The reward—and the reason that keeps me going when decluttering seems like an overwhelming task—is that at the end, your home will contain only the things that serve you. You’ll be surrounded by things that make you happy. Because just like editing, once the extra, unnecessary stuff is deleted, only the best is left.
“Keep what you need and what makes you happy” is enough of a north star for some people. But many of us need a little extra guidance to help decide what’s worth keeping. These 27 time-tested decluttering tips can help.
1. Don’t treat your home like a storage unit.
Keeping something because you might need it someday is like paying mortgage to a storage company—and it comes at the expense of living in an empty, breathable space. So think twice about hanging on to the curtain rods or the six old cell phones.
2. Realize that what you keep costs you a lot.
Many times, you’re tempted to hang on to things because you feel like it’s a waste of money if you should ever have to buy them again. But there’s a cost to keeping something. You need to think about where to store it, give up the actual storage space, or take up precious empty space. Then you’ll need to spend time organizing it and then remembering where you put if and when you need it, and then putting it away, organizing it again when it gets messy, and well…. you get the picture. Is that item really worth the time and effort it’s going to take to keep it?
