If you want to learn how to declutter the most challenging areas in your home, you’ve got to read this blog and/or listen to this video on my YouTube channel. I will share with you three simple ways to declutter those areas once and for all.
We all probably have at least one or two areas of our home that are much more difficult to declutter than other areas have been. They challenge us, they overwhelm us with the thought of them… it gets pushed down to the bottom of our list because we don’t make time to get it done.
You avoided them perhaps, hoping that it would magically disappear. But in fact, every time you go near that area, you dread it, and it weighs you down.
That nagging feeling just won’t go away and it will probably even get worse until you stop procrastinating and just deal with it.
How to Finally Declutter Successfully
What if you could finally declutter that most challenging area once and for all so that you could free yourself from the guilt, angst, and other annoying emotions that pop up every time you even think about that space?
· THAT ROOM COULD BE YOUR BASEMENT
Stacked with boxes and bins, old cribs, and bicycles that have been sitting in your basement ever since you moved five years ago.
· THAT ROOM COULD BE YOUR GARAGE
Filled with garden tools you rarely use, old car, tires, boxes of donations waiting to get delivered to a donation site.
· THAT ROOM COULD BE YOUR GUESTROOM
The room that has become the central dumping ground for everything you don’t know what to do with.
Perhaps you have the urge to purge and finally declutter the most challenging areas of your home.
3 Simple Steps to Declutter That One Area You’ve Been Putting Off
1. Take a deep look at the challenging area.
- Pull up a chair, look at every corner and every inch of the room you’ve been telling yourself it’s “too hard” or it’s “too overwhelming.”
- Look at every box, every bin, every single trash bag that’s filled with stuff you have no idea what’s in it.
- Write it all down, what you see, what you are feeling.
- Make a detailed list.
- Take “before” pictures
2. Visualize the space as if it were empty and free of all of the stuff on that list
Think of ways that you could use the space if it were free of clutter
- A game room for your kids or grandkids.
- A garage that has plenty of room to park your cars.
- A beautiful guest room you are proud of where you can welcome your guests.
3. Visualize your family and yourself using the space that has previously been unusable.
- How will you use this newfound space?
As your mindset shifts from “too hard” and “too overwhelming” to “what’s possible for this room,” make a detailed checklist of all that you will need to do to make this a reality.
Approximate the number of hours, days, or weeks it will take to declutter this area. Write it down.
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4. Schedule times and dates to declutter this area so that you can make it clutter-free as you envisioned.
- Put those dates and times on your calendar.
- Schedule your team to help you.
- Stage all necessary supplies (trash bags, boxes, markers, tape)
- Play your favorite, upbeat, music.
- Set a timer for 45 to 50-minute increments. Go!
- Sort into three boxes: dispose, donate, keep.
- Put all dispose items in the trash immediately.
- Put all donate items in your car to deliver to a donation site.
- Organize all items that you will keep.
As you are working, remind yourself of your vision, remind yourself that it’s not hard… You’re doing it! Remind yourself that it will take time and it will be worth it.
Celebrate Your Success
When you follow these three simple steps, what was considered hard is made simple because… You faced the project head-on and no longer pretended or denied that it existed.
- In writing it down, and making a checklist, you were able to break down the project into more manageable parts so it was less overwhelming.
- In visualizing what the area could look like and how you could use it when it’s decluttered, you saw your space with a new set of eyes and created possibilities for it.
- In setting a time and a date, writing it down, you were holding yourself accountable you stopped, saying someday. Instead said today’s the day to accept that urge to purge and just get it done.
I’d love to hear back from you on how these three steps Worked for you finally decluttering a room that had previously been a big challenge.
Feel free to reach out to me at ritawilkins@ritawilkins.com
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