How to De-clutter Any Room in Your Home in Less Than One Day
What you will be doing is cleaning the room in question from the top down. Keep in mind that this method will work for any room in your house, your vehicle, your office space at work, or any other place that gets overrun with clutter or trash. Before you begin, there are a few things you need to collect (and judging by the look of that space, I’d say you have no problem collecting stuff!).
Since you will actually be cleaning the space, fetch your favorite bottle of all-purpose cleaner. If the room has any windows, get a bottle of window cleaner, too. You will also need paper towels, a washcloth or two, or a sponge – whichever you prefer.
Now that you have everything you need to do some cleaning, you need to compile implements used for organizing. Depending on the size of the space you are working in, you will need several plastic trash bags (recycle all of those plastic grocery bags you’ve been collecting) and one or two small-ish boxes. The boxes need to be small enough that you can comfortably lift them when they are full.
Clearing the Surfaces
This is where the real fun begins. Starting with the horizontal surfaces nearest to the ceiling of the area you are in, take every item off of the surface and put it on the floor. This includes, but is not limited to, knick-knacks, paper, office supplies, paper, family photos, paper, electronic equipment, and pretty much everything that is not permanently affixed to the surface. Seriously, just take everything down and make a big pile on the floor.
As you clear surfaces in this manner, clean them with your washing and wiping implements, but do not place the items back on the surface. Work your way in a circle around the room, starting with the highest surfaces and working your way down and around the room until every surface is empty and you have nothing but clean surfaces and a clutter pile in the middle of the floor. Once you get to the floor itself as the last horizontal surface, move clutter items toward the center of the room so that you are left with one pile and a ring of cleared floor around it.
Time to Organize and Let Go
Brace yourself! If you thought that putting all of your prized possessions and worldly belongings in a pile on the floor was difficult, you probably won’t like this next step. Remember, though, that this is essential to conquering the clutter. You will not believe how much better you feel after you finish!
Pick a spot near the pile and sit down on the floor, armed with your boxes and trash bags. You are now going to start going through the pile of clutter, which should be much easier now since you had to touch each of those items to get them into the pile to begin with. One at a time, regard each item. Be honest with yourself. If it is not something that you absolutely need or have an emotional attachment to, place it into a trash bag. If it is something that you do really need, actually intend to use, or otherwise cannot bear to part with, place it in the box. At the end of this exercise, you should really be throwing away more than you keep. If you run out of space in your boxes for things that you intend to keep, just start a separate pile.
Everything Has Its Place
Eventually, you will finish your sorting, which marks the task of returning the kept items to their rightful place. Isolate the things that actually belong in the room that you are in and place them in a box. Once the box is full, work your way around the room, putting each item in its place. This process repeats itself for the rest of the keeper items. Fill your box and carry it with you around the house, dropping off things where they should be.
Before you know it, you will have a sparkling clean room, a huge weight will be lifted off of your shoulders, and your clutter-magnet will cease to take its toll on your emotional well-being. Happy cleaning!
