Analysis paralysis is a big thing when you’re starting a declutter. You have a home, presumably you have some clutter, and you want to deal with it all. But which of it should you deal with first?
There are multiple schools of thought here, but here’s a couple of great starting points.
Option #1 – Hit the “never-used” stuff first.
Got a storage room filled with stuff? Pretty sure you never touch any of it? If you start going through it, there’s a decent likelihood that you’ll be able to pitch some of it. You know you never use it, so part of your decluttering decision is already made for you.
Going through a space with a ton of unused stuff can yield a pretty large load to haul off to the thrift store, recycling bin, or dumpster. And hauling a bunch of stuff out of your space can give you the good feeling of making massive progress. As a bonus, if you clear out enough space, you’ll get a completely empty space that you can actually do something useful with.
Option #2 – Start where you actually live.
What room do you spend the most time in? Kitchen? Bedroom? Living room? The places where we spend time tend to accumulate what we’d call “process clutter.” That’s the sort of clutter that’s there because you were doing something with it, set it down, and didn’t come back later to deal with it.
Just going through a space like that will frequently yield a number of things that can be put away, a few things that are just outright garbage, and some other things that you’ve long since forgotten about but that you don’t need. Put it away, trash it, or donate it, as appropriate.
The benefit here is that while you might not have quite as large of a pile to go to the donation center, you’ll be clearing out a space where you spend quite a bit of time. This means that you’ll see the results of your progress every day. That ongoing feeling that “things are getting better” can be very helpful for your mental state, and that’s not to be underestimated.
Which makes sense to you?
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you start – just that you start. If you’re stuck between the two options, flip a coin. Heads you start where you live, tails you tackle where you store things. Again, just start somewhere!
Of course if you need a hand with some of the bigger stuff, we’re always here to help. Don’t let “how will I get rid of all the junk?” stop you from starting – just give us a call and let our friendly junk removal professionals help you go from cluttered to clean!