When it comes to decluttering your living space, it isn’t just about organising your physical items, it’s also about enhancing your mental health and overall well-being. Having a clutter free home fosters a positive impact on not only your environment at home but your psychological state too. In this blog post, we will have a look my top ten key ways to refresh your space, the eco-friendly way, improve your mental health, and create a more functional and organised living environment.
1. Embrace a Minimalist Lifestyle
By adopting a minimalist lifestyle is probably one of the most effective ways to achieve a clutter-free home. The key focus on minimalism is focussing on keeping only those items that are useful and/or bring you joy, aligning with your daily routine and personal style.
Why Does Minimalism Matter?
I’m glad you asked? The minimalist lifestyle has been shown to have a significant impact on an individual’s mental health. According to Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, minimalism helps us concentrate on the mindset and possessions that truly matter, helping you to mentally unclutter and reducing overall stress.
Who doesn’t want a bit of that?
By minimising phsyical clutter around you, you create a more calming and serene organised space, leading to an overall sense of control and reduces your anxiety.
I always think back to how I feel whenever I clean the house and discard things I really don’t need. I genuinely feel a real sense of achievement and, from that, come a sense of calm from the chaos before. I have experienced the benefit myself – the decluttering mindset really helped me greatly.
Steps to Start Minimalism
- Evaluate Your Belongings: The best place to start is go through and evaluate your possessions. Pick out any items that are unused or maybe things that are unncessary, think about what kind of value they bring to your daily life.
- Declutter in Categories: Trying to do it all in one go will leave you more stressed, that’s not what we want. Starting with categories like books, clothing, make-up, kitchenware. Pick and category and declutter that first. This method will reduce the likelihood of feeling overwhelmed.
- Involve Family Members: If there are more people in your household, it would be a good idea to include them in the decluttering process to ensure everyone gets a chance to decide what should be eliminated. It’s their home too.
Decluttering Practical Tips
- Goal setting: Before you start, you’ll need to be clear on what you are looking to achieve, it could be reducing your physical clutter or improving your mental health. These two things tend to go hand in hand so you could potentially achieve two goals.
- Create a Decluttering Schedule: This can be managed one of two ways; you could incorporate it into your everyday life in order to keep a space organised as regular upkeep can elimiate the chance of a build up of unnecessary items. Or you could pick a day where you will spend maybe half a day or a whole day decluttering. You need to find what works for you as every household have different needs/schedules.
2. Adopt the ‘One In, One Out’ Rule
This is something I certainly adopt when thinking about decluttering clothes. The ‘One In, One Out’ rule is a simple yet effective strategy for managing your personal belongings. For every new item you bring into your home, you will need to remove an existing one from your home.
Benefits of the Rule
By implementing this rule, you’ll see a big difference and will greatly benefit you maintaining a clutter-free home. This practise will help manage your physical clutter and you don’t accumulate unnecessary items. This also means you won’t have to think about additional storage needs. Not only that, it will make you think about your consumption and greatly reduces the build-up of unwanted items in your home.
How to Implement the Rule
- Create a To-Do List: Stay organised and focussed by keeping track of items you need to remove when you buy something new.
- Set Reminders: Periodically review your belongings to ensure you have stuck to the ‘One In, One Out’ rule – this is great for decluttering clothes.
Decluttering Practical Tips
- Plan Ahead: Before you go out to purchase new items, think about what you want to let go of in order to create space.
- Involve Family Members: Ensure that everyone in the household follows the rule to maintain a collective clutter-free environment.
3. Choose Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products
When it comes to cleaning, it’s always good practise to opt for eco-friendly cleaning products to maintain good indoor air quality, reduce your carbon footprint and the toxins going down your drain. So many of our traditional, store bought cleaning products contain harmful chemicals that can affect your health as well as the environment.
Benefits of Eco-Friendly Cleaning
Eco-friendly cleaning products, such as bamboo scrubber and natural cleaners, are much better for indoor air quality and are less harmful to the environment. There are some brands like Bio-D and Miniml that offer a range of cleaning solutions without the greenwashing.
DIY Cleaning Solutions
If you want, you could even create some of your own cleaning solutions and can be a great way to keep your home clean while minimising your environmental impact. You could also save money in the long term. Simple ingredients like vinegar, baking soda, and lemons can be used for a number of cleaning tasks. I make my own toilet cleaning bombs, or toilet fizzers as they are also known as. Check it out here.
