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How Decluttering Will Actually Change Your Life

Can you really change your life through decluttering?

In a word, yes.

Changing your life is quite a huge statement to make. Have a think about some of the life-changing moments you’ve encountered. Getting married? Having a baby? Quitting a job? Starting a business? It’s likely decluttering wouldn’t feature on that list.

But decluttering honestly can change your life.

Is this really possible?

It is when you think of decluttering is so much more than a quick sort through of your home. Decluttering can produce a fundamental shift not only in the way you think about your home, but your life too. This is huge.

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So let’s take a look at this in a more detailed way.

How Decluttering Will Actually Change Your Life

Decluttering doesn’t happen overnight

As soon as we realise we want to get rid of all the “stuff” in our homes, we want to do this as soon as possible.  But if you declutter to make positive changes in your life that stick, it’s not a quick process.

It usually goes like this: you spend a decent amount of time going through your home getting rid of anything and everything you can find. But then you realize that you haven’t actually changed anything. You either feel like you’ve gotten ridden of too much or you end up collecting more ‘stuff” and it starts all over again.

The reason for this is that you might’ve made changes that look good on the outside, but you haven’t looked inwards. You haven’t looked at what will make those changes last.

That’s how decluttering can be life-changing.

So how do you do it?

It’s a fairly simple concept. You need to work out what you’re really trying to achieve and then take it from there. It takes more than going through your “stuff” to make your home and life the way you want it to be.

Instead of just getting a bin bag and starting to chuck stuff in, it’s better if you have a plan first.

Here’s a five-step decluttering system to follow:

  1. Roughly sketch out a floor plan of your home and label each room. Do this for upstairs and downstairs.
  2. Figure out first of all, what you currently do in each room and what you’d like the function of each room to be.
  3. Note down what you need in each room to make it function the way you want it to.
  4. Get rid of anything that doesn’t fulfill this purpose and add anything that does.
  5. Focus on just one room and move around your home until you’re finished.

You could also follow the “declutter” acronym:

D – Decide on what you’re going to declutter. By identifying where you’re going to tackle, you’ll find the process less overwhelming.

E – Evaluate what should be in the space. Assess the room you’re in. Are you using it in the right way for your needs? Or do you need different things in there for it to function effectively?

C – Clear a working area. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. Make sure you set yourself a good working area before you get going.

L – Layout your kit. You don’t need as much as you think for decluttering, just labels and a marker pen, black bags or containers and something to allow you to reach the high places.

U – Understand how you’ll go about it. Don’t tackle the whole room at once Mark it out into manageable pieces and do it bit by bit.

T – The clutter. Based on categories that you set yourself (sell/keep/mend/give to charity etc.) look through everything you’ve selected and place items onto one of your category areas. Do this until you’ve looked at everything.

T – Take another look. Go back through your “keep” pile but take a look and check that what you have is what you really want to keep.

E – Everything where it belongs. Now you’ve got everything in the right category piles this should be fairly easy to do!

R – Relax. You should now be able to see your space in a completely different light.

If you follow a system like this and always keep in your mind what the specific function of each room is, you’ll naturally end up with items that you can’t find a place for. That’s your clutter. The rest clearly belongs in your life and that should stay.


Your schedule and life can be decluttered in this way too!

Think about your goals and what you really want to do with your life. You’ll soon realize that you’ll be able to declutter the elements that aren’t helping you get there.

This will help to change your life because:

  • You’ll have given each room a proper function so your home flows more effectively.
  • You’ll feel much calmer when you’re at home.
  • You won’t lose things as much.
  • You’ll spend less time cleaning.
  • You’ll spend less money on things you don’t need or replacing things you can’t find.
  • You’ll start saying “no” to the things that don’t matter to you and “yes” to the things that do.
  • Your home will become your favorite place to be.

That’s the power of decluttering. And decluttering should also become a habit for the rest of your life because once you achieve these results, you won’t want to give them up. You’ll realize that decluttering really can change and transform your life.

No more wishing for an overnight success. Shift your thinking and you’ll start to see a difference. So why not begin now? Make a plan and start now. Get ready to change your life.

About the Author

Holly Sutton

Holly graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) in Linguistics and from the University of Central Lancashire with an MA in Magazine Journalism. She enjoys keeping fit, running her blog, and spending time with her family. She hopes to grow her digital marketing business A Branch of Holly and continue to serve bloggers and small business owners!

Website: abranchofholly.com/blog