If you’re looking around your home and feeling overwhelmed, the thought of decluttering can strike fear and procrastination into your heart. Over the years I’ve heard so many say that decluttering is long and exhausting. Something they’ve put off until they had no choice. Often, I’ll hear stories of how they just couldn’t let go of certain clothing or children’s toys, or how it took days to make decisions and bag everything up.
I love a good decluttering story, but when anyone asks me for advice, something I always tell them is, ‘start with the easy stuff’.
Starting off with sentimental objects, photos, and entire boxes of paperwork is enough to make you give up before you’ve even started. It’s like going to the gym and expecting to run an hour on the treadmill when you’ve only ever walked ten minutes.
To declutter successfully you need to build those decision-making muscles and emotional six-packs. You have to start ridiculously easy.
Below is a list of 14 quick and easy things you can start with. They may be small, but altogether they will make a big difference!
Anything expired in your pantry or kitchen cupboards. Think spices, sauces, and old baking ingredients.
Expired beauty and bathroom products – no matter how much money you spent, expired makeup can give you nasty infections and skin problems.
Expired medications – expired medications can lose their effectiveness or become chemically unsafe. It’s also easier to store your medications in a safe place when you aren’t trying to organise so many.
Freebies that never got used and probably never will. Things like mini shampoo bottles from hotels, product trials, and free gifts that came with another purchase.
Half-used products that you never got on with. No matter how guilty you might feel, especially if they were costly or a gift, it’s okay to let go if you’re not using or enjoying the product. Let these things go and the guilt will go with them.
Outdated magazines. If there’s any information you want to keep, either cut out the page and store it in a binder, take a photo, or scan it into your device.
Junk mail. Unless you need the advertised service just throw it in the recycling as soon as it enters your letterbox. Otherwise just take a photo or note and then get rid of the leaflet. If it’s a constant annoyance, simply contact the company and remove yourself from the mailing list.
Old packaging or boxes to products We imagine that holding on to a box will increase an item’s value in the future, or we store them away in case we need to return something but then forget about it. If you don’t own the object anymore, recycle the packaging. Also, be aware of the endowment effect where you perceive something as having more value just because you own it. Consider if it’s really worth storing something to sell later if it’s taking up valuable space and peace of mind.
Subscriptions you aren’t using. Subscriptions are the silent vampire of your bank account. There’s so many these days it can be hard to keep track of all the food services, competing entertainment services, and apps. Free trials turn into accidental subs, and sometimes we even stop using a service but forget we’re still paying. I once went through my bank and listed all my subscription fees. I was horrified to see how many were active and culled about seven of them.
Worn out stationary – this goes without saying, but ditch the dried up pens and old rubber bands.
Unused stationery and notebooks – Have you ever bought a lovely new notebook, thought it was too pretty to use, and added it to the ‘maybe later’ pile? Or, if you’re anything like I was, get fed up when one is half full and buy a shiny new one? Do yourself a favour, pick your favourite, and donate the rest. Commit to using the one you have and enjoy it. The same goes for pens and other stationery. How much can you really use?
Duplicates – Duplicates of objects are most commonly found in the kitchen and shed. Do you already own something that does a similar function? Do you really need twenty different knives and three potato peelers?
Clothes that don’t fit or don’t make you feel good – There’s no worse way to start your day than opening your jam-packed wardrobe and feeling like you’ve got nothing to wear. The culprits are often decision fatigue caused by an excess of clothing, and holding on to clothes that make you feel self-conscious. Clothes don’t just make you feel bad by being a poor fit, but by having a lot of money spent on them yet never being worn. Unhang your guilt, and work on building an intentional wardrobe you love (not impulse buys from the sale rack, or clothes you intend to fit into later).
Your schedule – I know this isn’t a physical object, but so many of us are burnt out buzzing from event to event, task to task, and appointment to appointment. We fill up our children’s schedules and ferry them around, then we fill our own and wonder why life is passing us by. Full schedules aren’t something to be proud of, but something to be reflected upon. How would you feel with less tick boxes? How much in your schedule is really that important? Are there obligations you’re blindly fulfilling for others? When you stop to think about it, you might be surprised and find you have oodles of hidden time disguised as obligations. Time you could be using to do what lights you up and makes you feel truly alive.