How To Declutter Your Apartment

By: ROS Team

Feng Shui has become something of a cliched term nowadays, and it is a philosophy of how to arrange your furniture in your home to create balance. When you dig deeper into the philosophy, there are places where you could position items for better outcomes in your life.

However, on a more fundamental level, Feng Shui teaches us that our emotions, state of mind, and mood are all inextricably linked to the place where we live. The state of our home is often a strong representation of how we feel about life and how in control we are.

Step by Step Declutter Your Apartment

1- Schedule a Day for Decluttering
2- Furniture Needs More Than One Use
3- Get Creative with Walls
4- Only Buy New When the Old is Organized
5- Start with Quick Wins
6- Give Every Space a Purpose
7- Puzzling the Clutter from the Necessary
8- Every Room Needs a Bin

When you hear the phrase “declutter your apartment”, you might hear your parents nag you about keeping your bedroom tidy. Nobody wants to tidy their room, and it feels like a massive chore.

If you rethink the idea of decluttering an apartment, seeing it instead as establishing more emotional balance in your life becomes much more powerful. You are not just tidying up your home but making space in your life. Once completed, decluttering can do wonders for your mood and mental state.

And spring just around the corner, let’s look at some techniques for decluttering your apartment.

Schedule a Day for Decluttering

While some advocate doing a little bit of decluttering every day, it can make the process feel endless without the joys of a big win. If you schedule a day to go through your things, you can end that day with a genuine sense of pleasure at what you have achieved.

There is also the phrase: what gets scheduled gets done.

Therefore, make sure you put the declutter day into your diary. By planning and firming this up in your calendar, you will more likely ward off the dangers of procrastination.

Furniture Needs More Than One Use

It is easier to be successful when you have enough storage when decluttering. Most apartments, especially in major cities, have limited space. Therefore, the trick to success is to get furniture that doubles as additional storage. From beds to ottomans, there are options for creating space for items specific to a room. You can get coffee tables with lids that lift tables with drawers for the kitchen. These additional storage spaces can give you a place for room-specific items.

Get Creative with Walls

When the floor plan is small, the walls need to take some of the load. You can be creative with hooks and pockets and store items up the walls and along the floor. Whether it is a shoe rack, clothes rack, or using hats as an item of décor, going vertical with your possessions is sometimes the only way.

Only Buy New When the Old is Organized

Sometimes decluttering is a mental battle more than a physical one. We just don’t want to do it, and therefore, we must negotiate with our own reluctance. If you want to buy something new for your home. You can tell yourself you are allowed it once your clutter has been dealt with.

This Serves Two Purposes:

1) You don’t add to the clutter with yet more objects, and
2) You reward yourself for good behavior.

We always do well when there is a present at the end that makes us happy.

Start with Quick Wins

Often, we are dissuaded from decluttering by the sheer size of the task. You have likely got to the point where you have no idea where to begin. Taking baby steps in decluttering gives us permission to do what is manageable and then dive in deeper next time. Consequently, starting to declutter only what you can see is a great place to start. The visual impact of removing these objects may even motivate you to do even more.

Give Every Space a Purpose

Sometimes decluttering requires us to impose order on our home. If we give every space a purpose, we can remove anything that does not serve that purpose. For instance, a bedroom is a place to sleep, and therefore, removing consoles, electronics, work stuff, etc., can bring a sense of clarity to that room. Equally, a kitchen is a place for cooking and sometimes eating, and therefore, the kitchen table might not be the place to dump your work bag and keys.

If you are aware that everything has a place, you can be sure it is put there.

Puzzling the Clutter from the Necessary

We are all attached to objects and sometimes for no rational reason. Therefore, coming to declutter is challenging, as we get caught up in the nostalgia or the story we tell ourselves about an object. A wardrobe is the best example of this as we have a favorite top with a hole in that we don’t wear now but did when we met our partner. Then, there is the size 10 dress that your size 14 body will one day fit in again.

While we do this most with our clothes, we have similar attitudes to other objects in our homes. Consequently, when sorting through your possessions, have three tubs in front of you. One is for the keepers, the other is to donate, and the third is to dispose of. Every item needs to move through this checking process, and it is an active way of choosing what to keep rather than what to get rid of.

If an item does have a sentimental value, take a photo of it before you throw it away and store it in a file with a reason for the nostalgia. Keeping a collection of photographs is a much more sensible choice than a load of objects that you never use.

Every Room Needs a Bin

A wastebasket is a valuable object. We place them here and there in our homes but not necessarily in every room. Therefore, sometimes we put an item on the side that we would normally have put into the waste – and it sits there. You are then left with a job at some point in the future, as you must clear away this clutter. Having a bin at hand close by stops you from having to do this job.

Be Patient

Decluttering takes patience, especially if you are doing it with someone else. First, it might be hard to see if you have made an impact on your home. Second, you might be tempted to reminisce along the way. Take it steady and keep going; you will feel the benefits when your apartment is organized.

Alternatively, some professionals swoop in and do this work for you if things have got completely out of hand. These professional organizers have an outsiders’ perspective and can help you make rational decisions about your space. You will have a sense of freedom and a new perspective of your relationship with your objects when they have finished.

Summary

Decluttering isn’t just a matter of having a tidy home. If your clutter and chaos make you happy, there is no problem. However, clutter often results in anxiety and a feeling of being out of balance. It is when you cannot relax in your home or feel a sense of discontent that you need to do something about it. When you have made this decision, get started.