A cluttered home is usually symbolic of a cluttered mind. If you have lots of junk lying around your house, it tends to mean you have so many thoughts rattling around in your head. It’s hard for you to move around and your whole home feels like it’s closing in on you.
So, it’s time to declutter!
Decluttering your spaces frees up some extra room while also taking some stress off your shoulders. It can lead to a decluttered mind and much better living conditions. There are many ways to declutter, but which one is the best? Let’s look at the main options and rate them!
The Four-Box Method
Get yourself four boxes or bags and attach a label to each one:
- Donate
- Sell
- Trash
- Keep
From here, go through all of your household items and fit them into a category. If you’re keeping them, they’ll stay in your home. Anything you don’t keep can either be donated or sold depending on the condition – while the things beyond saving should be chucked.
It’s a great method if you have a pile of clutter to sort through, but can be overwhelming when tackling the whole house. Plus, you might be inclined to keep too many things! A good tweak could be to add a fifth box called Storage. If you want to keep something for sentimental value, but it takes up too much space, find some experienced removalists that’ll put it in storage for you. This lets you keep special items while fully decluttering your home.
The 30-Day Method
I like this method as it encourages you to gradually move more clutter from your house without being overwhelming. Each day, you remove one item more than the day before. So, day one will see one item removed, day two will see two, and so on.
It works out that you remove over 450 items by the end of the 30 days!
That’s a lot of clutter gone from the house and it’s a technique with roots in minimalism. I love it for the simplicity and stress-free approach – the only minor issue is when you get to the later days and have to start making tougher decisions as to what leaves.
The Room-by-Room Method
The room-by-room method is extremely simplistic. Pick a room, declutter it, and then move on to another one.
Sectioning off your house by room makes it easier for you to stay on top of the decluttering. So, it doesn’t overwhelm you or cause too much stress. Some rooms will take longer than others – and that’s okay! Slowly but surely you will declutter your house.
It’s a decent method if you have loads of clutter and really need to sort out your whole house. If you’re moving home, this could be an approach that helps a lot. But, it probably works best when combined with the four boxes method as it doesn’t provide much structure on its own.
Overall, these three decluttering methods all have their pros and cons. The four box method is brilliant when you are only decluttering small spaces. On the other hand, the 30-day method is great if you want to ease yourself into decluttering and slowly start throwing things away. Of all three options, the room-by-room one is probably the worst. As mentioned before, it only works effectively when combined with another decluttering method.
Still, look at all three and think about which one suits you the best!