Now is the perfect time of year for a bit of decluttering and organising at home. The longer hours of daylight are great motivators to clean and tidy. There’s more time to be active, yes, but moreover, dust and chaos are very visible in the sunshine!
To help you get organised, here’s our step-by-step guide to decluttering your home in time for the summer.
Step 1. Get Everybody Involved!
If you live with other people, there’s no point trying to declutter and clean without everyone else giving a helping hand!
If you have children, try to get them involved, getting them to help out could be good, as children are always looking for praise!
Step 2. Start At The Top
Not the loft though, save that for another time!
Your living space is the priority and you don’t want to have to deal with the clutter in the loft.
Start with the bedrooms, one at a time, and work your way down!
- Take out the clothes from each wardrobe and separate them into summer and winter piles. Living in England, it would be foolish to put all your warm clothes into storage.
- Keep a few jumpers that you can wear for the colder days we have in the summer!
- The rest can be stored. Maybe use a vacuum bag and shrink them down so they don’t take up a load of space.
- While you are going through all your clothes, you should assess whether it still fits, or if you will actually wear it again.
- Unless you’re certain you will wear again, you could donate to a charity shop or recycle bin!
Step 3 – Swap out your duvets and blankets
As the weather begins to crank up, you will no longer be needing your blankets on all your beds at home. You might even want to switch your duvet to a lighter tog!
Make sure to properly store your blankets and duvets for when you need them!
Step 4 – Tackle the kitchen
Have a look through all of your cupboards and check the dates on things. Just because somethings past it’s use by date, doesn’t mean its unusable. However, if you have some Marmite dated 2011, it’s probably wise to chuck it out and get yourself a fresh jar.
Have you managed to grow a large collection of pans, pots and trays over the years? Could they be sold, given to charity or recycled if you no longer need them?
If you are wanting to save some of them for when your children move out, you could pop them into your loft or garage, or even rent some self storage.
Step 5 – Dig out your summer gear
Chances are, you’ll have things like garden furniture cushions, garden toys, and gardening gear tucked or hidden away at home or in storage. As part of reviving your garden ready for summer, you can get those items out and replace them with the winter items that you (hopefully) won’t need.
Step 6 – Consider a storage unit
If you’re renting a storage unit for the summer, you could store your winter clothes in there, along with anything else you’ve got stashed in your wardrobes or spare rooms. Eg. Christmas decorations, winter sports equipment, and other similar items.
Keeping that clutter out of your home altogether, rather than knowing it’s crammed into every available nook and cranny, will make your home feel so much tidier and fresher. You’ll be able to open cupboards without fear of things falling on you; you’ll have a room to store things you use regularly and be able to take them out easily.
Decluttering isn’t the most enjoyable thing to do, but once its done, you often get a real sense of accomplishment, and a fresh space you can enjoy!
