Are you tired of the clutter in your home? Rather than have yet another spring clean, you could take a minimalist approach and have a total declutter that will revolutionise your living space. A Tidy Mind are decluttering experts and are pleased to regularly share our perspective and tips on ways to simplify, tidy and organise. This article will explain what minimalism is and what the benefits are as well as offer some tips on how to declutter your home for good.
What is Minimalism?
Many people mistakenly believe that minimalism is about trying to live without material possessions or not caring about having a home or career. However, minimalism is really about the meaning we assign to material possessions and ensuring that these things don’t hold power over us. Minimalism is a tool that you can use to rediscover your joy or purpose without being held back by a need to accumulate ‘things’. And it’s about looking for happiness unrelated to owning material possessions. The trend for minimalist interior design began to emerge in the 1960s and has risen in popularity in the decades since.
The Benefits of Minimalism
There are many benefits to using minimalist principles in your home. For one thing, it can offer greater financial freedom as you will spend less money on non-essential items. Living in a minimalist home can also be less stressful and easier to clean, freeing up time and energy to spend on other things you enjoy more.
Minimalism is also better for the environment as it reduces consumption and encourages us to think more carefully about the purchases we make. Adopting a minimalist approach to our home interiors also frees up space within our homes. This means we can exist more comfortably in a smaller space or downsize, which again can have financial benefits, meaning we don’t need to work as hard to maintain a lifestyle.
How to Declutter Your Home
Decluttering can seem daunting, particularly if you’ve lived in your home for a long time and have accumulated a lot of stuff! These tips will help you break a mammoth task down into manageable chunks.
Choose a method
There are several methods that can make de-cluttering easier. Whether it’s the five-minute rule of just spending five minutes each day tidying one room or using the 12-12-12 method, which challenges you to find 12 items to be thrown away, 12 items to be given away and 12 items that need putting back in their proper place.
Alternatively, you can use the four-box method to help you declutter ready for a house move or redecoration. For this, you’ll need to label four decent-sized cardboard boxes. One is rubbish, one is to give away, one is to keep, and the other is to relocate. Start with one room and pick up the first item you come to. No matter what it is, it has to go in a box!
Clear out your wardrobe
This can be a great place to start. We all have clothing we don’t wear. Whether it no longer fits or it’s an old favourite that we can’t quite bring ourselves to throw away. This is why many of us end up in a situation where our wardrobes are stuffed full and yet we can never find anything we actually want to wear. If this sounds familiar, then clearing out your closet is going to be a major step towards minimalism.
When clearing out your wardrobe, donating your old clothes rather than throwing them away is a good way to help the environment and can also benefit charities and people in need.
Women’s t-shirts retailer Damart polled 2,000 UK adults to find out how sustainable our clothing choices are. They found that on average, the women polled spent around £419 per year on new clothes and that more than half (55%) of those asked admitted they didn’t consider sustainability when clothes shopping. However, when it comes to passing on unwanted clothing, an incredible 9 out of 10 Brits donate clothes to charity and 8 out of 10 using local recycling banks to get rid of unwanted clothing.
Tackle it room-by-room
You can’t declutter an entire home in one day or even one weekend. Instead, try to tackle the issue on a room-by-room basis. Start with the room/s you spend the most time in as these will be where most of the ‘stuff’ will have accumulated without you even noticing and the results will also make the biggest difference to your everyday life.
Use before and after photos
Take photos before tackling a room or specific area and compare these to after photos for inspiration and motivation to continue on your journey towards a more minimalist home.
Declutter by category
If you gather similar items together and go through them as a category, this can make for easier decisions and reduce overwhelm. So if you are working in the kitchen, work on your pots and pans, then crockery, then electrical items, then food items and so on. The other doesn’t really matter but some people like to deal with large or bulky categories first. Once you decide what to keep, consider storing things in categories too.
We hope you enjoyed our tips on ways to declutter your home. You can also want to check out the below articles:
A complete guide to house decluttering
The advantages of decluttering your bedroom
How to declutter your bathroom