It’s easy to put off decluttering your home, even when you know it’s something that urgently needs to be done. That’s because it can be hard work, both physically and emotionally. But when you have a plan and a strategy to follow, the whole process of decluttering the home becomes a lot less stressful than it might otherwise be. So that’s something to keep in mind.

Decluttering is about making a positive change in your life and the lives of everyone in your family. So if you want to get started and stop procrastinating, now is the time to start. But before you go ahead and start the physical work involved in decluttering, you should read the valuable tips and advice we’re about to explain to you.

A haphazard approach will run the risk of becoming a stressful one in the end, and that’s why it’s important to know what you’re doing and to have a plan in place. The ideas below will help to make that possible.

Start small

When the idea of decluttering the home really starts to overwhelm you, you should remember that you don’t need to do it all at once. There’s nothing wrong with starting small and going slowly. When you get started and get at least some of the work done, you’ll feel much more positive about going forward and taking on the rest. Many people who’ve been through this whole process before will tell you that getting past the first hurdle of getting started is the most difficult step of all to take.

Do your best not to overwhelm yourself

As you go through each room and space in your home, you should try not to overwhelm yourself with the amount of work in front of you. When you allow things to get too much for you, it’s easy to feel as if you’re drowning in a sea of stuff that you have to decide whether you want to keep or get rid of. That’s why you should try your best not to get too overwhelmed and simply step back when things are becoming too stressful. This is something that you have to get done as soon as you possibly can.

Establish some simple rules

If you’re going to get through the home decluttering process without any stress, you need to make sure that you’ve established some basic rules to follow. That way, you can make sure that you don’t have to stop and take a long time on every simple decision. You could even follow the Marie Kondo method, which works so well because of its simplicity. She says that if an item doesn’t spark joy for you, there’s no reason to keep hold of it. That’s the kind of rule you might want to follow to make your decision-making easier.

Try not to get sentimental over possessions

Sentimentality is the thing that tends to make decluttering the home most difficult. If you allow yourself to get sentimental over every little thing, the whole process will take a lot longer than it should or needs to. Being a little bit colder and more rational in your decision-making will make things easier. You could take a photo of the things that once held meaning but no longer need to be held onto, for example. And remember that the possession of a physical item doesn’t necessarily add anything to your personal memories attached to it or a past experience.

Shred all your outdated and now-irrelevant papers

Sorting through old paperwork can be a nightmare when you’ve stored and kept hold of it for many years or even decades. The truth is a lot of that stuff that you held onto because you thought you one day might want to make use of it will never be relevant to you. You should be able to tell pretty quickly by looking at it whether or not it’s outdated and irrelevant to you now. So try to move through the decluttering of paperwork pretty quickly. Anything you don’t need can be shredded and/or recycled in some way.

Make it an event you can complete with your family

If you want to take some of the pressure off your own shoulders when it comes to following through with this whole decluttering project, you should get some other people involved. If you’re trying to declutter the family home, it’s not just your responsibility to get this done. Make sure that everyone in their home is contributing and helping out. That way, the whole process will be done with and sorted out far faster than it otherwise might. You might also want to call in a few favours to help you quickly get through it.

Limit each decluttering session

Many people are concerned about getting overwhelmed and stressed by the process of decluttering, and that’s precisely why you should take it on in small bites. You don’t want to try to get it all done at once unless you’re sure you’re in the right physical and mental shape to do that. Instead, you should limit each session and then come back later to carry on. That way, you won’t find yourself burnt out by the whole process, which is important.

Use self-storage when you can’t make a decision

If you really can’t make a decision about getting rid of a particular item, it might be a good idea instead to move those items into some sort of storage facility. When you do that, you can make sure that anything you’re not sure about doesn’t carry on lying around in the home and taking up space that you don’t feel it warrants. You can keep the item in storage until you decide whether or not it’s something you want to keep hold of or until you find a more appropriate long-term home and storage place for it.

Don’t overthink it

Overthinking the whole process is a real risk when you’re also trying to clear out the clutter. The truth is, you can very easily convince yourself to keep hold of just about anything and everything if you think about it for long enough. That’s why you should focus on what matters and have a set of rules that you can follow, as we discussed above. If you really want to declutter the home, you have to put that urge before your desire to keep hold of things that you don’t really have a need for.

Remove what’s distracting you

Removing distractions from your environment can be helpful when you’re trying to focus more on the decluttering process. You don’t want to have your attention taken away too much from the task at hand because that’s when procrastination sets in. If you’re already uncertain about the whole decluttering process and you find it daunting, it’s easy to look for ways to distract yourself, as unhelpful as that is.

Embrace donating clothes you don’t wear

One of the really positive things that can come out of the decluttering process is the opportunity to donate the things that you no longer need. Clothes are perfect for donating. A lot of us have wardrobes full of things that aren’t really needed, and by clearing them out and donating them, those items can go to someone who really needs them and will make use of them.

Keep the benefits of decluttering in mind

If you’re looking for motivation to continue going as you move through the decluttering process, you should remember the benefits you’ll get from seeing things through to their conclusion. Instead of focusing on how difficult the whole process is, think about how much better it’ll be when you have all of that extra space that was previously being taken up by stuff that you didn’t really need to be keeping hold of. You’ll also have a lot less to clean, and the whole cleaning process in the home will be much easier when there’s less clutter.

Change your habits to avoid accumulating more clutter

Finally, you also need to make sure that you don’t just get rid of all the clutter and then carry on as you previously were. Instead, you should learn some lessons from this whole experience and think about how you can make sure that you don’t end up accumulating more stuff in the future. There’s a real risk you’ll just fill the home up with clutter again if you do that. So try to change your habits and ensure you don’t go back to bringing more clutter into the home, or your efforts will be for nothing.

Decluttering your home certainly can be stressful when you take the wrong approach. But when you take the time to plan things out, and you make the most of the tips and ideas we’ve shared here today, there’s no reason why it can’t be a relatively simple and straightforward process that benefits your whole household going forward.