Decluttering your living spaces before downsizing to a smaller home (such as a tiny or small house) can be an imposing ordeal. In particular sifting the “junk” from what’s valuable and really matters to you. Plainly put, downsizing, in some respects, is moving to a simple life, with less “things” that commonly add clutter. – But that’s a good thing, less clutter equals less stress!
Table of Contents
- 1- The ‘Dumping Ground’ Garage
- 2 – The Messy Living Room
- 3 – The Chaotic Bedroom
- 4 – That Crowded Bathroom
- 5 – Those Crammed Wardrobes
- 6 – The Congested Kitchen
- The Brimming Home Office
- In Conclusion…
In fact Dr. Donna Ferguson, a psychologist at CAMH (The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) wrote a post saying:
Clutter can annoy us, distract us or take away much-needed energy. Clutter can be physical (items in the junk drawer), digital (unedited photos scattered across our mobile devices), or even emotional, such as beliefs that hold us back in life and make it difficult for us to function. Clutter can also cause feelings of stress, fatigue and depression. Stress can contribute to poor sleep, poor eating habits and general poor health.
https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/spark-joy-how-decluttering-can-help-your-mental-health
In a nutshell, her post helps us understand the impact of decluttering, how it can reduce stress levels, help to motivate us, improve our motivation, reduce health issues, and more.
In your declutter process always try to remember. If you cannot sell it, put it to actual (real and consistent) use (right now), or give it away… Please be kind to the environment and recycle it before sending it to the garbage.!
Much of my (personal) motivation to declutter is the move to a smaller home. After all, it’s not realistic to move all my belongings from a larger home to a smaller one – Where is it going to fit? The declutter process, in my opinion, is also part of a general movement when transitioning to a new, simpler lifestyle.
What follows are some tips on how to declutter important spaces in your existing home (before relocating to a smaller home). I hope in some small way, approaching the declutter process with a room-by-room approach makes the process less difficult.
It may help also to use the resources in the companion post “30 Days to Triumph Over Home Clutter!” as there is a calendar along with helpful videos demonstrating some great methods to remove clutter.
1- The ‘Dumping Ground’ Garage
I have a confession to make… My garage has quite literally become a dumping ground for old electronics (computers, stereos, etc.) and things that have built up over the years, or for other things I think I might need in the future. And I cringe when thinking of tackling the garage.
Whenever I walk through the neigbourhood, it seems the majority of people don’t park their cars in the garage. I can understand why… When I see their garage doors open, they are filed with stuff, and really seem to be used as storage units.
Speaking for myself, working to declutter the garage is not so much the removal and clean up, as it is the mind-set I need to change. Here are four “rules” I now use for the garage:
- If I have not used the item in the last year, it needs to go to recycling.
- If the item is truly junk or broken, don’t store it for parts, recycle it.
- If the item remains only because of an emotional attachment, it needs to be put to use or recycled.
- If the item provides no real, tangible value to my life, it needs to be recycled.
Naturally, in some instances it’s easy to say, and requires some “out of the box” thinking at times, to put (truly valuable) things back into use.
When it comes time to tackle the initial big declutter job in the garage, one business I’d recommend here in Canada is JustJunk.com. In part because they:
“…donate any reusable furniture, electronics, clothing and homewares to local charities. Even salvageable construction debris is donated to Habitat for Humanity. We also recycle paper, metals, concrete and various other materials, keeping as much as 60% of your junk out of landfills…”
https://justjunk.com/frequently-asked-questions
Instead of simply sending stuff to a landfill.
Electronic waste (which is considered a hazardous waste), and the details also advise they recycle:
“…Don’t let that electronics collection sit and collect dust. JustJunk can put those old computer parts or televisions to use elsewhere. E-waste is easily recycled and donated with our comprehensive environmental initiatives to ensure that usable electronics avoid going to landfills and endure through local recycling programs…”
https://justjunk.com/e-waste-removal
Did you pick up on what I did here? Instead of working to organize the garage, my first step was to remove the rubbish! In my experience, when handling projects (like this), the best approach is to remove stuff first, then organize what is left over afterwards.
In my opinion decluttering is not the organizing of stuff, rather the removal of it. Think about it for a moment, organizing stuff might make my cluttered space look a bit neater – But it’s still filled with clutter!
2 – The Messy Living Room
Living rooms tend to get cluttered fast. Does the coffee table really need that many old magazines? Do children’s toys really need to be laying around? And much more…
Two immediate issues in our home, magazines and toys:
If I have not read that article I wanted to save from last year’s magazine (for example), chances I’m not going to (and obviously didn’t miss it) – Throw those old papers and magazines in the recycler.
The kids need to learn how to keep their toys properly (it’s a valuable life lesson for them) – Show them when and how to put their toys away. Include them in the declutter process, so they can also learn by making choices on what to keep and what to recycle.
Nick knacks and ornaments; for example does the living room really need to be crammed with every vacation souvenir? This is going to sound really harsh…
The short answer is:
“No”, in reality it’s all junk!
