Decluttering. Sounds like such a simple word to live by, and an easy one at that -- yet that single word can inspire fear in even the most organized soul.
Who even has time to go through each item in their home, and throw away what's unnecessary? Is decluttering even technically a word? What if you just can't let go of the pink tutu that you wore during your senior year dance recital, because, of course, memories!
We all are stricken with those same thoughts, but there's a few simple ways to move forward with STARTING to declutter your space - you don't have to be overwhelmed with the prospect of decluttering your entire apartment at once. It's a matter of throwing out the old, so you're allowing some space for the new to filter through. As Marie Kondo states, in her book The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which has become the de facto Bible for the decluttering generation, "it's time to throw out the items that no longer 'give you joy'; - a great rule of thumb for when you're cleaning out your closet."
Here are a few other additional decluttering tips to follow if you're looking to ease yourself into it:
When starting to declutter, work through categories, not rooms. Kondo makes a good point that if you start to clear out things by category, you can tackle all your books, for example, at once - so that the books in another room won't be neglected
2. Don't stop to think about ALL of the items that you have to declutter - instead focus on the task at hand. Oftentimes, it's so easy to be overwhelmed and anxious when you look around your apartment and just see HOW much there is to work through. Don't do that. Just focus on each item that you're working with - slowly and surely, the amount that there is left "to do" will dwindle.
3. Put on some loud music and make a day of it. Remember in the Sex and the City movie, where Carrie is cleaning out the closet in her apartment before moving in with Big? This should be an enjoyable task - you're allowing yourself a fresh start, of empty shelves and drawers, since you're throwing out what you don't need before. Have a positive attitude around it, and it'll make the day go by that much faster.
4. Piggy-backing on that last piece of advice, though, is to not let yourself get too sucked into nostalgic thinking. Opening up a long lost box of love letters from your middle school boyfriend can be great, but can also waste a good portion of your time that you should be focusing on getting the job at hand done. Let's be real - oftentimes sitting down and going down that rabbit hole of nostalgia can simply be a productive way to procrastinate from cleaning out your space.
5. Haven't worn it in a year and a half? Time to let it go, even if there's tags on it! I'm the queen of buying things that don't really fit so well, just because it seemed like a good deal at the time. That is not a great shopping technique, and there's no reason for those pieces to still be taking up precious space in my tiny closet. Use services such as Twice or ThredUp to donate/sell your clothing, in a super easy way! They send you an envelope, you fill it up with duds you no longer want, and send it back with the prepaid envelope. Now make room on those hangers for clothes this season that actually do fit.