Clutter seems to be an inevitable part of our homes due to the contemporary lifestyle, bad shopping habits, and our senseless attachment to our possessions. The mess in our living area causes nothing but chaos, confusion, and stress, which further seriously affects our daily lives. The mere thought of tackling the clutter can be somewhat intimidating, yet it is an issue that you have to address as soon as possible for it won’t get cleaned by itself. To step it up a bit, decluttering in an eco-friendly way would be the best possible option, meaning that you have achieved complete success, regarding your home and environment both.
Declutter step by step
Instead of cleaning up the whole place at once, be smart and start small. Decluttering part of the house, or even part of the room every day can only encourage you to keep up the pace and can help you to form a daily habit in preventing a further mess.
Old electronics
Each home is a storage for outdated or broken devices, with the purpose of collecting dust and taking up space. The proper way to deal with old electronics, assuming that it works, is to sell or donate, as for the broken electronics, the best solution is to hand them to electronics recycling center.
Old clothes
Go through your closet and separate items that you weren’t wearing over a year. After that, you may sort out the clothes that are in good condition and decide whether to donate it or to sell it at a yard sale. Aside from being environmentally aware you’ll get to earn some money.
Books, CDs, and DVDs
Reduce your library to the essential works that you know you’ll be reading again. Sell the books or give them away to local schools, libraries, and learning centers. Same goes for the CDs and DVDs. To avoid future clutter, consider buying e-books and getting the subscription to streaming sites for movies and music.
Bills and papers
Reduce the piles of bills by setting up accounts to be paid directly from the bank. Change the magazine subscriptions and read it online. It will save you a lot of trouble and needles cleaning.
Toiletries
Aside from being a big clutter, the chemicals in beauty products are big polluters so consider making cleaning and beauty products yourself. Not only you will reduce the amount of waste, but you will also control the ingredients that you apply to your body.
Medicines
Assuming your community has provided the prescription take back program, safest disposal of medicines would be to act accordingly. Same goes for supplements and vitamins. It is possible to dispose of some of the medicines by flushing but make sure to check which ones before you do.
Food
Reduce food waste by making a weekly meal plan and stick to it. Also, avoid wasteful package and buy in bulks which you can freeze. You can use some food scraps to make compost if you have a garden.
Dishes and glass
There are recycling bins where you can dispose of dishes and glass but before you do, try selling them or giving it away to someone who may need it.
Toys
Mountains of outgrown toys are part of every child’s room. Teach your kids timely about less fortunate ones who will be more than happy to have their old toys, while at the same time you can engage them in decluttering process.
Refuse junk mail
A terrible trend of wasting paper that simply won’t go away, but you can have your part in this by removing your address from various mailing lists. Check and register for the Mail Preference Service if the option is available.
Restore and repurpose
Big items like furniture, you can repurpose or repair, but if you still find it hard to ditch them, consider storing them away. There are many options, but when it comes to affordable self storage Perth citizens have found a tremendous solution for storing stuff in portable modules, not far away from their homes.
Decluttering alone is not enough since you need to form a habit of keeping your space clean, tidy and clutter-free. Maintaining such lifestyle will take some discipline, but with time you will become aware of your doings, which will benefit you in many ways.
How to you keep your house de-clutter?
Do you have any helpful suggestions that help keep our houses and world de-cluttered?
If so please leave them in the comments section!
SkipTheBag
Thanks Marla for this post. The idea about starting small is a good one. That helps me a lot. Reclycling of batteries, outdated RX’s, and elctronic devices make good eco-freindly sense.
HI Nancy,
It is one small step at a time. Small steps lead to giant chances in our lives and the environment. Electronic have always been a problem for me too. I had to look hard to find places to recycle them. It also depends where you live as how many options are available in your area. But there are always options. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Marla,
You have the best ideas. I always need to de-clutter but wouldn’t have thought about electronics and toiletries.. I need these reminders thanks. Great post
Thanks so much. I am glad that you find my article helpful. Old electronics are an issue for many people. I have some small electronic like old sell phones that I need to get rid of myself. I appreciate you being such a faithful follower and taking the time to comment. It is people like you help me keep working daily on my blog. Have a healthy, happy & blessed day.