Fall is a great time to de-clutter your home as you are preparing for the holidays and extra guests. However, all too often we fall prey to these mistakes as we begin the task. Let’s check them out to ensure we maximize our efforts and really make the de-cluttering task worthwhile.

1.       Work at your own pace. Stop looking at the clock. This cannot be stressed enough. Too many times we put unreasonable expectations on ourselves when we set out to de-clutter our homes. If we really want to get rid of unnecessary or unused items, we must take our time to do it right. That means taking off the watch and pacing ourselves.

2.       Make a plan. What are you trying to achieve? If you don’t know, it's going to be hard to stay motivated to keep going! Are you striving for a more orderly home? Easier ways to keep your home clean and organized? Or really want to get rid of the unused and unneeded items in your home…maybe to downsize? Whatever your reason is, define it first.

3.       Storing de-cluttered items. This is a biggie! How often have you “de-cluttered” a room, only to move those items to another room, closet, or storage box? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. If you think about it, this really defeats the whole idea of de-cluttering because you’re just moving the objects from one location to another.  Instead, what you need to do is divide these items into 3 different categories: selling, donating, or going into the trash. Once you’ve done this, the task becomes much simpler. Go room by room and divide into one of each category, then get those items out of your home as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you’ll start going through them again and want to put them into storage boxes or closets and start the whole cluttering process again.

4.       Engaging others in the process. While family members are obviously part of the process in a home, don’t go outside that circle in soliciting advice on what to keep and what not. Everyone will have differing opinions and it's only your opinion that counts. You will end up keeping many more unwanted, needed, or unused items when soliciting outside advice.

5.       Lastly, stop buying things you really don’t need! That may sound obvious, but how many times do we shop and impulse buy? That tends to give us many items we may use a few times and then find ourselves looking for places to store them. Also, try tracking spending and see where your dollars are going and what you really need.  It’s also a dynamite way to save money!

With the holidays fast approaching, getting our homes deep cleaned and organized now is a game changer as the days arrive!

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