6 Signs Clutter Has Taken Over Your Home (and How to Fix It)

It’s safe to say that a clean and organized home is fantastic. One of the biggest elements preventing a clean and organized home is clutter. Whether you have a hoarding problem or are just too lazy to dispose of your clutter, it’s critical to get on top of it. With that said, it’s easy to say you need to get rid of your clutter and not easy to know when it’s time to declutter. Here are six signs clutter has taken over your home.

You can’t find things easily. We’ve all been in situations where we spend a lot of time trying to find basic things like our keys, phone, or wallet. This might happen because they fell into an unusual spot of your home. The more likely scenario is that it’s hard to see what you are looking for amidst your clutter.

You are embarrassed to invite people over. A messy home is one thing. You can spend some time cleaning to get your home ready for guests. When it gets to the point you are too embarrassed to invite people over, you know deep down that your home is more than just messy.

Cabinets, drawers, and closets are overstuffed. It should never take effort to close cabinets, drawers, and closet doors. When these areas are overstuffed, you lose functionality. What’s even worse is that you fool yourself into thinking your home isn’t that cluttered because they help “hide” the excess stuff.

You step on things often. You shouldn’t walk in your house as if there was lava on the ground. Even if you have kids who have a lot of toys, having floor space is critical to an organized home. When there is always stuff on the floor, it usually means that there isn’t a place to put everything. Not having a place for everything is usually the result of having too much clutter.

Your car no longer fits in your garage. Garages are designed to store a lot of items including at least one car. The issue a lot of people have is that the garage is their go-to spot to store junk. Even if you don’t want to park your car in your garage, a functional garage is critical for an organized home.

If these statements apply to you, and you’re ready to change, Becoming Minimalist has ten simple and creative steps you can take to Declutter Your Life.

• Start with 5 minutes at a time. If you’re new to decluttering, you can slowly build momentum with just five minutes a day.
• Give one item away each day. This would remove 365 items every single year from your home. If you increased this to 2 per day, you would have given away 730 items you no longer needed. Increase this number once it gets too easy.
• Fill an entire trash bag. Get a trash bag and fill it as fast as you can with things you can donate at Goodwill.
• Donate clothes you never wear. To identify them, simply hang all your clothes with hangers in the reverse direction. After wearing an item, face the hanger in the correct direction. Discard the clothes you never touched after a few months.
• Create a decluttering checklist. It’s a lot easier to declutter when you have a visual representation of where you need to get started. You can use our decluttering checklist.
• Take the 12-12-12 challenge. Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to be returned to their proper home.
• View your home as a first-time visitor. It’s easy to “forget” what your home looks like to a new visitor. Enter your home as if you’re visiting the home of a friend. Write down your first impression on how clean and organized the home is and make changes.
• Take before and after photos of a small area. Choose one part of your home, like your kitchen counter, and take a photo of a small area. Quickly clean off the items in the photo and take an after photo. Once you see how your home could look, it becomes easier to start decluttering more of your home.
• Get help from a friend. Have a friend or family member go through your home and suggest a handful of big items to throw away or give to someone else. If you defend the item and want to keep it, your friend has to agree with your reason. If they don’t agree, it’s time to get rid of it.
• Use the Four-Box Method. Get four boxes and label them: trash, give away, keep, or re-locate. Enter any room in your home and place each item into one of the following boxes. Don’t skip a single item, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. This may take days, weeks, or months, but it will help you see how many items you really own and you’ll know exactly what to do with each item.

No matter which decluttering tip you choose to get started – whether it be one of these ten or one of countless others – the goal is to take your first step in decluttering your life with excitement behind it. There is a beautiful world of freedom and fresh breath hiding behind that clutter. Deciding how to declutter your home is up to you.

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