Sure they may hold some intrinsic emotional reminder to past times, but all most of them do is lay around, cluttering up your space. Give them away or recycle them. From personal experience after the initial leap, it becomes easy to do!
In our area (of Ontario) recycling is picked up weekly. Include your declutter process in this! For many of us, I assume the living room is not as much a clutter sponge as other spaces, but it’s still important to ensure you declutter.
Remember the process to declutter is about getting rid of things, not moving them around into an organized fashion.
3 – The Chaotic Bedroom
Picture this…
The night stands are full, as are their drawers.
There’s a week or two of washed laundry piled up.
Lot’s of things to read are laying around.
Used clothes are laying on the floor.
That old lamp you were given is in the corner and after ages, still needs to be repaired.
So what’s up with this?
It’s not uncommon for bedrooms to become cluttered – Especially the night stands.
Again, it’s a matter of realizing some things need to go. Don’t rely on emotional attachments, rather focus on your goals (you’re downsizing and a lot of this stuff simply needs to go). You transitioning to a simpler, stress free way of life.
Get rid of that old lamp (don’t collect other people’s stuff).
Don’t need some of those extra clothes anymore? Give them away or recycle them.
Open those drawers and get rid of the un-needed stuff.
In part it’s about fostering positive habits. The less stuff you have, the less clutter. Make your declutter process an ongoing thing both now and in your new smaller home.
4 – That Crowded Bathroom
In my opinion, bathrooms really serve one purpose: Personal hygiene (and for many, personal beauty).
So here’s the rub…
I’d argue for most guys, bathrooms are a less cluttered area (and they don’t spend excessive time in them), but for women it’s sometimes not that simplistic.
Magazines, crossword puzzles, etc. are nice to have when you sit, but a larger assortment to choose from is simply clutter. Bring in only the reading material you would like at the time, then take it back out with you.
For showers and tubs, declutter the plethora of soaps, shampoos, etc. Simply put, one container of each will suffice. (remember decluttering is about removing stuff, not rearranging things).
Makeup, often being a very personal thing, can present subtle challenges. A lot of makeup falls under the 90 day rule, if you have not used it, or are not going to use it, get rid of it!
Similarly if some of the makeup does not agree with your skin, or maybe does not quite achieve the colours you would like, remove it. A general rule… If there is makeup you don’t regularly use, consider getting rid of it. This way makeup does not pile up to become clutter.
Resist the emotional impulse that expensive makeup you never use might be used in the future.
5 – Those Crammed Wardrobes
In a 2018 study, Canada scored 79% in terms of clothes owned, they had never worn. The specific question was “What percentage of your wardrobe hasn’t been worn in the last 12 months?” – Understandably this score shows that we in Canada, have a great opportunity to improve.
I don’t think this number is representative of each and every one of us, rather it’s an overall score. Nevertheless, this suggests the average Canadian possibly only wears 21% of the clothes in their wardrobe.
And for that matter, to be very honest, I have clothes I never wear, certainly most of us perhaps are not alone in that regard.
What to do?
The easy part (I think for many) is to remove the old clothes we know we don’t really want and won’t wear. Donate those clothes or send them to the recycler.
A word of caution though, in 2018 the CBC ran a story about in-store recycling bins:
“…Kenya is one of Canada’s best customers for second-hand clothes. In 2016, Canada exported more than $160 million worth of used textiles globally, with $22 million of it going to Kenya. Much of it, however, isn’t good enough to be sold, and in many cases, ends up in the trash…”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/clothes-recycling-marketplace-1.4493490
In the past, I would take unused or old clothing direct to places such as the Salvation Army. However now, they accept these donations at their “Thrift Store“.
Here’s a good approach to your declutter process when visiting your wardrobe:
- Remove all old clothes you don’t want.
- Remove all clothes you’ve not worn in the past year.
- Whittle down you clothes to only those you regularly will wear (it’s a lot less than you might think).
- Remove each piece of clothing that does not sync with your personal style.
- Remove clothing items that won’t work with the other clothes you are keeping.
- Use the “capsule wardrobe” concept.
Capsule Wardrobe
“…The term was coined by British fashion icon Susie Faux in the 1970s. It refers to a collection of 30-40 practical and versatile pieces of clothing put together to create an entire wardrobe for a season. While the concept isn’t new, in the age of fast fashion it represents a shift in thinking about how we wear clothes which could inspire important change in our consumption habits…”
https://goodonyou.eco/capsule-wardrobes-create-your-own/
In general this idea helps you maintain a variety of outfits, while reducing the number of items in your wardrobe. It’s a super way to build a minimal wardrobe yet a variety of mix-and-match items. This works for both men and women!
It seems each day I’m in a new outfit, yet have a nicely decluttered wardrobe.
6 – The Congested Kitchen
Our kitchen used to have loads of things wasting couter space and the cupboards were (too) full.
For most of us I think, the kitchen is a central point to family life. It’s where we cook and often eat, where we leave notes, spend time together, and serves as a focus for extra clutter.
