Whether you’re a collector of some type, a fan of certain personal care products, or maybe just someone with a bunch of boxes in the garage that they never got around to unpacking after their last move, there’s always something in your house that you just have too many of.
“Too many” can mean a lot of things to a lot of people, but for our purposes right now it just means anything that you haven’t used in forever, anything you should throw out, or anything you just don’t plain want anymore.
This definition might’ve already started to ring some bells, but if you’re looking for a little decluttering inspiration, here’s six things that most homes tend to have too much of, and what you can do to lighten the load:
Six Things It’s Definitely Time to Declutter
Bed Linens
It might not sound like an obvious candidate for decluttering at first, but think about this – when’s the last time you brought any new blankets or bedsheets into the equation, and what have you been doing with the ones you aren’t using? If the answer is something like “stuffing them into the drawers under your bed and not thinking about them ever again”, then it might be time to do something about it.
How to Declutter: Go through your various linen closets, and see which sheets are still viable, and sort aside the rest (be they too worn out, no longer usable, or just not your preferred aesthetic anymore). The ones you’re keeping (ideally, just one or two for different seasons) could go in your closet storage to keep them out of the way until you need to change them, or maybe in the bottom drawer of a dresser or your bed. The rest could be donated to a shelter or somewhere that needs them, or just turned into cleaning rags if they’re too worn down to be useful.
Books
We know a lot of you bibliophiles are probably thinking back to when Marie Kondo told you to have less books as you read this, but the hard truth is that…well, maybe she’s right. There’s an awful lot of books out there, and while some are absolutely worth keeping either for sentimental value or pure collector’s value, that simply can’t be the case for all of them. It’s time to be a little ruthless.
How to Declutter: The best way to handle this is to empty out all your bookcases (and boxes of un-displayed books, if you have any) and think about which ones are redundant. Maybe you haven’t read one in a while, maybe you never finished one because you lost interest in it, maybe you bought one twice because you found a version with rare cover art…the list goes on. Anything you do put back in your bookcases needs to be only the best-of-the-best that you couldn’t live without being able to re-read or show off – everything else can be sold, donated, or left in one of those Little Libraries everyone’s town has.
Vases
It might be surprising to read at first, but vases have a weird tendency to start piling up around the house. Especially if you tend to get a lot of flowers around certain holidays, those display vases they come in can start to pile up, no matter how many of them you’ve tried to repurpose for your current floral displays.
How to Declutter: Frankly, a lot of them could just be thrown out or taken to the thrift store. Any of your nicer ones could be donated to something like a retirement home (where residents tend to get a lot of flowers without vases). The craftier among you could decorate a few of them and repurpose them around the house as desk organizers or coin catchers for hanging onto loose change in a little more aesthetically pleasing way.
Mugs
Mugs: they’re a multi-purpose gift that everyone needs at least a few of for their various favorite hot beverages. However, you probably don’t exactly need as many of them as you have, and that’s where we come in.
How to Declutter: Mugs tend to come in one of three categories: the ones you actually drink out of, the ones you mostly keep because they’re funny/cute/etc, and the ones you don’t use for either. The daily drinkers for your morning coffee or lunchtime tea should be kept in a kitchen cabinet, maybe on a kitchen cabinet organizer to keep them out of the way, and the more display-oriented mugs could be rolled out on a bar cart for guests to get a chuckle out of, or to make them easier to get to when you really need to break out the novelty Christmas mugs.
Pens
Even in these mostly-digital, always-online days, a good writing tool can always come in handy. The problem is, even with the particularly fancy ones, they’re bound to run dry eventually, and it’s just silly to try and keep empty pens around.
How to Declutter: Round up every pen you can easily find, and grab a piece of scrap paper that you’re not going to need in the future. Test each one of the pens you can find – if they’re empty and disposable, toss them out, if they’re empty and refillable, think about how bad you really want to refill them and go from there. The keepers (meaning anything that still works, or CAN easily be refilled) should go into the same desk organizer so you know where they are next time.
Cosmetics, hair care products, etc
Personal care products have a tendency to stack up over time. Maybe it took you a while to find the right shaving cream, maybe you have a lot of pomades and fibers that are all half-filled, but whatever the case, personal care stuff tends to build up over time.
How to Declutter: Start by throwing away anything that’s just plain not usable – foundation that’s all dried up, empty lipstick tubes, and the like. The rest should be reviewed on a case by case basis – is that no longer your favorite color of eyeshadow? Are you not that into your old mousse anymore? Anything that still fits your current mood and look should go onto bathroom organizers to keep them tidied, or even into plastic storage bins to make them easier to find.
While these six things may just be the tip of the iceberg, imagine how much better you’ll feel once you start by getting all of these organized!