Decluttering Tips For Your Home In The New Year

Here are some decluttering tips for your home in the new year. The new year is always a great time to declutter your home, and start fresh. Especially after the holidays when you have most likely accumulated a lot of excess items, that you did not have before. As someone who has been practicing minimalism for a several years I find that I still need to do this. Despite family knowing you are a minimalist they will still give you stuff.

Our family lives in a small home with 6 people, so as you can imagine it gets cluttered very easily. Especially with very little places to put things. I have to make sure I am doing this often. The kids often get school papers, or bring home things from parties. We keep a small box that we fill up every time we see something that is unused. Then I take it to the donation center immediately when I am in that direction in town. Getting the items out of your home as fast as possible will prevent second guessing, or little hands from taking things out.

Here is a List of Areas in your Home That I Find the Most Helpful to Declutter

1. Declutter Your Wardrobe

Having smaller wardrobe made the biggest difference for me in my daily life. Not only does it save space. It helps to make your days of standing in front of the closet and asking yourself, “What should I wear?” disappear. I own about 25 items per season. That is including shoes, work out clothes, pajamas, and jackets. I find this amount gives me plenty of choice, without it feeling like too much choice, if that makes sense. Simplifying your wardrobe will also cut down significantly on those laundry piles.

The best way to declutter your wardrobe is to choose your favorite things that you wear all of the time. If it is often ending up in the laundry pile to be washed then it is a definite keep. Think about all of the places, and activities that you do. How many clothing items do you need for each of those. You also will want to choose items that go together. Often times I do neutral items, because it is easy to pair them all together to make several outfit options. I often wear a uniform without realizing it( Jeans, T-shirt, Cardigan).

Pick Your Favorites

Then make sure you pick the Items that are comfortable, that are your favorites, and that you would pack with you on a trip. The Minimal Mom talked about in a video of hers that you should pretend you are going on a trip somewhere, with the same weather as your current location. What would you wear? Those are the items that you should keep in your drawers.

We often do not realize that we only wear those items anyway. We just do not want to get rid of the other items, because we might need them just incase. Well, usually that just in case time never comes around. I know for myself that it never has come around. If you do not feel like you can part with certain things, put them in a box in storage. Doing this in storage for a short period of time can help you to get them out of your closet.

I usually find getting them out of your closet provides some space. You often detach from things once you are no longer seeing them on a regular basis. Then I can usually let them go without hesitation the next time. Especially when I realize that I have not thought about the item, or gone into the box to grab it since it has been there.

2. Declutter Your Kitchen

Kitchens are always great places to declutter. You find a lot of unused stuff in there, and clearing all of that out makes a huge difference in your daily life. We own only the amount of dishes we use, only the amount of pots and pans that we use constantly. We had our holiday meals recently with family, and we ended up having just the perfect amount of dishes. There is no perfect number for everyone, because your needs will be different from ours.

3. Declutter Your Christmas Decor

Right after Christmas is the best time to go through all of the decor. If you did not use it this year, chances are you will never use it. Declutter those items, before you forget what you needed to use. We keep our Christmas decor in the bottom of our hutch. Probably about 1 tote worth of items. It is super important to me that I keep a minimal amount of items for a holiday we celebrate only once a year. Our home is very small, and so any extra space we can save is awesome! We also only focus on decorating the living room, kitchen, and outdoors. I do not have special decor for bedrooms. This helps to keep it minimal.

Diy Christmas Decorations

Also, doing diy decor each year is great for keeping your storage for Christmas decorations at a minimum. We have started doing orange garland, getting pine tree limbs from outside for greenery, and making ornaments out of sticks. You can also do popcorn or cranberry garland, which is really beautiful. It is also great activity to do with your kids.

4. Declutter Your Surfaces

Making all of your surfaces clear will help you to visually feel like there is a huge difference in your home. It will be less overwhelming, and easier to clean. Doing this in the kitchen is especially helpful. You no longer need to move everything in order to wipe off the surface if you have it already clear. Clear night stands, and bathroom counters will also make your space feel cleaner.

If you find it hard to keep the surfaces clear decluttering any items such as decorations will help you keep your home looking less messy. I have found this helps our home a lot, especially with children. Less decorations helps to not have them for the kids to grab. I find that if you try to make the items you are using pretty, they also act as decor rather than having a piece that sits on the counter which serves no purpose.

5. Declutter Your Bathroom Cabinets

Clear out all of your cabinets. If you are like me I had products that were unused that were collecting dust. Sometimes you try products that you just never liked. Better to get rid of it now, then to have it cluttering your cabinets. It makes such a huge difference in the feel of your space to have only what you use daily.

We often are making sure we do not have trash, and clutter laying around in our drawers. This really helps it look clean, and less cluttered. Also, we do not keep any decor in the bathroom. This is super helpful not having more things to clean. Less items means you do not have to clean as many things. I like to buy nicer items we use to make our simple bathroom look more beautiful.

I Hope These Decluttering Tips for your home In this New Year are Helpful

As you are decluttering in this new year you will feel such a difference in your space. I recommend doing one section at a time. Sometimes it is helpful to break up each section into chunks. I will do one drawer or one surface at a time. This prevents overwhelm, and having all of the contents of the kitchen all over the place.

Decluttering your home in this new year will also help you to be able to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. I find that having a decluttered home frees up space for me to focus on other things. You will have less to clean. Less to organize, and less to just have all around you. Once you do this in one area of your home that you frequently go in, you will understand what I am talking about. It is a scientific fact that clutter makes us stressed out. I never knew this before our journey to simplifying our home.

An excellent book that gives a through step by step guide to decluttering your home is Joshua Beckers Book, The Minimalist Home. You can find it here on amazon.

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