With the New Year already here, I know a lot of us have goals of keeping a cleaner home. There’s no need to wait for spring to start cleaning out clutter. Having a decluttered home isn’t always easy, but it gets so much better after you get started with the practice of decluttering. It may just be my personality (especially being a Virgo), but decluttering is one of my favorite things to do. We’re planning a big remodel this year, and I know things will be so much easier if we don’t have so much junk around the house. Most of our things will be packed away in boxes while we’re remodeling, and this will be really hard to do with lots of clutter.

For me, having too much clutter makes my mind feel so much busier, makes day-to-day cleaning a lot harder, and makes me kind of overwhelmed. This has led me to simplify our home a lot over the years, and I’ve found that I really like having a clean, decluttered home.

While I’ve been decluttering over the years, I’ve come up with some major tips and factors that make it so much simpler for me. In this post, I’ll go over each of these tips and how they help me. I’m no professional when it comes to this stuff, but I will say that I do pride myself on having a very decluttered home.

• 1: Only Make Necessary Purchases
• 2: Keep a Simple Wardrobe
• 3: Donate Instead of Throwing Away
• 4: Get Rid of Broken or Unused Items
• 5: Try to Avoid Current Trends
• 6: It’s Not All or Nothing

1: Only Make Necessary Purchases

When I moved into my first house, I loved to buy little knickknacks. To me, I thought filling my house with little things I liked would make it feel more like home. Eventually, I had so many little trinkets in my house that served no purpose. They only made cleaning harder, and made my home feel busier. It’s also a smart idea to save your money for things you’ll actually use, like nice furniture or organizing products. Things like a nice couch or cozy sheets, are what really make a home feel like home. It’s also important to resist making purchases on a whim, and really research or think about products before buying them. A lot of times, you’ll realize most purchases aren’t really necessary. Instead of purchasing new things, try to only repurchase your empties.

2: Keep a Simple Wardrobe

There are so many benefits to keeping a simple wardrobe. For starters, laundry becomes so much easier! I hate to break it to you, but people don’t really notice if you wear an outfit more than once, and all you really need are some key staples. Having less clothes takes up a lot less space. It also makes getting ready so much easier, which can save you lots of time. This tip goes strongly for kids too. Those of us with kids know all too well how fast they grow out of things. If your clothes are worth money, you can resell them on various sites like Poshmark. Money is always a good motivator!

3: Donate Instead of Throwing Away

A lot of things we get rid of could be used again by another person, especially if they’re gently-used. This helps keep things out of landfills, and can be a great way to help various charity organizations. It’s important to find an organization that is not for profit. A lot of organizations, like Goodwill for example, make a lot of money off of donations. The organization I prefer to drop off donations to uses all of their profit to fund various programs that help our community, like providing food to the hungry. If you have a passion for helping animals, the SPCA also has thrift stores all over the United States that accept donations. Donating your gently-used items can be a great motivator to decluttering since it’s for a good cause.

4: Get Rid of Broken or Unused Items

This may be a no-brainer, but a lot of us hold onto items we never use or are broken because we think we can fix them. I know I’ve been guilty of this in the past. If it’s broken and you haven’t or are unable to fix it, there’s no sense in holding onto it any longer. Things that are unused also have no purpose in holding onto. A good way to think of this is, if you haven’t used something in the last month to a year, think about if it’s really necessary to keep in your home. My sister gave me a good tip for this when it comes to clothing: take a moment to hang up all your clothes with the hanger backwards. When the current season is over, take note of which hangers are still backwards and consider donating those clothes. This has helped me get rid of so many clothes I never wear!

5: Try to Avoid Current Trends

I know we all like to try to keep up with current trends, but this can be a big cause of clutter. Trends are always coming and going (emphasis on going). Buying classic staples is much more helpful than purchasing the latest trend. Classics will always be in style, and can still be used years down the line. This can go for clothing, accessories, home decor, gadgets, etc. When making a purchase, try to imagine if you’ll still love it 5 or 10 years in the future. If the answer is no, you might want to hesitate on making that purchase. For example, think about how crazy we were about animal print in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Nowadays, I refuse to buy any animal print decor for my home.

6: It’s Not All or Nothing

When starting the decluttering process, remember that it can take time. Nothing happens overnight, and you can make a lot of process through small changes. I like to keep a small box in my garage or closet, and I add to it whenever I come across something that can be given away. When the box is full, I put it in the back of my car and drop it off at the donation center when I’m in the area. Over time, I notice my home has so much less clutter and I hardly even had to think about it. If you have an all or nothing mentality about decluttering, it can make it so much more overwhelming that you’ll put it off longer. Small, easy changes are so much easier the long run.

I hope this list is helpful for you in your decluttering journey! Once you get started, I know you’ll start to feel relief with having a simpler home. There can be a lot of hidden causes behind keeping clutter in the house, and these tips only touch base on a small number of them. These were the main factors that helped me declutter, so I hope they help you too. Comment below if any of these tips have been helpful for you, or if you have any others you’d like to add. Happy New Year!