Are You Living With a Black Hole in Your Home?

Sick and tired of looking at the clutter and chaos around you, you have decided to declutter. But now what? How do you actually go about decluttering?

One method that many people use is to designate a room in the house as the hold-all room. You may have a room like this, usually a spare bedroom or the garage. Being a science fiction fan, I call this room the Black Hole. It’s where you throw everything you don’t know what to do with and shut the door on it hoping that if you can’t see, you don’t have to worry about it. But it is NOT a case of out of sight, out of mind. You do know the mess is there – consider what happens if a visitor to your home asked to see in that room. Would you do everything you could to prevent that happening? You know the mess is there. So clearly that method of decluttering is not working.

The key to decluttering with success is to first plan your attack otherwise you run the risk of being overwhelmed. When we jump in without a plan, we start decluttering with enthusiasm and vigour and then the excitement wears off and we often find ourselves in a worse position than when we started because we have a job half done and stuff all over the place.

So just how do we plan our declutter project? What do we need to do?

Firstly decide what area/room you would like to declutter. But what do you do when your whole house needs to be sorted? It’s a bit like the joke: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. If you tried to declutter your whole house in one go, chances are you would give up in exhaustion and frustration well before the job was completed. To maximize your success, take bite size chunks and select one room at a time.

How do I select which room to declutter first? That depends on your priorities. If you have visitors coming over and want your public areas looking their best, then it is best to declutter these first. If you can’t find your children in their rooms because the piles are so tall, then perhaps your child’s bedroom is the best place to declutter first.

Here’s a list of rooms in your home. Look through and rank each room according to your declutter priorities, 1 being highest priority, 2 next highest, and so on:

• Living Room
• Family room
• Game room
• Dining Room
• Kitchen
• Hallway/Entrance area
• Master Bedroom
• Child’s Bedroom 1
• Child’s Bedroom 2
• Child’s Bedroom 3
• Bathroom – Ensuite
• Bathroom
• Basement
• Attic
• Garage
• Cars
• Front porch
• Back porch
• Yard

Now that you have determined which room is your highest priority (the room with the number 1 ranking), it is time to get started sorting that room/area. Firstly get your equipment together and then into the room itself. For more on sorting and storing, see my article, How Five Containers Can Bring You Happiness

By decluttering one room at a time, you will create more energy as you see your progress and realize that you can declutter, that you are good at it, and that your home is looking and feeling fabulous.

It’s All In The Planning

By looking at all the rooms you wish to declutter and then ranking them according to your priorities, you will be able to identify the room you should start decluttering first. Start with that room, complete the job, and then move onto your number 2 priority. Keep going and soon your whole house will be decluttered and feeling clear.

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