Decluttering is one of the most important things that can help you simplify your life. And how would it not be? Doesn’t it feel amazing to be living in a home that is perfectly organized and junk-free? I, for one, feel absolutely motivated to work a few extra hours when the space around me is clean and organized.
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures.
But the most challenging thing about decluttering is that it’s like a never ending journey. You have to keep cleaning away the clutter on a daily basis to be able to make your home look ‘healthy and happy’. But with thousands of decluttering tips and strategies floating around on the internet, it can sometimes get overwhelming to go through them all without letting an entire day pass by. What could really be helpful in such a scenario is to know about a few things that you must refrain from doing when decluttering your living space.
Here are some things that you must not do when decluttering your home to achieve the best possible outcome:
1. Trying To Accomplish All At Once
There may be days when you find yourself all motivated and encouraged to clear the entire mess piling up in the house. Don’t just go on a decluttering spree without realizing the extent of overwhelm you may feel if you try to accomplish all the tasks in one go. You can instead opt to do one task at a time rather than attempting to declutter the entire home.
Take, for example, one room to declutter for the weekend and start cleaning the book shelf first. Once you are done with it, take a break before moving on to the closet. You don’t have to look at decluttering as a hard job by overstressing your mind and body.
2. Decluttering Without A Goal In Mind
There should always be an inherent reason behind why you want to declutter your living space. Do you want to declutter because it makes you feel more relaxed? Do you need more space to organize your stuff better? Do you only want to keep the stuff that you actually need or love?
When you declutter your closet with a goal of making it look trendy, you’ll know which stuff to hold on to and which one to let go. Decluttering without an end goal in mind will get you nowhere as it will only make you hold on to the things that you don’t actually need. Moreover, your goal provides you the much needed motivation to get started and accomplish the tasks that will get you there.
3. Buying Storage Before Decluttering
It’s a common notion that you must have storage stuff before you actually start decluttering your space. This is exactly that you need to stop believing in order to save yourself some valuable space and money. Besides that, decluttering will help you know which kind of storage you might need to store your stuff. While transparent boxes with labels are amazingly good to store kitchen items, a toy chest might just be perfect for your kids to keep their art supplies and toys.
Make sure that you declutter first and buy storage later if required. You might actually realize that you don’t need the storage as you would have already freed up enough space to store your stuff by decluttering the mess.
4. Trying To Be Perfect
Back when the decluttering bug bit me, I started dreaming for my house to look exactly like the ones I see in magazines. It took me a while to understand that when you aim for perfection, you are in for some disappointment. No house with a human being living in it can be perfect irrespective of the time that you are devoting to tidying it up.
No mother would want her kids to stop playing with toys just so her home can look pinterest perfect and you can’t expect your kitchen to look flawless after using it to cook three meals a day. Perfection is a far call for a home that houses human beings living their lives in it. So aim for a home where you can find comfort and calm, not the one that requires you to work like a home stylist.
5. Leaving Tasks Uncompleted
As someone who leaves chores midway only to never touch them again, I can’t explain how important it is to complete the decluttering tasks once you’ve started them. Don’t just declutter your closet and leave the organization part for later. If there are any items lying in your donation box, make sure you drop them off to the place where they’re supposed to be. Also, make immediate selling arrangements for the items you intend to sell without putting it off for later.
6. Decluttering Without A Plan
Planning is as important as setting the goal when it comes to decluttering. Your plan is what provides you a direction towards the end goal. Start by looking around yourself while making a list of tasks that are required to be done. Take one room at a time and prioritize every task in a way that allows for the most important ones to be completed first.
You may wish to start decluttering the living room first as it is the first thing that catches the attention of anyone entering the house. Start with getting rid of the visual clutter in the living room before moving to the hallway. You can simply take a basket to put in everything that’s lying out of place and keep them where they belong. A plan in mind can just be your weapon to kill the clutter in the living space and will make it easier for you to go about completing the tasks effectively.
7. Holding On To The Stuff & Buying New Items
Decluttering your space won’t be of any use if you are still holding on to the stuff that you no longer use or love. Give away the things that aren’t serving you any purpose and make it a point not to leave them lying around in a box simply because you’re finding it hard to part with them. Moreover, the extra space that you will get after decluttering might tempt you into buying new items which will render all your hard work useless. It might be hard to resist the temptation but you’ll feel glad living in a house that only has things that are actually needed.
8. Decluttering When Not In a Mood
Don’t start decluttering when you are emotional about something or when you are not in a mood to do so. You’ll end up worsening the mess by keeping irrelevant items and doing the tasks unproductively. Of course, you may never be in a mood to declutter but then any task needs motivation to start with.
With so much to do in so little time, decluttering can seem like a daunting task at first. But if you manage to avoid making the above mistakes, you will be able to get there within no time. The sense of peace that you will experience living in a beautiful and comfortable space will totally be worth the efforts put in.