Practical Tips
- Use Natural Ingredients: It would be a good idea to opt for DIY cleaners usually found in the home. For instance, a mixture of vinegar and water can be used to clean glass and some countertops.
- Invest in Reusable Products: Choose items like microfiber cloths that can be washed and reused, reducing the need for disposable products.
Another top tip is to look at making your own DIY zero waste skin care, here’s a blog if you’re looking to get started. The great thing about eco friendly DIY beauty products is that you know what’s in them!
4. Incorporate Indoor Plants
As someone who has indoor plants, I couldn’t really write a blog without adding this in the list. Including indoor plants to your living space can not only enhance the aesthetic appeal but improve the quality of your indoor air. A few plants I have to help with this are snake plants and peace lillies. These are great additions and require minimal care.
Benefits of Indoor Plants
Having indoor plants offer a range of psychological benefits, including reduced stress levels and improved mood. Not only that, they also act as natural air purifiers. From previous research, I remember coming across a number of articles stating that Snake plants are known for the ability to filter toxins from the air and don’t mind growing in low-light conditions.
You can even buy low maintenance ones, here’s a great guide to the benefits of bottom watering.
How to Choose Plants
You’ll need to select plants fit in with your home environment and your ability to look after them. Consider factors like humidity, light levels in the home and the time to maintain them. If you have pets, you’ll have to ensure the plant(s) aren’t toxic to your pets.
Practical Tips
- Select Low-Maintenance Plants: Opt for plants that are easy to care for, such as succulents or snake plants.
- Use Plants as Focal Points: Place them in key areas of your home, such as the living room or entryway, to create visual interest and enhance the atmosphere.
5. Commit to Regular Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning provides the perfect time to refresh your living space and address areas that may have been overlooked. This seasonal task helps you maintain an organised space and manage food waste and other household issues.
Benefits of Spring Cleaning
It offers a fresh start by providing you with the opportunity to organise and declutter your home thoroughly. By creating a cleaner and more organised physical space around you can significantly improve your mental health. Regular spring cleaning also helps manage food waste and reduces the risk of clutter-related stress.
How to Approach Spring Cleaning
Don’t overwhelm yourself, start by creating a cleaning routine that includes all areas in your home. This routine isn’t set in stone, you can adapt your routine based on your needs. Focus on specific areas at a time like the living room, storage spaces, kitchen etc. It may help having a decluttering checklist so you don’t have to worry about missing any essential tasks.
Practical Tips
- Create a To-Do List: List all the tasks you need to complete during your spring cleaning session to stay organised and focused.
- Involve Family Members: Delegate tasks to ensure that the process is efficient and collaborative.
6. Use Smart Storage Solutions
Utilising storage solutions can greatly impact your living space by help you manage and organise your personal belongings. A great tip is looking for functional options that enhance your home environment and reduce clutter.
Smart Storage Tips
Something I use is drawer dividers, this helps organise my smaller items and keeps them separate. Another option could be storage baskets. Multi functional storage can be quite beneficial, such as coffee tables with discreet storage compartments. If you can’t find tables with discreet storage compartments, you could try table covers to match your decor.
Where to Find Storage Solutions
Great budget friendly storage options that I really like are places life Facebook Marketplace or car boot fairs and second hand stores, this is a really great way to save money by repurposing items that have already been produced which also means that item won’t be destined for landfill.
Practical Tips
- Vertical Storage solutions: Many people don’t think about using vertical storage spaces. Even wall mounted options mean that floor space isn’t utilised and keeps floor space clear.
- Invest in Multi-Functional Furniture: Choose furniture that offers additional storage, such as coffee tables with hidden compartments or ottomans with storage.
7. Swedish Death Cleaning Method
I used to work for a publishing house and came across this term when we were publishing a book. Sounds a little morbid but, when you think about it, it makes sense. The Swedish Death Cleaning method, or “döstädning,” encourages decluttering with a focus on leaving behind a tidy and organised home for your loved ones. The idea of this is that it brings you comfort knowing the belongings you leave behind are managed in a meaningful and caring way. I remember when my father passed away, I had no idea what was sentimental to him and put a lot of emotional strain on myself and my brother.
