Plympton Community Magazine, April 2024
27th March 2024
OM Magazine, Issue 180, May 2024
24th April 2024
Never mind cleaning away the cobwebs, let's clear away the clutter and enter spring with less to worry about.
Perhaps you’ve already spring-cleaned your home and realised how much stuff you have, so for April it’s all about the declutter. A spring declutter is always better than a spring clean - the less we have, the easier it is to clean!
Do you remember as a child when you would pull out all of your toys from under your bed and in your cupboard? Take everything out your wardrobe and put the mountain of clothes on your bed? Then within the hour, regret and overwhelm creeps in and you ask yourself what on earth have you done? So, you end up just chucking everything back where you got it and you’re no further forward. That’s what we’re not going to do this time around, we’ve learnt from our mistakes.
Before getting started, let's cover a few tips to ensure efficiency;
Schedule into small chunks that work for you
Decide what needs decluttering - it doesn’t need to be done all in one day or a weekend
Create a realistic deadline to keep from dragging on indefinitely
The less you have, the easier the cleaning
Keep in mind your goal of how you wish your home to look and feel - this will keep you motivated
Ok, so now you’re ready to get this show on the road, but where do you begin? We’ve put together a small checklist to get you started.
ENTRANCE HALL
It may go without saying but the entrance hall is the first place you enter your home and it can become a dumping ground for shoes, gloves, coats, umbrellas, keys, junk mail - you name it!
Only keep the shoes out for the season, pack the rest away. There are many cheap shoe storage options on Facebook Market Place and Ikea. This also applies for coats, only keep out what you need, over the door hooks are brilliant to hang on cupboard doors to hang your jackets.
Ensure the junk mail is recycled as soon as it you get it to avoid the buildup on the side.
LIVED IN AREAS
Tackling the loft and the garage tends to always be top of the hit list for many, but you can lose hours and hours sorting out these areas but as soon as you close the door, you don’t see it again for weeks. Start with the easy wins first to get you in the decluttering spirit.
Focusing on your most lived in areas like your living room, how lovely would it be to bask in the calm clean surroundings as you relax on your sofa. Rehome books you’ve already read and recycle old magazines or newspapers that have stacked up over time. Perhaps you’d like to rejuvenate the space and rejig the furniture, put away the winter throws and think about the items in the room - are they useful?
Declutter your kitchen so that cooking your evening meal becomes noticeably easier, this could be taking extra tins of food to a local food bank or discarding or repurposing chipped or broken crockery.
Our bedrooms should be of upmost relaxation, so clear down the bedside tables and hung up those clothes ‘on the chair’ (we’ve all done it!) If you have space under your bed, store seasonal items like duvets, blankets and clothes in storage boxes and tuck them under. Avoid stashing things away if you have the space, be ruthless.
TACKLE THE WARDROBE
I think we’re all guilty of overfilling our wardrobe and drawers and keeping those clothes we used to fit in 3 years ago, but we will get back into them this summer.
Tackling the wardrobe can be no easy feat but this isn’t about ‘out with the old and in with the new’, the fast fashion industry is causing devastating effects on the environment not to mention the landfills. Tackling the wardrobe simply means to go through your items of clothing and to be ruthless, have you worn it in the last year? If it’s a no, then it’s time to donate it. This is the same for clothing that is either too big or too small, either have it altered to fit you’re the way you wish or give it a new home. Clothes deserve to be worn, not locked away in a cupboard.
Trying to sell unwanted clothing can be a burden and stressful, when I’ve attempted this in the past the clothes ended up in a pile in the corner of my room for weeks. Just make peace with the fact the clothes are no longer serving you and support and donate them to your local charity shop.
If you have space, splitting your wardrobe into piles of seasons, it’s a good idea to use vacuum bags to store your clothing away compactly and protects them from dust!
ASK THE QUESTIONS
It can be hard to part ways with trinkets or items of clothing that we have an attachment of course, if something sparks joy within you then those are the things worth keeping. But for those other things you ‘might use’ or ‘may fit into’ or children’s toys that haven’t been used, it’s worth asking yourself these questions;
Do I need it?
Why do I have it?
What would I use if I didn’t own it?
Does this bring me joy/add value to my life?
LESS IS MORE
A simple mantra to perhaps keep reminding yourself as you declutter your home is, the less I own, the easier it is to clean.
I’m not suggesting to get rid of everything and have a home with no personality, but stuff is just stuff. We can’t take it with us when we go and it’s also worth noting that there is research that supports a cluttered home can affect anxiety levels, sleep and the ability to focus. The constant visual distractions can increase cognitive overload and even reduce our working memory!
We’ve all had those stressful moments when you can’t find your keys when you’re in a rush or a pen when you need it most. Having your home decluttered and organised immediately takes away that stress and anxiety.
So put on your favourite playlist, get yourself a nice cup of tea or even a cheeky wine and take your time tackling one room at a time.
Certain trinkets, items of clothing or things you forgot you had can take you down the path of sweet memories that give you joy. Don’t see decluttering as a laborious task, take your time and enjoy where it takes you!
