Your Whole-House Declutter Checklist
Your Whole-House Declutter Checklist
Do you have a big decluttering project on your To-Do List? If so, I’m guessing you’re already aware of a tidy home’s benefits. I’m assuming you know how improved your life will be once the project is complete, too. You don’t need motivation. You need a declutter checklist.
Enter Katie McGowen. Katie is a mom of 5 who had to do something drastic because she could no longer live amidst All. The. Clutter.
Katie knew she needed a blueprint that would keep her on track; she needed to divide the task into manageable chunks, too.
So she created a systematic decluttering plan.
Here’s what she did. Katie divided her entire home into 52 very simple zones (e.g. nightstand drawers; kitchen utensils) + tackled just one zone per week while her children napped.
In just under a year, Katie transformed both her house + her well-being by minimizing the nonessentials.
An unintended bonus? Katie learned 3 important truths about clutter, too, which she shares below.
“
I decided I wanted to systematically (declutter) our house … because I knew I would easily get distracted otherwise.
”
The benefits of a step-by-step declutter checklist:
_____
Living in clutter provokes anxiety.
A decluttering plan ensures every single space in your home is tidy. It also means:
– You find what you’re looking for without a stressful search
– Your stuff fits in its designated places (no more overstuffed drawers or Tupperware avalanches!)
– You have last-minute guests over without feeling guilty about the state of your home
– Your home is your safe space: You walk in the door after a long day + actually feel relaxed
– You are no longer mentally overburdened or visually overstimulated by clutter
– You live in a calmer, simpler space; as a result, you’re calmer, too
The only decluttering plan you’ll ever need
Grab Katie’s free Clutter-Buster Declutter Checklist + enjoy tidy simplicity in your home ASAP:
3 Truths about Clutter
_
#1. The potential for clutter is always present.
_____
It doesn’t matter how organized you are.
It doesn’t matter how diligent you are at putting misplaced items away.
And even if you’re the strictest gatekeeper in the world, the potential for clutter always looms.
That’s because clutter thrives when:
A.) there’s too much stuff, or
B.) there’s procrastination when putting away misplaced items.
While some of us struggle with either A or B, most fight off a combination of having too much stuff as well as procrastinating when tidying up.
It’s vital to identify the two main causes of clutter because, once you’ve learned to consistently minimize the nonessentials, organization happens naturally.
#2. It’s more than just stuff.
_____
There are 4 reasons why we hold onto stuff we don’t use:
1. Guilt-inducing gifts
A loved one took the time to pick out + give you a gift. Although you don’t have any attachment to it – and although you have no plans to use it – you feel guilty letting it go.
2. The money issue
You spent money on an item (a lot of money, perhaps) but you didn’t get as much use out of the item that you thought, so the items stays in your home, unused.
3. “Just in case”
You’re reluctant to let go of something you may someday need. You fear scarcity so you hold onto items you don’t use (+ most likely will never use, if we’re being honest), just in case.
4. Sentiment
Although emotions + memories are never inscribed in our trinkets, humans by nature find themselves deeply attached to stuff.
You will hit roadblocks as you declutter; we all do. But actively working to uncover the real reasons behind your resistance makes decluttering easier in the long run.
#3. The fear of starting is always worse than actually doing the job.
_____
Humans tend to build up events into momentous occasions.
We build up positive events to unrealistic standards.
But for negative ones – like major decluttering tasks – we exaggerate the negative aspects so greatly that we fear ever starting.
It’s important to remember that decluttering is simply the act of getting rid of what doesn’t belong.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Rolling up your sleeves + getting it done is always easier than stewing amidst the exaggerated negativity you’ve created in your mind.
So jump in + get to work; use Katie’s decluttering plan to anchor your efforts.
Grab Katie’s free Clutter-Buster Decluttering Plan here:
Did you recently complete a whole-house declutter? How did you tackle the job?
