How to Declutter Your Home without Stress

How to Declutter Your Home without Stress


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So, here we are amid a pandemic and most all of us are stuck at home. These are strange times, aren’t they? We have enough stress in our daily lives right now, I don’t think any of us want our homes to add to that stress level. So, why not transform your house into the home you want it to be? If not during a pandemic, When?

A cluttered home can cause stress, anxiety, frustration and can also impact productivity. All the parents out there that have been forced to work from home and now are homeschooling kids. WE need to be as efficient and productive as possible through this whole NEW daily routine. Right!?

Oh and hey. Since the kids are home, let’s utilize them shall we? Put them to work!

Before you start running through your house with a black jumbo garbage bag. I want to ask you a few questions. This is something I always do with my initial consultations when looking at my clients space for the first time.

1. What will you use/ or is the space for?

2. What is the goal for the space?

3. What does it look like in your vision.

4. Where are your belongings?

5. How do you want the space to feel?

Now that you are clear on your intentions for each one of your spaces.  I’ve compiled a list of tips to help you through the process.

Here is a simple guide to declutter room by room in 7 days. Be sure to pin this!


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1. Start with one space at a time

You need to focus on one room at a time! Most of us simply get over whelmed when we try to declutter our whole house in a day or two. Then end up not doing anything or feel completely defeated. Don’t over- whelm yourself, we’ve all got enough to worry about right now.

I’m going to walk you through how to start and which rooms to start with.

2. Give yourself a good window of time

One to two hours a day is ALL you need!

Give yourself ample time for each space. I like to dedicate about an hour or two of time depending on the size and amount of “stuff” to weed through. If you’ve got young kids at home this is about the max amount of time I can dedicate before they come looking for me or start fighting with one another. It’s basically the length of the Lego movie or Frozen. If your kids are older, remember to utilize them!

3. Have boxes ready

The first thing to do is find yourself three boxes, a laundry basket and a large garbage bag.

Label boxes- Keep, Sell and Donate

Have the laundry basket on hand for items that need to be put away. If your house is anything like mine. My clothes seem to grow legs and end up in my daughters room. It’s weird! LOL.

Garbage bag I hope is obvious -Trash!

Make sure the boxes are a good size so that you can take them from room to room to keep everything in one place and organized. You don’t want piles of stuff on the floor in all your rooms. I for one can’t stand anything on my floor!


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4. Stay guilt-free and focused

Now that your all set up and ready to go. My advice is start with the room that bothers you or brings you the most stress first or the space that impacts your daily life the most? 

I always like to ask myself one question when I begin. Do you know what that is? If you follow Marie Kondo’s method of decluttering you know what that question is.

“Does this spark joy?”

Now, use this method at your digression. If I used it entirely, I would probably not own any clothes….. and well, that would not be a good thing here unless I lived in a nudist colony. 😉 😳

A good method and book none the less, check it out here.

You can purchase by clicking on the links by each image, and if you do, I will make a tiny percentage of the price, which helps me pay for running this blog – and I’m thanking you in advance if you do!


Purchase on amazon- check it out here

Purchase on amazon- check it out here

If that question does not resonate with you, Simply ask yourself these questions. Do you use it? Does it make you happy? Do you have a place for it?

Get rid of it, if you answered no to 2 or more of those questions.

Remember that vision we talked about earlier? Focus and stay on course. Look at it this way. If you keep too much stuff, the really important items get lost.

5. Take photos for memories

Get a handle on the paper clutter. When it comes to decluttering a space, paper can easily overwhelm a room. I want you to get all paper clutter. Including any papers that may be hanging on walls, cork boards, refrigerators, etc. We want to start fresh here.

Start by dividing your papers into categories:

Kids: art, report cards, old school work

Sort through all the kids piles and determine what you want to keep. This is a hard one for most parents. I tend to always keep the art projects with foot or hand prints or stories they have written.  If you have multiple children, make a pile for each child. Put this in your keep box.

Another way to keep those precious memories without taking up space is the digital app called Art Kive.


digital kids art organizations

Bills, receipts, document

If you are still getting paper bills. See if that company offers paperless bills and enroll in it immediately. Not only is this good for the environment but also keeps your home clutter free.

Of course there are still documents we need to have around. Make a file folder for each category and set in your keep box.

Magazines and newspapers

Keep the current issue and nothing else. When the next magazine comes in the mail, recycle the last issue. There is NO reason why you need to have a years worth of magazines at your house! Get rid of them now. Please recycle if you can.

6. Use attractive organizing products

As soon as you have the paper situation under control start to think about where its going to go and how you want to store it. I recommend getting some nice organizational bins and boxes for the items you are keeping. Get some really nice looking ones for the visible areas. These also work great for electronic storage too.

Here are some examples of storage boxes below that I would recommend to my clients.


Pack of three boxes on Amazon- Click here

Pack of three boxes on Amazon- Click here


Fabric Storage boxes on Amazon-Click here

Fabric Storage boxes on Amazon-Click here

7. Establish rules against future clutter

The most important step in decluttering is that every item you own has a proper home. If it doesn’t fit or you have no place for it. Keep getting rid of other items until every little thing has a home.

Do not buy anything else for your home until you are completely done decluttering.

Something that I do daily to combat clutter, especially paper clutter is I immediately sort thru school papers and mail. File or recycle immediately.


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Congratulations you are well on your way to a clutter free home. Do you notice how much better your space feels. Can you take a deep breath and relax in there now? Keep up the good work!

What’s your favorite (or least favorite) part of decluttering? Tell us in the comments below!

As always, thanks for reading & subscribing to my blog – I appreciate each of you.

Cheers,

Jana

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Comments (2)
  • Janet Lorusso
    | 22 March 2020

    Both the renewal season of spring and this forced staycation are GREAT times for decluttering! And you’ve given such a simple and easy to follow process here! Thanks for the reminder of how much our surroundings affect our stress levels…this is one thing we CAN control in all the madness.

  • Sheri Bruneau
    | 22 March 2020

    Jana, these are all great tips! I love it when you can enlist the help of family members to help out!

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