Interestingly I found (and also think) decluttering the kitchen is one of the esier spaces to work on.
Here’s what I would suggest as an orderly process to declutter the kitchen:
Food
Open the fridge, get rid of all expired products.
Look in the pantry and again, discard expired products.
Storage
For Tupperware and other storage containers match each of them with the correct working lid. You will be left over with containers that don’t have a lid. Recycle those containers (the ones with no lid, or lids with no containers).
Remove containers you will never (or have never used). Also some containers can get brittle (as they are too old) recycle them as well.
Dishes, Gadgets, and Others
- Look at your pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and gadgets.
- Those you know you have not used often, or those you will never use, recycle them, or give them away.
- Do you really need a counter top can opener when a simple hand tin opener can be used? Similarly other gadgets, should be put to the same litmus test, and removed if they don’t pass the usage test.
- Granted this is a personal challenge as different people need different dishes and gadgets – But the key strategy: Only keep what you KNOW you will use and what you are using now.
- Look at your kitchen and remove anything that does not belong in a kitchen (even simple things like cook books… We don’t need the complete library, only a minimal (one or two) cookbooks, and only if we really do use them).
This will free up a lot of counter space, as well as storage space!
Remember, in the declutter process we are working to remove things (not just to reorganize them).
The Brimming Home Office
If you are like many people, you may operate your own business, or otherwise be working from home – if so this opens a further opportunity to declutter you life space
I’ve found the following to be the most common:
- Excessive papers
- Too many books, magazines, etc.
- An excess of stuff laying around on your desk.
The following will help you address your office clutter.
Get a cross-cut shredder! Why? It’s not safe to recycle sensitive documents without destroying them. Do you even have a process to get rid of paper items? Many of us do not. Each day we bring more paper into our offices, without a workflow that gets rid of paper. This is the one that worked for me, and was within budget (I found it on Amazon Canada): Amazon Basics 12 Sheet Cross Cut Credit Shredder
Here’s what I did to further help curtail inbound “paper”…
- I transitioned anything I could to paperless billing.
- Switched to online resources instead of printed publications.
- Removed supplies that I no longer need (old CD’s, broken USB drives, etc.) and the manuals that went with them.
- Switched to online backup services (to avoid having an extra device, and old hard drives laying around, along with reams of printed documents to back up notes).
- Remove “emotional” notes and cards (it might sound severe and rigid), but they are really clutter.
- Paper clips, scotch tape, bags… Gone, gone, and gone.
- Anything under the desk – Gone! (In my case it was underneath because I was not using it, but was “saving” it).
In terms of your office records, there is a caveat you must keep in mind, in particular are any records you need to keep to document and support your tax return records.
Revenue Canada states, for electronic records (I understand that would be things like receipts, tax filings, bank records, etc.) are acceptable in:
“…an accessible and readable electronic format…”
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/keeping-records/acceptable-format-imaging-paper-documents-backing-electronic-files.html#spprts_ccpts
Revenue Canada (the CRA) goes on to say:
“…If you have imaged your paper books of account and supporting documents according to the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) standards, the images become the permanent records. You can therefore destroy the imaged paper item. If you have any doubt about destroying any paper records, get legal advice first…”
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/keeping-records/acceptable-format-imaging-paper-documents-backing-electronic-files.html#dstrctn_dcmnts_ppr_lctrnqs
This (in my case) helped me to learn how to remove a whopping 12 full stacked boxes of paper clutter! Naturally this helped make a substantial move forward in the office declutter process.
For me at least, the most time consuming thing to complete (in this regard) was scan the existing documents (that I needed to keep) into an electronic format.
Key strategy: Only scan the documents you are required to keep. Revenue Canada publishes the retention times for your documents here: Where to keep your records, for how long and how to request the permission to destroy them early. Anything older, can be shredded and the shredded paper sent to recycling.
The scanner I found and used was: Brother Wireless High-Speed Desktop Document Scanner, ADS-2700W, Touchscreen LCD, Duplex Scanning – High speed was important here as for many, six years of documents can be a lot to scan (in my office declutter process, this took the longest time, and I completed it over several weekends).
In Conclusion…
Without question when anticipating downsizing to a tiny or small house, the declutter process can be a big challenge to complete.
The challenges fell into several categories:
- Emotional
- Procrastination
- Realistic expectations
- Time availability (hands on labour to complete some things)
- Budgeting expenses (such as junk removal, scanning equipment, etc.)
- Staying focused
- Diligence and self-honesty
The one thing to keep reminding yourself throughout the declutter process is:
Discard things first, and organize what’s left afterwards. (Because organizing is not decluttering, as organizing is just moving clutter into neater piles)
This is often a lengthy process. When you are anticipating downsizing, it helps to begin and complete the declutter process before moving to your smaller home.
One great “whole house” declutter run though is presented by Kristin Pardy from “Little House On Purpose”, from Canada’s east coast (NL)…
I hope in some small way this post is helpful!
If you have any questions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to include them in the comments below (or you can even choose to be a guest writer).