Decluttering Your Home:
Complete Overhaul Method

In addition to How to declutter in 4 easy steps, this "overhaul-style" method of decluttering your home can make a bigger impact and ensure more thorough cleaning.



1) Take everything out from the space you are decluttering.

I find that doing this causes me to get the immediate victory over that stagnant feeling that the clutter will always be there and always have the upper-hand. It gives you more clarity and flexibility to know what you have and decide what you're going to do with it.

I know this can seem overwhelming and intrusive, and even like an oxy-moron, but it shifts the control from the stuff to you. I use this method when I feel like the space needs a complete overhaul and change.

2) Sort everything into specific piles.

Piles to Trash, Donate to charities Sell, Keep. You may even end up with an "Indecisive" pile. That's okay. You're making great progress! Here's a tip for overcoming procrastination with items you aren't ready to deal with or get rid of right now.

3) Prepare to sell or donate the items you aren't keeping.

Here are some ideas for getting rid of clutter. What's clutter to you may be charming to someone else.

Donating clothing has been made so convenient. Just in and around my small town there are many places to donate clothing. If you are going to donate household items to charity, please be courteous and follow their donation process.

Having a yard/garage sale can be fun and rewarding. Use this garage sale checklist for ideas.

You can also list items on the internet. Craig's list is very popular and I have sold many items on Ebay in the past.

Motivation & Negative Self-talk

Even though I know the effectiveness of this method for serious decluttering, I have also experienced lacking the motivation and decisiveness to take the first step.

If you need wiggle-room, allow yourself to wiggle - just a little. :) If you want decluttering your home to be a priority, you can't take the low road for too long.

When I had the desire to create pantry organization in my home, I put off doing it for days. There was one main reason:

I told myself, "Self, don't even bother; you're probably just going to end up putting all or most of it right back where it was."

This negative self-talk discouraged me from believing that decluttering would be a worthwhile endeavor at that time. I was very wrong. I was amazed at how simple and effective it was to declutter and organize my pantry.

For one, once I took out almost everything from my pantry and began sorting, I found a lot more trash than I expected. Between items that belong to other family members and items I no longer wanted, I had a wagon-load of stuff to permanently remove. (Literally, I filled up a large, heavy-duty child's wagon to the brim!)

Read the article How to get motivated for help getting started.

Getting Organized

Okay, you've cleaned up and thought of ways to get rid of clutter. There's just one issue: your stuff still needs to be put away. For that, we move on to how to get organized.

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Go to Home Organization Tips from Decluttering Your Home

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