Decluttering:
Where To Start and How to Do It Right

We all admire the phenomenon of simple living, and it does sound pretty exciting when we think of living with very minimal goods and getting rid of all unnecessary items. With the changing world, we idealize minimal living and a hassle-free lifestyle. You might have also thought of eliminating all the extra stuff around your house. The idea of decluttering might be exciting, but decluttering and organizing our messy lives can get too overwhelming. Eventually, it may lead to anxiety, leaving us to procrastinate our decluttering-journey. Learning how to declutter your home and your life shouldn't be an exhausting task. Ever wondered how? And why decluttering is important? Well, hang tight, as we are about to spill the beans.

The decluttering meaning is to eliminate the unnecessary things that one might be hoarding for multiple reasons, such as emotional attachment or sentimental values. Decluttering means to remove the mess and prioritize essential things over hoarding everything you ever owned. In other words, decluttering and organizing is keeping only the essential items that will deem beneficial for future use and compartmentalize every useful object in a systematic order.

The terms decluttering and organizing are often used interchangeably. However, these are two different processes. Decluttering means getting rid of the unnecessary, unused, and unloved items. It is about prioritizing the items to eliminate excess. After decluttering, you will be left with items that are useful and beneficial in the longer run. Whereas organizing is all about creating storage for useful stuff. To reiterate, in decluttering and organizing, it is essential to clear out all the redundant items of the house/room and assemble the remaining stuff categorically.

Decluttering is very important to free up some space at home. Not only that, it goes far beyond just improving your home or workspace environment. Especially decluttering for mental health and physical health is a magic bullet. It creates harmony within yourself and teaches you to get rid of the unnecessary burden from your surroundings and your mind. Decluttering impacts your whole life, from washing piled up dishes in the sink to clean your workstation helps you experience many pleasant vibes.

Decluttering has a significant impact on your mental health as it lowers stress levels, boosts confidence,, and self-efficacy. When you declutter and clean your space, it reduces anxiety and stress regarding the jumbled-up work that keeps irking you. Here are a few benefits of decluttering and cleaning your space.

• Reduces stress and anxiety level
  
• Improves productivity
  
• Teaches to cut down and live to essentials
  
• Improves mood
  
• Improves overall health
  

For more tips and tricks to reduce stress and anxiety while forming a new habit, click here.

Here are a few hacks that can help you in starting your decluttering process. However, before you begin, you need to visualize and make a plan. Identify what you want to take out or donate and how you want to do it.

Start with organizing your storage. Decide discreetly which items are necessary to be in the storage. List down things you want to keep with you, bearing in mind that decluttering means removing unnecessary belongings.

In this step, divide the things you want to declutter into two categories. Things you wish to donate and things you want to throw away. Doing this will help you realize that what may be a useless pile of junk for you can be worth a lot to someone else. During this process, do not buy anything new unless you are done with decluttering. Remember the 90/90 rule of decluttering. All you have to do is ask yourself two questions.

1. Have you used these things for the past 90 days?
2. Will you use these things in the coming 90 days?

These questions will help you realize why decluttering is important. 90/90 rule, also called the Minimalism rule, is a thought-provoking approach to decluttering and organizing.

Using expired products is common, especially when it comes to makeup (yeah, nobody wants to throw away that expensive eye pallet). But using expired products is not only a bad habit but also harmful for your health, whether it's because of carelessness or neglect. Therefore, tossing expired products is an essential step in decluttering and cleaning. It applies to your makeup, perfumes, food items, or anything that explicitly labels its expiry date. Check the product's date before using it, and if it is expired, then throw it out.

Devise your customized plan of decluttering when you decide to declutter your space. Schedule your days accordingly and devise a plan. Write down days and things you want to get done on that day and do it accordingly. Decluttering and cleaning are very important for your physical and mental health. Develop a habit of decluttering and cleaning your space now and then. Cleaning and decluttering is close to therapy. It is like visually freeing up space in your surroundings. Regardless to say, your outer environment reflects your inner self.

When you think of cleaning and decluttering, make three separate boxes;

• Box 1- for things you want to keep and write yes over the box.
  
• Box 2- for the things you don't want to keep and write no over the box. This box will have the items you want to get rid of.
  
• Box 3- the last box of the things you are not sure of and write maybe over it. Now, this box can go back to your house until you can finalize the yes/no category for items present in that box.
  
  

It is a great moving hack that you can use to clean and declutter your space.

Introduce a 5-minute rule in your life. Do you feel decluttering and organizing is a time-consuming task? This 5-minute rule is going to change your perception. Every time you have spare 5 minutes, utilize those 5 minutes in small decluttering tasks. For examples;

• Sorting the expired products from the fridge
  
• Folding your clothes
  
• Matching your socks pairs
  
• Organize your stationery supplies
  

All such tasks won't take longer than 5-minutes.

Every day, we see things lying around at a particular corner of the house and will probably stay there for eternity. We never touch them. Start from there. If you are never going to use that item, there is no reason to hold onto that. So, start throwing things (and people) out of your life that are serving no purpose and free up space for things (and people) that matter.

Decides days or weeks in a month on which you will not buy anything. You will save some bucks and you won't have to worry about making storage for new items. It will significantly assist you in your decluttering-journey. Moreover, you will be able to exercise some self-control.

Decluttering and organizing allow you to have a space in which you can feel relaxed and can breathe. By now, you must be able to realize how decluttering improves your life for the best and why decluttering is important. It is better to have fewer things and a spacious setting than having to pile up things you would never use. Use the above-mentioned techniques and start decluttering.