A home full of clutter can be the beginning of a serious mental health condition, or the result of one. Hoarding is, of course, an extreme end of the clutter spectrum, but an inability to let go of things is something that affects many people every day, the world over.
Minimalism is a relatively recent development that encourages one to keep only the items that serve a purpose, or make one’s life better in some way. This philosophy has opened the doors to a lot of interesting construction and design phenomenons, such as the Life Edited movement, or the Tiny Houses movement.
How to Turn a Cluttered Home Into a Minimalist Masterpiece
A way to turn your cluttered home into a minimalist masterpiece is not only within reach, but surprisingly doable. We have laid out the steps to take here, in the hopes that you can get yourself to a more mentally healthy, minimally cluttered living situation.
Decluttering
Decluttering is probably the hardest part of this process, and it involves parting with things that you might not want to part with. A good rule of thumb for whether or not you should get rid of something is the amount of time since you’ve last used it.
For more specialised items, such as gardening tools that are only needed in certain situations, hanging onto them is totally fine. However, for things like a box of old stuffed toys that you haven’t even looked at in over 12 months, the best place for them might be a local charity donation bin.
6 Months without use is a good starting point for common items, like blankets and pillows, or shoes or even clothes. Following this rule, go through your home and sort out your belongings into what you need and what you don’t, and deal with the things you don’t immediately.
Subtle Style Updates
From here, you can make slight changes to your decor or even fixtures in your home to subtly amplify this new aesthetic. Sheer curtains can be added to your windows to help remove some of the light while still letting some through, allowing you to be more subtle about your lighting choices, and giving your home a more gentle and colour-matched aesthetic.
Deep Cleaning
Now that your home has significantly fewer items cluttering it up, it’s time to deep clean. Wipe down your walls with a bleach and water solution to get them back to being gorgeously white, use the same solution on white tiles or sinks in bathrooms and laundries. Wipe down window sills and windows themselves, clean venetian blinds, throw out any trash you find lying around or hidden away, and get your carpeted areas professionally steam cleaned. Once all of this is done, you are just about ready to start a redistribution of your belongings.
Reorganisation
Now, you redistribute your existing belongings throughout your house, where they will serve their purpose best. This should leave you with very few items in storage places, and you will have what seems like more natural light coming in from the windows, due to the recently bleach-washed walls reflecting more light than they did before.
Your home will take on a clean kind of glow, and you will be surrounded by objects that only make you happier or serve a purpose, nothing superfluous.
[Tweet “These tips can help you to strip back everything you don’t need from your life, and simplify your day-to-day comings and goings.”]These tips can help you to strip back everything you don’t need from your life, and simplify your day-to-day comings and goings. The benefits of this lifestyle are well documented, and the aesthetic of your home can be very modern and very stylish once this process is complete.
Identity Magazine is all about guiding women to discover their powers of Self-Acceptance, Appreciation, and Personal Achievement. We ask that every contributor and expert answer the Identity 5 questions in keeping with our theme. Their answers can be random and in the moment or they can be aligned with the current article they have written. In that way, and as a team, we hope to encourage and motivate each other, thus inspiring you to Get All A’s.
1. What have you accepted within your life, physically and/or mentally? Additionally, what are you still working on accepting? Now, we’re talking about resignation, rather stepping into, embraced, and owned.
That not all will enjoy my writing.
2. What have you learned to appreciate about yourself and/or within your life, physically and mentally? On the other hand OR in contrast, are there elements of who you are that you’re still working on appreciating?
I appreciate my ability to be creative.
3. What is one of your most rewarding achievements in life? Tell us not only what makes YOU most proud but also share the goals and dreams that you still have.
Proud to have a career in writing
4. Of course, we all have imperfections, or so we think. In truth, we are all perfectly imperfect. What are your not-so-perfect ways? Likewise, what imperfections and quirks create who you are–your Identity?
I guess many…my sense of humor….
5. “I Love My…” is an outlet for you to appreciate and express all the positive traits that make you…well…YOU! In fact, sharing what you love about yourself will make you smile, feel empowered, and uplift your spirit and soul. (We assure you!) Therefore, Identity challenges you to complete the phrase “I Love My…?”
I love my writing and family.
Photo by yann maignan on Unsplash
