Whether you declutter to make more space or to simply provide a newer perspective to your home, tidying up your home could also provide you with an opportunity to do some charity. Use your annual cleaning project to give away unused items to some charity or to some needy family in your neighbourhood. From clothes maintained in good condition to utensils in the kitchen that have no use for your home requirements, your decluttering exercise could bring out a variety of items to give away. The objective, however, should not be to get rid of old things, rather give away things that have been lying in their boxes for months and even years for want of better use in the home.
First, start by making a list of all the things in your wardrobe, your kitchen, and even your bedroom and sitting room that do not have any obvious requirement for you and your family. If you do not have second thoughts about retaining a particular item in your home, it is a clear indication that its time is up; time to get rid of it and add a fresh feel to your living space. As one interior design expert suggested, the best way to initiate your year-end cleaning job is to sort the belongings into categories:give-aways (items that you can donate to a charity or a needy), storage (items that may be of use in the near future), put-away (items that need to go back to their original space), recycle (items like newspaper, books and the like that can be sent to recycling firms) and trash (items that need to go into the bin).
Do not attempt to clean and declutter the entire house in one go; tackle the job one room at a time, giving yourself more time to get a grip of things that are occupying space in every room. Use cardboard boxes to sort items, especially for those things that you plan to give away. This will make your chore so much easier.
Cabinets and Drawers
If you have designated cabinets and drawers for specific items in the house, begin your cleaning mission from there. Your medicine cabinet could be your first stop. Empty the cabinet to check out the expiry dates of tablets and syrups; throw away all the outdated ones and place the others back in the order of their importance. Do the same with your dressing table. Bring out all the skincare products and makeup items that have gotten pushed to the back. Again, do a quick check to throw away expired products and arrange them in the order of your everyday needs. Follow the routine with the bathroom cabinets as well as the kitchen drawers. The biggest task, however, might be the shoe cabinet…
Bedroom
If you have a clothes stand, start to declutter from there; especially if you are like the majority of busy executives who use that stand to hang all the worn clothes that are not yet ready for the laundry. Then, move over to the nightstand, which may be covered with books, notebooks, creams, chargers and what have you. Your dressing table is the next; keep only the daily essentials on top, moving the rest to the drawers. Follow that with the wardrobe… This is a task that requires every member of the family to chip in to mark the ones that need to be put away and those that are ready to be given away.
You could pack worn and weathered clothes in a separate box to use for cleaning purpose or to give vent to your creative recycling ideas. Check for some quilting resources online to create a memory quilt from children’s old clothes. Once you are done with sorting clothes into the trash and the give-away box put the ones that you intend to keep in the order of their clothing type, so it becomes easy for you to pick and chose during the morning rush to work. The cleaning chore can be cumbersome if children are small and their rooms are cluttered with toys and knickknacks. Many a toy might have undergone a beating, requiring you to either recycle them or throw away.
Living Room
Often, living room is the only zone in the house that is clutter-free, owing, perhaps, to the fact that you entertain guests there.But that doesn’t exempt it from a cleaning spree. The task here revolves around finding permanent storage spaces for items like remote controls and magazines lying on the centre table or the side tables. Your television stand or the entertainment centre needs a touch of declutter too. Empty the stand to check what is of everyday importance and what can go into the storage room. Give the stand a clean chit by ensuring that all the wires are neatly concealed.
Kitchen
Kitchen is, perhaps, the most difficult area to declutter, as it has several shelves and drawers holding all the whimsical purchases you would have made over the year. While many may still have use in your cooking or party requirements, what is essential is to sort them according to their category so you do not make any more random purchases. And, like majority of folks in this part of the world, if you too are wont to storing empty plastic bags and what have you under the kitchen sink, get down on your knees and do a thorough arranging of all that it holds, or throw away things that have really lost their use.
As the rule book says, anything that has not been in use for six months or more is redundant.