By Melissa Dorman, March 13, 2019
The 5 proven Steps to declutter your home – Home Transformation Guide!
Why Declutter?
In the beautiful journey of life we own many big and small possessions that can make our home beautiful, stylish, and appealing. These provide us with a sense of pleasure and make our life comfortable.
But due to various circumstances in life we have to manage these valued items in our home. Sometimes we need to downsize when children move out. Other times we simply need to have less things in our home in order to free up some space in our minds.
Decluttering items is not an easy task due to sentimental and emotional attachment . Deciding which items to keep, which to give up, donate, or throw out will never be easy.
But too much clutter in our home can lead to chaos that can costs us money, time, and can even limit our productivity.
Though decluttering can be done at any time, some find it beneficial to do it at the beginning of the year. Thereby achieving a more appealing and organized home.
Important Steps in decluttering process
Best practices and techniques to declutter your home…
1) Clarity in decluttering goal :
The goal and reason behind decluttering should be clear enough. Clarity of goal provides focus in decluttering activity. In its absence one may start full of enthusiasm but may lose momentum to complete the process.
Setting clear goal and well planned action on the basis of these goals can lead to maximum decluttering.
Don’t just say to yourself that you’re going to organize your closet or sort through your cupboard.
Evaluating total available space and plan how items can be arranged in that particular area.
If decluttering is for shifting to new home furniture, kitchen items have to be set up keeping the new home in mind.
2) Focused execution:
By focusing on one room or area at a time one can effectively begin decluttering. There are many ways to focus your execution.
Some expert suggests cleaning easy items first.
Other suggest to begin with a place that makes you feel most uncomfortable.
Another way is to declutter urgent items first.
Break the job into smaller parts so you won’t get overwhelmed with the task at hand.
Taking it item by item will help you get things done in a short amount of time.
Crammed book shelfs, piles of messy clothes in the dresser, vanity drawers with makeup products etc can be decluttered one space at a time.
3) Trash disposal:
Experts suggests the easiest way to begin decluttering is to start with disposing of old, expired and unusable items first. One may not have many of it but these can be easily discarded.
Expired medicines, broken or expired items, old makeup cosmetic products, damaged electronic items and any canned foods items that crossed expiration dates etc are some of the items that can be discarded.
4) Specific Box assignment:
Experts call it the Four Box Method. For this method four boxes are assigned and named as Trash, Give away, Keep and Relocate. By classifying the stuffs accordingly and placing them in these boxes in organized boxes one can clear many items easily.
After finishing this process and reconfirming, goods in trash can be thrown away, items stored in give away can be donated to needy or given to friends and relatives. One can sell them for extra cash as well.
Trash: Once the trash bin is full or all that are required to be disposed are collected, it needs to be thrown away immediately before waiting for filling any other boxes or it will again begin to clutter.
Give Away/sell: Items you do not need that can be valuable for others can be donated. A separate box can be used to keep items you decide to sell.
Relocate: The adult children use while they are back at home from college can be temporarily shifted to garage space or basement.
Keep: Items you have to keep with you which you use daily or weekly and that which are providing you some value are to be stored here during decluttering.
One needs to be strict not to include too much of things in this box just as it have emotional value but that do not provide actual value.
5) Overcome Emotional attachment:
Items received as gifts, inherited items, items purchased from first earnings etc have emotions attached with them. The items purchased from a family vacation or trip also has memory attached with it.
Even though these things can be connected to a specific memory in our lives, the fact remains that these are still objects, and can create clutter.
Some may be worth keeping forever, but they must be kept on the basis of real value and positive effect they provide.
Not all the gifts one has received in lifetime are to be preserved. When evaluating an item, determine whether it is really worth keeping.
If you can retain the precious memory without keeping the physical object, then it might be wise to let go.
Few reminders:
After completion, reevaluation must be done to check if the goal has been properly achieved.
Once we are happy with the accomplishment in the organized home, we can plan to make the next home improvement project.
So whatever the reason was behind decluttering; to have a more organized home or to move to new house or other city or for simplified living; decluttering always provides a positive result.
Melissa Dorman is a Licensed Broker with Yascha Group at Living Room Realty in Portland, OR. Follow Yascha Group on Facebook.
Melissa Dorman
Broker | OR & WA
She/They
Ten years ago, Melissa was living in a slum in Kolkata, India, helping over 200 women escape sex trafficking by providing alternative work at a social business.
It was there she discovered her passion for financial education as a means of empowering people to move out of poverty. After graduating from UCLA with a Masters, Melissa spent 5 years working as a Social Worker; assisting clients facing homelessness, in jail, or at a psychiatric facility.
As much as she loved the work, imagining saving for retirement on the meager salary of a social worker was becoming grim. That's when Melissa discovered "passive income." In no time, she fell in LOVE with real estate as a vehicle for wealth. Soon after, Melissa began locating off-market multi-family properties to purchase through creative financing strategies and win-win opportunities. Two years into investing, Melissa quit her day job as a Social Worker to become a full-time broker and investor. Initially, she was drawn to people in difficult circumstances, so she developed extensive experience assisting families facing foreclosure, short sales, and probate. Melissa is well versed in helping her clients overcome complex real estate challenges.
Currently, Melissa is teamed up with Super Broker, Yascha Noonberg at Living Room Realty. Together they assist clients to achieve their real estate dreams, including how to strategically buy and sell a personal residence to maximize profits. Far from the slums of Kolkata, her greatest passion now is empowering other working professionals to develop passive forms of income through buying multi-family properties in Portland.
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