Are you tired of coming home every day to an apartment full of clutter? Sick of looking at a mess on your coffee table, on your shelves, or in your kitchen? Clutter causes more than just a mess — it also causes stress!
Decluttering your place is a great way to take back control of your space (and make your apartment look better than ever). But with a mess in every room, where do you start?
Today we’re talking about everything you need to know on how to declutter your apartment the right away. Keep reading for our seven apartment decluttering secrets for 2019!
Declutter Drawers and Closets First
Decluttering means that you’ll be getting rid of some things, so to do it right, you’ll need to have a place to store the items you intend to keep. So how do you do that? By decluttering your drawers and closets first.
In your closets, keep the items that you wear and use all the time. Donate clothing that no longer fits and items that you rarely use, and throw away anything that is damaged.
When it comes to clothing, if you have something stained or ripped, you should throw it away. When it comes to household items, get rid of anything that’s broken or doesn’t function as it should.
In your drawers, follow the same theory of keeping, tossing, and donating. For the smallest items, use shallow storage bins or drawer dividers for the best organization.
Declutter One Room at a Time
Depending on how much of a mess you have, your decluttering project could take a day, a weekend, or several weeks. The trick is to start in a small area and work on one room at a time.
Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to clean out your entire place in one afternoon. Break it down into room-by-room mini projects and do as much as you can handle at a time.
Seeing the progress you’ve made in one room can inspire you to continue decluttering the rest of your apartment!
Identify Your Biggest Mess (And Start With That)
Do you have mail and papers all over the house? Are your drawers and tabletops piled high with receipts and documents? If so, start with those first. Go through every sheet and decide what you can part with and what you need to keep.
Toss out old magazines and newspapers, file away essential items, and organize old receipts that you still need to keep.
And remember: shred anything with sensitive or personal information.
Maybe your most significant source of clutter is a collection of books and DVDs. If so, start there. Donate the books and movies you don’t plan to read or watch again. You can always replace your collection with digital files at a later date.
It’s also a good idea to invest in furniture that can help keep you organized. Get some bookshelves, buy a new storage cabinet, or look for furniture that doubles as storage. Ottomans and benches with lift-top lids are a great way to stash items out of the way.
Get Rid of Anything You Don’t Use or Need
If you genuinely desire to put your skills to the test, you can follow Marie Kondo’s decluttering philosophy and toss things that don’t “spark joy.” But for a lot of people, this is easier said than done.
Instead of trying to purge your apartment of everything, try taking the 12-12-12 challenge instead. For every 36 items, keep 12, toss 12, and donate 12. You can do this with the clothing in your closet. You can do it with the dishes and utensils in your kitchen drawers and cabinets. You can even do it with cosmetics and personal items in your bedroom or bathroom.
Once you know what you’re keeping, make sure you have enough room for everything to fit without making your place look overcrowded. If you don’t have enough room for everything that you want to keep, you may need to toss and donate more items.
Assign a place for everything and keep those items where they belong. That is the best way to ensure that you don’t allow the clutter to pile up all over again.
Organize with Storage Boxes and Bins
Once you know what you’re keeping, invest in some storage boxes and bins. If you want to organize like a pro, you can label each one so that you know exactly where everything is at all times.
Having a designated place for everything is a great way to keep up with your organization efforts.
Declutter Your Digital Life
It’s easy to fill your phone with silly photos and let your inbox overflow with unread emails, but if you want a clutter-free life, these are two things you can’t afford to overlook. Decluttering your digital devices can feel just as rewarding as decluttering physical items from your home.
The best part about cleaning out your digital items is that you don’t even need to get rid of anything. Instead of deleting, move your files to a flash drive or an external hard drive. Then, assign those storage devices to a specific storage area of their own.
It’s also important to organize cords, cables, and chargers. Rather than having them hang from outlets all over the house, put them all in one place. Invest in a small storage bin where you can keep them out of sight.
Keep up with the Clutter
The best way to live a clutter-free life is to prevent clutter from collecting in the first place. If you can prevent clutter from building up, you’ll never have to waste another weekend cleaning it all away.
Conclusion
Start by cleaning out your drawers and closets. Get rid of whatever you don’t need, organize what you intend to keep, and donate items that you no longer use. Clean out one room at a time, start with the biggest mess, and invest in some storage solutions to help keep you organized.
When you’re all done, keep it up. Stay organized, and you’ll never have to deal with clutter again!
Author Bio:
Lisa Gotte is the Business Manager at Broadstone Barker Cyprus. With over 15 years of experience in the industry, she begins and ends each day loving what she does. She finds joy in helping others and makes this property a place everyone loves to call home.