Our lives are busy and our world is cluttered with ‘things’ and ‘stuff’. We are more aesthetic than ever and nothing is built to last, our world is a throwaway. We work hard and long for the things we have and we are forever bombarded with specials, sales and gimmicks – and we fill our houses with it. The stuff takes over, we get too busy and our house, both inside and outside, looks like a dumpsite. So how do you stop the clutter and cleanse your home and life of ‘THE STUFF”? Simple! Here are 7 tips to help –
- Read then practice it – If you haven’t been living under a rock then you would have heard about Marie Kondo and her book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ or perhaps ‘Decluttering at the Speed of Life – Ending Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff ’ by Dana White. Read and then put their pearls of wisdom into practice!
- Pretend its time to sell – What a difference an incentive makes when it comes to selling a home. We have helped many clients with prepping their homes for sale – nothing like a good cleanse to rid your home of all the unnecessary ‘stuff’ (and I’m sure you have plenty of it!)
- One room at a time – Start with one room, one cupboard, one box. Don’t try to tackle the cleansing your home without a plan. Start with the room that needs the most attention and once you’ve conquered that, move on to the next one. Start with two boxes labelled ‘Keep’ and ‘Discard” and work from there
- Eliminate ‘Stuff’ – Humans accumulate more ‘stuff’ than is imaginable. Our lives are filled with ‘stuff’. At the shops, at the footy, in restaurants, at festivals and events, McDonalds Happy Meals – junk, everywhere, and our homes are bursting at the seams because of it. Learn to say ‘No’!
- Need over Want – The first time an item finds its way into your home, ask yourself the question – ‘Do we really need or want this?’ Make an immediate decision at that moment and don’t move it from one location to the next because you cannot or do not want to decide
- Donate and Sell – Once you have identified what is for keeps and what is not, the next step is sorting whether it is worthy of donating, whether it can be sold or if in fact it just needs to be laid to rest
