If you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of unused kitchen appliances, ill-fitting promo t-shirts and plastic nicknacks, join the club. Clutter has a way of infiltrating our homes and clogging up our lives, often without us even realising it. And then, all of a sudden, you open your wardrobe and get crushed my a mountain of junk.
I pretty much live and breathe the Konmari method for decluttering, but there are plenty of things lying around your home that you can declutter right now without having to embark on an entire decluttering journey. In this list I’m sharing a simple room by room guide of all the things you can declutter right now. Like, today!
Things to declutter from your bedroom
- Odd socks
- Underwear with holes
- Tights that have ladders in them
- Shoes that feel like torture devices
- Bras that don’t fit properly – you deserve better
- Old t-shirts
- Anything you bought 2 sizes too small so you could ‘diet into it’
- Anything that’s now too big that you’re hanging onto in case you accidentally eat your weight in cake
- That dress you simply had to have, but never wore
- Actually, anything you own that you don’t feel fabulous in
- Wire coat hangers (they’re so bad for your clothes)
- Extra hats, scarves and gloves
- Broken jewellery
- Scratched sunglasses
- Old bedding
Things to declutter from your bathroom cabinet
- Expired medicine
- Dried up nail polish
- Suncream that’s been open for over a year
- Those 12 Victoria’s Secret gift sets you had for Christmas and never opened
- Hair ties that have lost their stretch
- That red lipstick you thought would look great, but just made you look like a sad clown
Things to declutter from your kitchen
- Expired food (the BBE date is a guideline, but anything after the EXP is a no go)
- Bizarre kitchen gadgets you never use
- Plastic containers with no lids
- Lids that have no containers (how does this happen, by the way?)
- That overly complicated cookbook you never use
Things to declutter from your study
- Dried up pens
- Books you’ve read
- Books you’re never going to read
- Old to-do lists, grocery lists and scraps of paper
- Junk mail
- Old magazines
- DVDs you don’t watch
- CDs you don’t listen to
Things to declutter from that pesky junk drawer
- Used batteries
- Expired coupons
- Old mobile phones
- Mystery chargers that haven’t been used since about 1999
- Coins from far-flung destinations you’ll never visit again
- Spare buttons for shirts you threw out 10 years ago
- Takeaway menus
- Those seven manicure sets that came out of Christmas crackers
- Keys that don’t actually unlock anything
From your handbag
- Chocolate wrappers
- Receipts
- That half empty packet of gum that’s kind of grossly damp now
- Crumpled up leaflets
- Empty Paracetamol packets
- Old tissues
- Loose coins
Decluttering doesn’t have to be daunting. If the whole ‘turn your entire house upside down to see what sparks joy’ thing doesn’t appeal to you then start small. Arm yourself with this list of things to declutter right now and let the purge begin!
I like the quick and easy approach. The small stuff adds up quickly
I’m going to give this to my adult daughter and use it myself thank you very much keep up the good work
I need all the help I can get to get my house in order!
Great list of where to start, but a part of the solution is the know how much is too much. How many pairs of sock, under shirts, under wears, pants, and shirts.