How To Declutter Your Home, Where To Start!

In this post, I am going to share my tips on how to declutter. Over the past few years, I have become better as decluttering my home. I hate throwing items out, but I have been in my home for seven years now, and I needed to thin out on clutter that was weighing me down.
I have been tackling my Monica presses and feeling so much lighter from doing it. Now, minimalism is never my goal as I love my trinkets too much but, I have been bringing fewer items into my home this year and, I have been reducing my waste.
I recently decluttered my kitchen cabinets. There is something about January and a new year that makes me want to clear out the old and create space for new. I have some decluttering videos on my YouTube channel, where I tackle my kitchen and hot press, and my office. I will also share some practical tips to ease your clutter and make the process easier for you.

How to declutter your home

My Top Decluttering Tips

Decluttering can be overwhelming. I remember coming back from a trip to Switzerland and, when I came home, my home felt cluttered. My home didn’t look clean, so, I decided to tackle it head-on.
I relooked at the layout of my house. I started with the rooms that were not working for me and, caused me the most angst. I decided to flip my guest bedroom with my office and, I gave myself a new creative space as this helped me clear out old items that I no longer used.


My back garden had gathered lots of clutter and junk and, every time I would take the bins out, I would get a pang of angst. So, I decided to clear it all out. I cannot say no to a piece of furniture or wood as I want to keep it for projects. What I have learned is that not every piece of furniture needs to be rescued by me.
My best tip to begin is to start, and don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t have to complete your whole home in one weekend. Take it day by day and pile by pile.

How to declutter your home

Time needed: 1 hour

How to declutter your house.

  1. Identify which room has the most clutter and makes you feel the most frustrated

    This is a great place to start. When I tackled my kitchen, I felt amazing and, I haven’t brought in many new items since decluttering and, I have saved myself money.Declutter and home organization

  2. One press at a time. 

    How to start decluttering when overwhelmed, one shelf at a time! Some people prefer to put all their items in the middle of the floor and go through each one. I love doing this with clothes, but I find it overwhelming with other rooms. Start small and do one cupboard at a time.

  3. I don’t keep a maybe pile.

    I noticed some people have a yes, no or a maybe pile. I don’t let myself have a maybe pile as I find I end up keeping the items and still not using it. So, if something is not a resounding “yes I love that” then it goes.

  4. Have somewhere to bring it.

    Whether it is a charity shop, recycling centre or you are going to sell your old items online, make sure you have somewhere to bring it so it doesn’t make its way into the shed/guestroom where it will gather dust for a few more weeks or even months. I am ruthless and, during the week when I got rid of furniture items I made sure to fill my car as I was clearing out and when it was full I went to the recycle centre to offload. 

  5. Can it be repaired? 

    If you find items you adore, but they are broken or damaged, think about mending and repairing them. I love a good upcycle but, I tend to hang on to broken things too long with the intention of repairing them. Ask yourself if you can realistically repair it and if not, then bring it to a professional to fix or recycle it.

  6. Little and often

    This year I tackled my rooms in stages. Every few months, I declutter an area in my home that is overflowing. It can be overwhelming to tackle each room all at once. Every few weeks my local charity drops in their charity bags and they do local collections. I use this as a little reminder to go to the wardrobe and pop a few items into it. That way, I keep on top of it throughout the year.

  7. Go paperless.

    Almost all of my household utility bills are online. Now, I have a receipt box of doom for the Dainty accounts that I need to tackle. That will be for another day LOL, but I have found by going paperless I have less post coming through my letterbox and, I pop any junk mail straight into the recycling.

  8. Digital declutter.

    Yes, I am guilty of having unopened emails, old photos and files that need deleting. We spend a lot of time on our phones nowadays, and it can also be an area of clutter. Remove items off your phone/laptop to an external hard drive. That way the date is still there but, it is not all on your phone.

  9. Hire a Pro! Or get a junk removal service. 

     If decluttering your home feels too overwhelming, hire an expert who can help you sort through your items and reorganise your home. I have also seen local refuse companies offering “junk removal” services. These companies try to recycle as much of your junk as possible and save it from going to landfill. 

Go deeper with your decluttering!

When I was clearing out I was asking myself “why do I hang on to things?, why can’t I let go?”. I wanted to get to the root of my clutter collecting habit and for me, it personally came down to feeling lack. Subconsciously I would collect and hoard items because I felt I was lacking, lacking items, lacking resources.  Subconsciously I felt more secure when I had all of the things but really all they did was weigh me down. As a person in relationships, I used to hang on to people too long and would struggle to let go. Which was reflected in my home environment? When I declutter I feel great, old memories attached to items go, you feel emotionally lighter and that energy leaves when you remove it from your home. By removing older energies you allow space for the new energies to flow to you.

How to declutter your home

I hope you got some inspiration and value from this post. Let me know if you declutter your home, or if you are starting to think a little differently to your clutter collecting habits. Do try and go a little deeper and see what is at the root of your clutter, maybe there is a deeper reason, maybe not but I did find it insightful when I was able to identify the cause of my cluttering ways. If you enjoyed my Youtube videos then please subscribe to my channel and give it a cheeky thumbs up.

Thanks for reading! Chat soon, Catherine.

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1 Comment

  1. Lisa Emmerson
    January 11, 2020 / 1:50 pm

    You’re so inspirational Catherine 🙂 I try to watch your stories when I get the chance cos you’re such a breath of fresh air and you inspire such creativity and I admire your organisational skills that I lack because I always up end too tired from work and spend way too much time online.
    I like to declutter people from my life, I find that more satisfying but I’m working on my hoarding!
    Happy new year to you, Pepsie and Blondie xx

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