Benefits of Swedish Death Cleaning
This method help you to reduce clutter and create a more organised space and also ensuring your home remains functional and a nice place to be. It alleviates some of the emotional burden placed on family members who will have to handle your possessions in the future.
How to Implement Swedish Death Cleaning
First things first, look at your belongings and consider their value and how useful they are. It’s always helpful to focus on specific areas of your home. This is where you have to be really honest with yourself about deciding what items you can let go of.
Practical Tips
- Assess Your Possessions: Determine which items are essential and which can be discarded.
- Involve Family Members: Discuss your decluttering process with loved ones to ensure their needs and preferences are considered. Or if you prefer to do it on your own, write down what they should do with these items, sticky notes or a list can really help.
8. Maintain Regular Upkeep
Keeping on top of clutter in your space and organised is key to prevent falling into a vicious cycle of disorganisation. When life gets in the way, it’s easy to do. Incorporate small steps into your daily routine.
What are the Benefits of Regular Upkeep
With regular maintenance, it will help you avoid the build up of physical clutter, and also ensures your home remains organised and functions the way you need it to. Not only that, it supports your mental health by reducing stress and creates a much more peaceful environment.
How to Implement Regular Upkeep
Think about creating a daily cleaning routine that includes tasks like, managing food waste, tidying up, and being mindful about clutter. A great tip would be to use a to-do-list to help you stay organised, this also means you won’t have to remember what you have/haven’t done, a list will take the the task of remembering away from you.
Practical Tips
- Set Aside Time Daily: Allocate a few minutes each day for cleaning and organizing tasks.
- Stay Consistent: Make regular upkeep a part of your daily life to maintain a clutter-free environment.
9. It’s OK Seek Professional Help if Needed
For some of us, decluttering (or trying to maintain an organised space) can become quite overwhelming, if this sounds like you, it may be worth seeking professional help who provide a decluttering service. Individuals who do this professionally are not only valuable but they know what they are talking about and will help support you in achieving your decluttering goals.
Benefits of Professional Organisers
Professional organisers (or a decluttering service) offer practical solutions and guidance that are tailored to your own personal needs. They can help you develop effective decluttering strategies and maintain an organised space without the added stress.
Finding the Right Help
My best tip is to look for local professional organisers with experience in eco-friendly practices and decluttering. Always check out reviews on social media and make sure you do your own research. You need to find the person that aligns with your goals and beliefs. Before and after decluttering can be so rewarding.
Practical Tips
- Research Options: Find organisers with expertise in your specific needs and preferences.
- Communicate Clearly: Discuss your goals and requirements to ensure a successful collaboration.
10. Inspiration from Social Media
One of the great benefits of social media is that there is a wealth of inspiration and tips for decluttering and organising your home. When it comes to buying and selling, places like Facebook Marketplace can be invaluable.
Benefits of Social Media
Sometimes, when we are trying to find a solution, our minds often goes around in circles, social media provides us with a breath of fresh air and ideas on home organisation. It’s also a great way to find and share unused items, which reduces your overall waste.
How to Use Social Media for Inspiration
Follow accounts that focus on home organisation and eco-friendly practices. Participate in local buy-and-sell groups to find or sell items, and use hashtags to discover decluttering tips and inspiration. Pinterest, in my opinion, has a wealth of ideas, you could spend hours on there. When you see Before and after decluttering photos can be inspiring – Pinterest is great for this.
Practical Tips
- Join Local Groups: Engage with community groups on platforms like Facebook Marketplace to buy or sell items and find inspiration.
- Follow Relevant Accounts: Keep up with accounts that offer valuable tips and ideas for maintaining a tidy home.
Conclusion
When it comes to decluttering with an eco-friendly twist, it’s not only about creating a cleaner, clutter-free home but it’s also about enhancing your own mental health and well-being. If you work towards embracing a minimalist lifestyle, opt for using eco-friendly cleaning products, and work in a regular upkeep into your weekly schedule, you can achieve a clutter-free environment that works for you supporting a more organised and fulfilling lifestyle. A checklist for decluttering can help you stay organised and possibly looking for decluttering services. It’s all about what works for you.
Implement these practical tips to refresh your living space, reduce physical clutter, and enjoy the positive impact of a more sustainable and serene home.
