Eight tips to help declutter your home

It’s that time of year where we all start setting goals for the year ahead. No doubt many of us have vowed to get our lives organised – and what better place to start than in the home?

If decluttering and organising your home is high on your list of resolutions, have a look at our top eight tips to getting things kick-started:

1. One easy way to declutter is to take the 12-12-12 challenge – find 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate and 12 items to be returned to their proper place within the home.
2. Alternatively, you can try the Four-Box Method. As you tackle each room, have four boxes on hand: one for rubbish, one for things to give away, one for things to keep and one last box for things to relocate. Place every item in the room into each category – do not pass over anything.
3. Don’t buy a ton of storage boxes before you sort through your home. Clean everything out first, assess what containers you really need and then buy a few. You can always buy more down the track, which is much preferable to having an abundance of containers left over.
4. Spread out your decluttering over a number of days or weeks. You will lose motivation if you try to do everything in one or two days.
5. If you are sick of opening draws and not being able to find what you need, buy some dividers or small containers to divide each draw into compartments. This will make it much easier to clean out and find things in the future.
6. If you have a massive pile of paperwork crowding your desk, buy some folders or a filing cabinet to help keep everything in order. Not only will this put paperwork out of sight, but it will also make life much easier when you need to find that important document.
7. When clearing out the pantry or bathroom cupboards, take note of the expiry dates on food & medicines and throw items out accordingly. Don’t simply push things further back to be discovered in five years’ time (let’s face it, we’ve all been there!).
8. Declutter your wardrobe by first putting away seasonal clothes, and then by donating any clothes that you have not worn for at least a year.