New Years Resolution: Decluttering and Organizing Your Home
New Years Resolution: Decluttering and Organizing Your Home
Start 2024 off right with helpful decluttering and organizing tips from Sandie Timm:
A 2022 OnePoll study revealed that 49% of Americans attempted to declutter their home in 2022 and 78% had plans to declutter and organize their home in 2023. On top of that, 54% of Americans reported that they are “completely overwhelmed” by the clutter in their homes.
If your New Year’s Resolution is to edit, declutter and get more organized, you have a lot of company. And there has never been more support for this process. There are tv series (Marie Kondo), blogs (Martha Stewart), and books (Home Edit) available to provide direction. There are entire stores and product lines devoted to decluttering and containing your items in a simple, streamlined manner.
Sandie Timm, a professional organizer who has worked with The Dreyfus Group for over a decade points out that “We have a lot of clients looking to do a big purge/declutter before they move. But we are also finding that with more time spent in their own homes during the pandemic, clients simply want to enjoy calm, clutter-free homes.”
Sandie shares the following six decluttering tips:
1) It’s okay to start small. Maybe start with your kitchen. Do you need six different whisks? How many roasting pans of varying sizes do you need? Continue decluttering drawer by drawer and then room by room.
2) Use the three-category system of editing and decluttering:
KEEP - items that serve a purpose in your life TODAY - not did it once serve a purpose, not might it serve a purpose in the future. These are the items that you truly use on a regular basis.
SELL/DONATE - If something no longer serves you but still has life left in it (formal dining room furniture or sterling silver flatware , for example), there are many local organizations that would love to receive your items. High-end items in excellent condition can be consigned online or in brick and mortar stores. Other items can be donated to resale/thrift stores.
RECYCLE/SHRED/TRASH - for items that are no longer serving you and for which you cannot find a home, it’s time to throw them away. Recycle whatever you can and shred or trash the rest.
3) Be ruthless about the “I may need this someday” items. If you haven’t used it in two years, you probably won’t need it in the next two years. No matter what size your home, you can’t possibly keep everything you may ever need someday. And if you do find that you need the item “someday” it has never been easier to have anything delivered directly to your doorstep.
4) When considering whether to keep or store antiques or heirloom items, realize that future generations probably don’t want them. Gen X and Millennials favor a simple, less heavy aesthetic and place more of an emphasis on sharing experiences than accumulating things.
5) Once you have decluttered, you need a plan for creating and maintaining your new space. One of the keys to a well-organized home is ensuring that everything in your home has a designated space. At this point you may want to purchase some bins or baskets to keep like items contained together.
Keeping your decluttered and organized home in good shape requires ongoing effort. The most important thing you can do to keep your home calm and decluttered is not refilling it with items that don’t serve a purpose. A lot of clients follow the “one in - one out” rule. Whenever you bring a new item into your home, you take something else out.
“Don’t put it down - put it away.” Rather than dropping your work tote in the entryway, put it in its designated spot. Sort your mail immediately. Recycle junk mail and catalogs before they even touch your counter. Hang up your coat instead of dropping it on the back of a chair.
At the end of the day spend a few minutes tidying your home - put dirty dishes in the dishwasher and clean dishes away, hang up clothes, take the shipping boxes out to recycle, put remote controls away.
6) Call in the experts. Decluttering can be time consuming, exhausting, and emotional. A professional organizer is trained in the emotional and physical acts of decluttering and organizing and can make the process faster, easier, and more efficient.
Reducing clutter and organizing your space simplifies your life, reduces stress, improves productivity, and frees up mental and physical space. That’s a New Year’s Resolution worth keeping.
For more information or a free consultation, Sandie can be reached at sandie@sandietimm.com or 650-796-3375. Find her on Instagram @sandie_timm_home and on LinkedIn.