Top 5 Practical and Painless Ways
for Paring Down Your Belongings

Many of us know the benefits of decluttering, but few do it often enough. When decluttering isn’t a part of your regular housekeeping routine, the accumulation can create unnecessary stress and anxiety. If you find your belongings closing in and taking over, read on to learn how to pare down belongings and reclaim your space.

How to Pare Down Belongings in 5 Steps

Paring down your belongings involves more than a quick tidying up. The keys to keeping your home less cluttered are taking an objective approach and following a proven plan of action. Let The Maids kick things off by giving you a clean home, and then use these five steps to learn how to minimize your belongings.

Take a 30-Day Decluttering Challenge

You could bite the bullet and schedule a weekend decluttering marathon, or you could take things slow and get to the clutter when you have the free time. We have a better idea. For 30 days in a row, commit to paring down your belongings one chunk at a time. You have an end in sight, manageable time frames, and an almost guaranteed positive result. Add making your bed every day, putting things back where they belong, and other tidy habits to supercharge your decluttering efforts.

Declutter Room by Room

You can make your 30-day project more manageable by decluttering room by room. A basic strategy would look like this: If your home has ten rooms, you can break the project down to one room every three days, three per week, or any formula that gets the job done in one month. When you pare down using this method, the task isn’t so daunting and makes it easy to track your progress.

Find a Decluttering Buddy

Paring down years’ worth of stuff can be hard work, so it’s a good idea to enlist the help of a friend or relative. Having someone you enjoy being around helping you pare down your belongings makes the process fun and helps you stay objective. Your paring down partner may even be able to help you find new homes for things you no longer want (or need!)

Zone In On Closets and Other Clutter Catchers

Much of your paring down will be in your closets, cabinets, and other out-of-sight areas. These areas will likely need the most attention, so use our handy guides for closet organization and cabinet decluttering to get the job done right. Knock out the closets and cabinets, and move on to junk drawers, under-the-bed storage, and anywhere else you’ve hidden the clutter.

Find Better Ways to Store Sentimental Items

Of course, you’ll want to hang on to children’s artwork, souvenirs, and photos. To learn how to minimize your belongings and still prioritize sentimental items, do the following:

• Gather up all your scattered pictures and scan them for digital storage.
• Use plastic sleeves in binders for kids’ art, greeting cards, and similar sentimental items.
• Purge what you can and enjoy having all your precious keepsakes safe and sound and easily accessible.

Now that you know how to get rid of too much stuff, what’s next? Check out our helpful cleaning and organizing guides and find out about affordable maid service when you get a free online estimate today.