It has been a few months since my journey to simple living has begun. Head over here to read all about my journey to minimalism. As I stated before minimalism is more of a mindset and does not have to include getting rid of everything so that you are left with a chair, a desk, and a lamp (is it just me that thought the only way to be a minimalist was like that). It is honestly about examining your life and the things around you to acknowledge whether or not those things bring meaning to your life. To declutter your home and mind so that you have time for more meaningful things.

Let me tell you, it has been an uphill battle with trying to stay motivated and to get my family on board.  However even though I find this process to be long, I continue to be eager about the thought of minimizing the things around me. There is constant self examinations of my mental state as decluttering my home can easily be an overwhelming task. Through this process I have found that sticking to these five tips help keep me focused and on goal to simple living.

Five Tips on How to Declutter Your Home

1. Lose the expectation

   Think you can accomplish this in a weekend? Think you can easily get rid of all the unnecessary clutter? Think again. You can go into the decluttering process with the mindset that it is easy and should be a breeze. Try to let go of this expectation. Because in reality it can be difficult with letting go and extremely time consuming. Do not predict what will happen but rather set goals for yourself. Set a timeline to finish a room. Give yourself the confidence needed to be successful at decluttering!

2. Take it one space at a time

   Do not become overwhelmed with the thought of decluttering your whole entire home. Take one room at a time. Your bathroom is a good starting point. Usually the smallest of the rooms in your house and the less cluttered. Go through things such as blankets, towels, makeup, and other toiletries and weed out the unnecessary pieces. No one needs 30 blankets and definitely no one needs 20 different bath lotions.

3. Do not conquer the elephant first

   You know that overwhelming section of your home that collects all the extra stuff? You know the one that you walk into and instantly feel like there is an elephant is sitting on your chest? Do not conquer that first. Places such as the basement and the garage can be the big elephants that scare you away from decluttering. This journey to simple living is supposed to be an exciting time for you. Start with small tasks and rooms to get momentum going. This will lead to confidence in what you are trying to accomplish so that when the overwhelming areas are left you are able to conquer with success!

4. Use the three box method

   This gives you three boxes (Keep, Get rid of it, Storage) to use during each space you are cleaning out. This allows for you to slowly and efficiently examine things in the room and place them in designated boxes to take care of once the room is cleaned out. Hopefully during this process you put more things in the “get rid of it” box then the “keep” box!

5. Do not bring in more clutter

   Stop right there!!! Do you really need that extra candle that is on sale? Do you really need to go to the Bath and Body Works semi annual sale? Think about what you are purchasing before you do so. Ask yourself questions about need and want. Majority of the time it will be something that is just a want and not a necessity. So try your best to not had more clutter into the home during the decluttering phase and after!

Keeping these tips in the forefront of my mind has been helping me in making this a smoother process. Simple living is possible and this tips to decluttering your home can make you reach that goal! Stay tuned for even more great tips and ideas for your journey to simple living!