New Year's decluttering

5 easy ways to keep your New Year’s decluttering resolution

Have you got a New Year’s resolution? Then you’re going to need all the help you can get to keep it: only 8% of people achieve their resolutions, with 43% breaking it after less than a month!

Luckily, we’re here to help. We can’t help you go to the gym or eat less potato chips, but we can help you stick to your resolution to declutter your home. Here are 5 simple but effective tips!


Be realistic

As much as you may love the showrooms at Ikea, there’s no way your home is going to look like one. Life will always get in the way, especially if you have children. But that’s not a problem: decluttering is about losing the stuff you don’t need, rather than getting rid of everything.


Set identifiable goals and deadlines

The best resolutions consist of a clear, achievable goal with a realistic deadline.

So, ‘declutter my house’ is a bad resolution. A better alternative would be ‘declutter the living room by April’. An even better alternative would be ‘sell all the CDs and DVDs I don’t use by the end of February’.

In short, the smaller and more achievable you make your resolutions, the easier they’ll be to achieve. The positive outcomes of those resolutions will soon mount up towards achieving your big targets too.


Don’t push yourself too hard

In January, your New Year’s resolution seems like the only thing that matters. That’s why people go to the gym every night, or eat a single lettuce leaf for lunch.

It’s also why so many people fail before February. Going ‘all in’ leads to burn out, and burn out leads to bad habits returning.

Instead of spending all your free time decluttering, dedicate an hour or so each weekend. It might take longer to achieve your resolution but it’ll be much easier.


Read books and blogs

Decluttering hit the mainstream in 2015 thanks to The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. It’s not hard to see why: the book is inspirational, considers the emotional value of clutter and offers an easy-to-follow decluttering method.

Reading a good decluttering book is a great way to stay on track. Here are a few of our favourites.

10-Minute Declutter: The Stress-Free Habit for Simplifying Your Home – S.J Scott

One Thing At a Time: 100 Simple Ways to Live Clutter-Free Every Day – Cindy Glovinsky

The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life – Francine Jay

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things – Randy O. Frost

Keep This, Toss That: Thousands of Organizing Secrets to Unclutter Your Life  – Jamie Novak

There’s a great online decluttering community too. Check out these bloggers to start.

http://www.theminimalists.com/

http://www.simplyorganized.me/

http://www.aslobcomesclean.com/

http://brooks-palmer.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

And don’t forget to keep an eye on our blog for more decluttering tips too!


Always keep the benefits in mind

When you’re knee deep in clutter, it’s easy to get disheartened.

The remedy is thinking about all the good that will come from your efforts: the extra money from selling your stuff, the extra space, the great feeling you’ll get from stepping into a tidy home. It should be more than enough to keep you going.


If you’re decluttering your used CDs, DVDs and old video Games, sell them with Decluttr! Also, you can sell books online, trade in iPhone and trade in iPad with us.  It’s FREE, easy, and we pay on the day after we receive your items too. Click below to get an instant price for your stuff.

sell my stuff now

Comments

comments