You may be keeping all those birthday cards because of their “sentimental value”, but you don’t need to have the ones from your childhood. If you find yourself keeping items, junk, and just random materials around your home because you think you want it or will use it later, then you may want to reevaluate your system. Here are some great tips on how to purge your stuff if you are a hoarder.
How To Purge Your Stuff If you Are A Hoarder
It can be hard to get rid of clothes because you feel like you “might wear it someday.” A good way to test that is by putting all your clothes on hangers backwards on the rack. After a month or so, the hangers that are still backwards will be the clothes that you don’t wear! Then just go and donate or recycle them. It’s an easy solution to purge your clothes!
When you start cleaning, give yourself three piles: keep, donate, and recycle. Whether they’re clothes, decorations, craft projects, etc. make sure you put your objects ONLY in one of these three piles. Don’t make a “one day I’ll get to it” pile. From there, you’ll start to whittle things down that you can purge yourself of!
One habit that a lot of us get into is buying extras of things because we like them or think we need them. However, it’s probably just better to go out and buy those things when they run out. If you have 20 extra pairs of bedding, consider donating or recycle some of them to make room.
To clean and purge yourself, start dusting! As you go around your house, pay special attention to the items that are heavily covered in dust. These items are going to be ones you haven’t touched or used in a while, so you know you can get rid of them! For things like clocks and decorations, recycle or donate them if they’re broken or aren’t’ getting used.
One of the most common things that causes clutter and hoarding is papers! They could be work, school, projects, bills, mail, etc. We often tend to let papers take over our counter space until it spills over to the desk, table, and sometimes even floor. Create a filing system for your papers, and then recycle anything that doesn’t have a spot!
Thank you so much for your very helpful blog! I am in the process of spring cleaning and found your tips to be so helpful.
BTW only tip I disagreed with was the one about the oddly shaped rug that fits snugly around the toilet. My house tends to be cold and since I don’t wear shoes in the house, I really appreciate that rug on cold days 🙂
I need help in organizing,tough time letting things go. Especially pretty things or clothing.Some of your suggestions were helpful..Just need someone to come and do it.
The KonMari method is also a really good way to declutteras it teaches you to appreciate an item for how it has served you, then let it go. I struggled with keeping things ‘just in case’ or because someone gave it to me as a gift but I found that book so helpful.