying new stuff to fill up the newly freed space, the fact that you’re able to walk around in your house without bumping into a pile of clutter is reason enough to declutter it.  

Don’t believe me? Let me just share an experience with you. At the beginning of this year, I had resolved to declutter and organize my entire workspace and the bedroom irrespective of how long it takes to do it. And this is exactly how I did it in just 4 hours:

• Picked up a Trash bag and stuffed in all the stuff that belonged in the garbage. There were chocolate wrappers, unimportant files and documents, old newspapers, shipping boxes that my online orders arrived in, empty bottles of moisturisers and lip balm (yes, I need them to be accessible everywhere I go) and a lot more stuff. –

• Took a basket and picked up everything that didn’t belong in my room and near the workspace. This includes snack boxes, board games, hair styling tools and random stuff. Once I was done decluttering my room, I went on to put all this stuff back to where it belongs.

• Used Drawer organizers and Hanging shelves to organize clothes, stationery items and other things.

• Took a microfiber cleaning cloth and wiped all the flat surfaces – the bedside table, study table and the insides of the cupboard.

Although these 4 hours spent doing the decluttering and organizing work initially seemed a lot, I felt amazed by how much time it actually saved me during the later stages. It didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t have to dig through the unorganized mountain of clothes to find a perfect dress every time I had to go out. And I didn’t have to bother spending 15 minutes to find a stapler in a drawer full of clutter.

2. That You’ve Invested In Clutter Isn’t A Valid Reason To Hang On To It

There are a lot of things that we refuse to let go of because they’ve been with us for a long time. But let me tell you that a cluttered home costs you more than the money you spent accumulating it over the years. There’s no point keeping that little dress you bought 10 years ago for the cultural fest of your school if it isn’t serving you any purpose today. And there’s no reason you should hang on to that extra piece of broken furniture in your living room just because it was bought off your first salary. 

3. Decluttering Is A Form Of Self-Care

A messy home always makes me feel guilty of being a hoarder, and I know I’m not the only person who feels like that. There’s a reason why they call decluttering a form of self-care that makes you feel good about yourself, similar to how your body feels after having a good bath or how your mind feels after a good night’s sleep. 

4. Your Home Isn’t A Storage Space

Your home is where you come back to relax and recharge and to spend time with your loved ones. Treating it as a storage space will end up killing its purpose and will only make you feel more stressed than you already are. A messy, disorderly space releases energy that your mind is able to detect faster than you can imagine, and it’s on you to get rid of all this negative energy by keeping your home clean and decluttered at all times.  

5. Owning Less Stuff Doesn’t Mean That You’re Poor

Minimalistic pattern of living is meant to make you feel happy in the limited stuff that you own. It’s like getting rid of the unnecessary stuff to be able to make the important stuff shine. And while social media might make you believe that you’re less of a person because you don’t own many things like others do, the fact is that physical clutter fills up the mental space and creates chaos in your mind (something that you never intended to buy along with the stuff). 

6. You Won’t Suddenly Start Liking Things That You’ve Never Liked In The Past

I remember owning a pair of shoes that my sister bought for me when I was giving my job interviews. I never wore them more than once because they didn’t suit my style, but it was hard for me to get rid of them knowing that they were bought by my sister with so much love. I saw them lying in my cupboard for another 5 years hoping that I would somehow start liking them until my sister herself suggested I should get rid of them.  

We hang on to so much stuff that we don’t like only because we spent money on them without realising that it’s reducing the impact of things that we actually like. So get rid of things that you don’t like to be able to enjoy the ones that you do like. 

7. Sentimental Items You Own May Have Already Served Their Purpose

Keepsake boxes are sure to hold sentimental value for us but they hold a lot of stuff that we never actually look at for years. It’s always hard to let go of gifts that have sentimental value attached to them, but it’s equally important to understand that memories matter more than the materialistic stuff. While it’s alright to hang on to some of your valued possessions and gifts, letting go of the rest of the sentimental items will make you and your home feel good. 

8. The Unused Stuff In Your Home Can Actually Be Useful To Someone Else

My mother always says that rather than forcefully eating what you don’t like only because you don’t want it to go waste, give it to someone who is hungry and would actually value it. Over the years, I’ve learned to apply the same theory to the rest of the things in my house.  

Unused items in your house won’t suddenly become useful unless you decide to make them useful. A lot of your kitchen items, clothes and books that you haven’t been using for years can actually turn out to be useful if you can donate them to someone in need.  

9. Decluttering Isn’t A Wastage of Time. It Actually Saves Time

While you may think that decluttering is a time-wasting activity, the truth is that keeping clutter steals valuable time rather than saving it. Have you ever calculated the amount of time you waste while trying to search for important things amid a pile of clutter? Or the extra time it takes to move around your house when it’s stuffed with unnecessary items? Well, start decluttering and organizing your home on a regular basis and you’ll realize the amount of time it saves. 

I hope these decluttering truths served their purpose and made the task of decluttering a little less painful for you. If there’s anything you want to ask or suggest, please drop a comment below or write me at hello@theaestheticabode.com.