Clutter is a source of stress for many of us. The more things we have lying around, the more weight we feel. However, decluttering your life can be a difficult thing to do if you don’t know where to start. Here are a few tips on how to live a simpler, more organized and efficient life.

 

1. Identify the messiest areas in your home

Awareness is the first step. Spend some time making a list of the places in your space that are most prone to clutter. This will help you to keep an eye on these particular problem areas so that you can take appropriate measures to ensure that those areas stay as clear as possible.

 

2. Use the Four-Box Method

When cleaning up each room of your house, bring in four boxes: trash, give away, keep or relocate. Make sure no item in your house gets missed. By categorizing everything, this will help you make more efficient use of the space in your home.

 

3. Take the 12-12-12 challenge

Find 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate and 12 items that need to be returned to its rightful place. Doing this will not only give you some focus in your organization attempts, but it also feels like a bit of a game and will make the process slightly more interesting. If you want to do this with your partner, it could even be turned into a friendly competition!

 

4. Give Away One Item Each Day

Doing this will not only help you simplify your life, but you’ll also be helping those in need in the process. Take a large box and gradually fill it by placing a nonessential item in it every day. This will help you realize you don’t actually need as many things as you once thought you did.

5. Install Drawer Organizers

Get rid of that junk drawer and instead, install compartments in all well-used drawers. This will create a clear space for specific items and will prevent you from losing the tape for the 100^th time. It will also help provide more designated organizational space which will help to provide a specific home for more of your household items. In theory, this will help to reduce clutter in the long run.

6. Use the Reverse Clothes Hanger Trick

Use this trick over a six-month period to see which clothes in your closet you actually wear. Turn all the clothes in your closet so that the hangers face back to front. For the next six months, if you wear a particular item of clothing, return it to the closet facing the correct way. By the end of the experiment, be prepared to be shocked by how few clothes you actually wear!

 

7. Schedule Declutter Sessions

A successful declutter strategy involves time, energy and discipline. Make sure your incorporate decluttering into your daily routine by scheduling 10-15 minute declutter sessions designed to tackle any clutter that had accumulated throughout the previous day. Incorporating this practice into your life will help prevent you from having to spend 2-3 hours cleaning when the clutter has gotten too much to handle.