Your home is your personal space and haven. It’s supposed to be your repose after a long day at work or going about your day.
And you should have that feeling of happiness when you walk in your door, where you feel enveloped in comfortable, clean, and peaceful surroundings.
Home is where you can relax. But unfortunately, after so many years of accumulating things you thought you needed but didn’t.
Your home may be the opposite of what it should be. It’s a mess, and everything is all over the place, there are too many things around, and you don’t even have enough room to breathe anymore.
This situation should all opt for major decluttering of your home. If it’s been a chore you’ve been putting under the rug for so long, schedule it this weekend so you can start.
If you need more motivation, it’s the best time now to do this and check for these signs in your home:
1. You’ve Forgotten What A Clean Floor Looks Like
Is there a corner in your home where the floor has just become the depository of dirty shoes, clothes, bags, and whatnot?
The rest of the floor may be clean, but if those dirty sections still exist, it’s hurting your home’s aesthetic and sanitation.
It can also happen when your shoes no longer fit in the closet as there are too many, or things no longer have a place in your home but on the floor.
When this happens, purge your home. To say that, floors aren’t meant to hold those things. Originally, floors were supposed to be clean, clear, and clutter-free.
2. You Have That Room You Don’t Like Going In To
Maybe you have a room in your house that you no longer use and have become idle for a long time now, making it the most unwanted place to go.
It may be your garage, your home office, or your kids’ playroom. And it’s like a haunted part of your home where even just thinking about it stresses you out.
The reason behind this is the junk with old furniture, old luggage, the baby gear you think you’ll pass on, old clothes, and other things, perhaps some which may even be too broken to use.
When you begin your decluttering journey this weekend, start with that room. Who knows, you may be able to get rid of more than half the items in that room.
Donate old glasses, give away those baby gear you’ll never get to use, and start letting go of all those belongings. And from there, you now have a new space to move around, and you can see the floor!
After decluttering those problem rooms, pause and marvel at the beautiful sight you’re now facing. Thus, don’t take this as a signal to shop even more.
Make sure to maintain it, or even better, get rid of those items that you no longer use at least once or twice a year.
3. Your Kitchen Cabinets No Longer Stay Closed
One of the areas in the home that can have the most clutter is the kitchen.
You have 50 plates, 20 serving dishes, a collection of 50 more cups, and multiples of the same kitchen tool. It may seem an exaggeration, but it happens in some households.
You walk into a store with a massive sale of kitchen items and just grab all sorts of things, thinking you’ll need them for a party or two.
Over time, your kitchen cabinets are going to be overflowing with items that you’d even dread just opening.
When a party comes, it’s stressful to look for those things you know you have and could use, just because it’s a big mess. And imagine how unpleasant it is to look at the kitchen cabinets that can no longer close.
Thus, it’s a sign you shouldn’t ignore, which means you have to declutter your kitchen now.
Clear out those multiples of the same things, give away your utensils, and stick only to the number of utensils you need, with only a few extra pieces for when you have guests.
4. You Can’t Find Anything
When finding what you need is a chore in itself, then that’s another cry for help from your home to declutter.
It’s troublesome to go through mountains of documents in your drawers or piles of clothes before you can find what you need. And it’s also time-consuming, to say the least.
Drawers, in particular, can be an easy bin for clutter. Say your mom has given you only a half-hour notice that they’re coming to visit your place.
You have three kids, each with their respective pile of mess. You hide those items in drawers, and they continue to stay in those drawers in the coming days.
It becomes a habit that may lead you to accumulate even more clutter. Thus, it should be easy to find things in your home.
So, start decluttering now to feel comfortable with your new home surroundings.
5. You Think You Need More Storage Space
Your home already has a storage room. Consider yourself lucky because not a lot of homes even have that.
And that one storage room can be more than enough for your household.
If it’s overflowing with things and you feel you need to rent another storage unit, declutter your home first before buying or renting more storage space.
When you do, you may even face the reality that you don’t need more storage space.
Thus, you just keep holding on to broken and useless things.
6. You’re Wasting Food
Surely, you’ve seen all those Instagram and TikTok videos of pantry refills pushing you to a major grocery trip so you, too, can have a convenience store-like pantry.
If you’re feeding a huge family, then you need to shop in bulk.
For smaller families, however, you may want to rethink shopping for grocery food items one after the other when you still have enough supplies.
Go through your pantry now and check the expiration date. If you have a lot of wasted food, then it means you’re stocking too much for your family’s needs.
Grocery items can also be considered clutter, especially when you don’t even know what else you have left in your pantry.
Stick to what your family can consume in a month.
And if you have family coming over during the holidays, that’s when you can have an excuse to shop for more food.
Conclusion
The idea of living with less is quite attractive to imagine, as it makes your home feel airier and more manageable.
If you’ve been a maximalist, however, and you have all sorts of stuff at home, this can feel daunting.
Where do you begin with all the piles of clutter in your home? Just take the first step.
If the signs above are prevalent in your home, then this should be a signal for you to get out that first box and purge.
It’s going to be long days of cleaning, and that’s for sure. But once you start to see your home clear up one room at a time, you’ll find that it was all worth doing.
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