Isn’t simply the task of removing clutter hard enough? You purged through things that were hard to let go of. You risk only having one like item left and you finally said goodbye to your bread machine.

With this much emotional and physical turmoil we all want the same thing back as a reward for our efforts. A clean and clutter-free home! Without that promise, many people wouldn’t even try to declutter their homes.

Which in reality, the benefits received from a good decluttering session could help you reach many of the goals in your life.

I do not want you to be discouraged from decluttering your homes, especially if you felt it has never changed anything for you in the past.

This time around you will have the tools, advice, tricks, tips, and finally, the motivation to truly declutter your home once and for all, and the best part…keep it that way.

Decluttering comes in two parts.

1. Physically decluttering your home
2. Maintaining a clutter free home

So if you’re like most people, you have tried to declutter your home only to find it destroyed by clutter two weeks later.

Learning more strategic ways to declutter your home will help you with the second part of decluttering, maintenance.

You don’t just clean the bathroom once, do you? No, you clean it next time it gets dirty.

Think of decluttering as the same type of maintenance. The moment it starts to clutter up again, it’s time to declutter.

(This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Some of the amazing following photos are not my own, click on them to head straight to the source!)

01 | YOU DIDN’T PURGE ENOUGH

If your home still feels cluttered, you probably didn’t purge enough the first go at it. Don’t just stop with a one time declutter. Try to declutter your home at least once a month. Even if it’s just 10 minutes spent in every room, that type of maintenance will make a world of difference.

02 | YOU NEVER LOOKED AT YOUR FURNITURE

We all keep furniture around that we probably could say goodbye to. Less furniture means fewer surfaces to clean, and one less place for clutter to cling too.

Look at your furniture and imagine what your life could be without that old dusty chair, or those bookshelves filled with clutter. (You be surprised how you will be able to find new homes for these items!)

03 | YOU NEVER CREATED A SOLUTION

We all can name two or three trouble zones in our home that collects clutter like no one’s business. Maybe its the kitchen counter, front door area, or that weird built-in desk that came with the home.

Hooray if you cleared these spaces when you decluttered but did you figure out any solutions? If not, create some. Hooks, bins, baskets, trays, etc. If you don’t these areas will become cluttered in no time.

 

04 | YOU NEVER LOOKED AT YOUR WALLS

We get in the habit of filling a lot of space on our walls with pictures, art, tapestries, etc. Reassess what you have hanging on your walls and consider taking down some of your pictures to free up some space for better mental clarity.

A little more white space is all your mind might be craving.

05 | YOU NEVER CREATED A “DONATE AREA”

Once you have finished decluttering and hauling your stuff to the local donation center, your decluttering may be done but your maintenance isn’t.

Maintaining a clutter-free home will be so much easier if you have a donation box open and ready for you to dump in more clutter as you see it. No need to wait until your next big decluttering session, immediately take that shirt out of your closet and place in the donation box.

Once it’s full, take it to Goodwill and start over!

06 | YOU NEVER UPDATED YOUR FAMILY

You have to set the standard in the home when it comes to maintaining a clutter-free environment.

It is not enough you cleared the pile of junk off the kitchen counter, you now have to explain to yourself and your family where things should be going. You will also need to keep everyone accountable to continue using your new system until it becomes a habit by everybody.

07 | YOU NEVER HANDLED YOUR CORDS

TV cords, phone chargers, Himalayan salt lamp cord, you name it and I can guarantee they are laying in a cluttered jumbled mess on your floor. Take some time to get theses cords off of your floor and organized.

This year I was tired of the cord mess and invested in using Blue Key World’s Cable Clips Cord Organizers. I literally just placed than where I wanted all these wires and cords to be corralled and the cord’s easily fit right in and within seconds, no more cord mess.

I would seriously give these a try if you haven’t come up with a solution for your cords yet! They’re pretty amazing.

08 | YOU NEVER WORKED ON THE SMALL STUFF

We tend to sweat the small stuff. That is the small stuff jammed into junk drawers. The photo albums filled with pictures. The bins with lids filled with misc. items we do not know what to do with.

Small items tend to take more thought and time when decluttering and they also do not tend to make a huge impact so we may blow by these areas while decluttering.

I encourage you to no longer put off the small stuff!

09 | YOU DIDN’T DECLUTTER YOUR LIFE

Similarly to how we say going on a diet never works, but changing your overall lifestyle for a healthier one will; decluttering is the same way. You need to have an overall decluttering lifestyle in order to make decluttering truly work.

Did you declutter your car, purse, gym back, wallet, desk at work, office at work, phone, computer, and/or tablet? Did you declutter your to-do list and your procrastination projects? Did you declutter toxic people out of your life, or did you declutter your schedule to make more time for important people?

Clutter maintenance is much more a practice than anything else, and once you practice decluttering in all areas of your life, only then will maintaining a decluttered home become like second nature to you.

10 | YOU NEVER DEVELOPED A ROUTINE

It is not enough just to declutter your home, but you also have to continue to maintain it. The easiest way to do this is to add a new routine to your daily tasks.

If you have never worked against a timer before, I am telling you it is all you need to light a small fire to get up and pick up your home.

Set 15 minutes on the clock before work, after the kids are in school, or after work, and commit to a daily fast and focused cleanup time to maintain your newly decluttered home.

Also commit to one weekend a month, doing a quick walk-through of your home and adding as much clutter as you can to that donation box.

This will work in your favor versus a yearly purge, which can take a lot longer than if you just learn to add this to your routine.

If you put in the work to declutter your home, then be prepared to provide your home with some maintenance to keep that beautifully decluttered environment…well…clutter free!

If you have ever worked out before, then you know the first few times are hard. Your sore, your tired, your cranky, you want to give up, but then all of a sudden…it just gets easier.

Decluttering your home is no different. The first time around, it is going to provide you with some challenges you never thought were possible. (You never expected to run down memory lane…for 2 hours!) 

But once you get everything decluttered once through. Practicing to maintain a clutter-free home will get easier and easier, I promise!

Are there any other reasons your home just will not stay clutter free? If so leave a comment below and we will find a solution together.

Happy Decluttering!

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