Ready to Declutter? Here Are 5 Expert Tips to Help You Get Started — and Keep Going

These tips make it easy to start, stay focused, and finally create the calm, clutter-free space you’ve been dreaming of.

By Andy Steiner | Experience Life

Ready to start your de-cluttering efforts? Here’s your battle plan:

Put on some energizing music, open a window and make sure you have enough light. If you’re dealing with dust or mildew, don a mask and/or run an air purifier.
Gather some good-sized boxes and mark them: “Give,” “Toss,” “Repair,” “Put Away” or whatever categories suit your purpose. Figure you’ll probably need three times the number of boxes and bags you’d expect.
Set your intent and visualize the space as it will be when you are done: clean, clear and beautiful!

Begin with a single room or even with one small area, such as a desk, car or closet.
Don’t feel you have to do everything in one day or weekend. For most, decluttering is a long-term, ongoing process.
If you’re dealing with a huge area (like an attic), visually designate a smaller area or corner of it as your current de-cluttering project. Go section by section ? that way you’ll have visible, interim accomplishments to celebrate, an increasing amount of clear area to work in, and you’ll be less likely to get overwhelmed.
If you’re having a hard time getting motivated or you just don’t know where to begin, consult a book or website for inspiration. You might also enlist a pal for a clutter-clearing trade, or consider hiring a Feng Shui expert of other professional de-clutterer to help you develop and implement a solid battle plan.

Remember, the goal is to lighten your load. Use space-clearing specialist Karen Kingston’s clutter test: Does it lift my energy when I think about it or look at it? Do I love it? Is it genuinely useful? IF you have the slightest doubt, let it go.
“Do not create piles of objects with the intention of deciding later where they will go,” warns Kingston. Decide right then and there what each object’s fate will be. Fill the boxes, then take the boxes to their destinations.
If you are really torn about saying goodbye to something, Kingston recommends putting it a “Dilemma” box. Close up the box and seal it. Store it for six months, and if you can’t remember what’s in it (or don’t care), get rid of it.

While cleaning a clutter zone is a good first step, follow-through is also important. Given the smallest chance, clutter has a nasty way of reattaching itself to you, so make a point of removing clutter from your property completely.
Resist the temptation to just move your clutter from place to place or repackage it in fancy bins.
Don’t wait for that garage sale you’ve never had, and never will. Call the garbage collectors, bring your load of bottles to the recycling center, make that trip to the donation center right away.
If you are dealing with a large amount of clutter (especially basement and attic clutter), look into renting a small dumpster.

Commit to acquiring and keeping fewer material belongings in your life.
For birthdays and holidays, request no gifts (or let people know you prefer “experience-oriented” gifts).
Avoid shopping (whether department stores or garage sales) “just to shop.” You’ll tend to collect stuff that is clutter waiting to happen.
To stop clutter-creep up, every time you get something new, give, donate or recycle something old.
Schedule regular clutter-busting sessions and involve the whole family.
If clutter starts accumulating again, for nine days in a row remove nine objects.

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