How To Detox Your Life in the New Year: Home
The 4th week of our mini series on detoxing your life in the New Year has arrived and today we’re looking at detoxing every and all aspects of your home. From the kitchen to bedroom, bathroom, closets, drawers and beyond, detoxing your home is one of those things that makes you feel like a champ once you’ve finished!
It can certainly be overwhelming with so many areas and this sense of not really knowing where to start or what exactly to do. Well, that’s where I come in! I have a fool-proof method I use all of the time that works like a charm. It breaks down the organizing, cleaning and detoxing into digestible pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed and stay focused on the task at hand. When you’re finished, your home or apartment will feel like a brand new space that you can truly enjoy!
So without further ado, let’s take a look at my fool-proof method for detoxing your home in 2020!
STEP 1: FOCUS ON ONE ROOM AND/OR AREA AT A TIME
The first and most important step when detoxing your home is to only focus on one room and/or area at a time. Don’t look at the big picture of your entire space because trust me, that gets overwhelming in two seconds. Start small; it’s a marathon not a sprint.
For some, starting small may mean a hall/entryway closet or that deep, dark, never-ending hole of a junk drawer that we all have. For others, starting small may mean the bathroom or the fridge. Figure out what works best for you. If you start on an area and it seems too much, stop and move on to something less involved.
Once you get through a few of those smaller or easier to tackle areas, things like the kitchen or all of your clothes won’t seem as daunting. You’ll have this fire inside you to declutter and organize all the things! It’s almost contagious in a sense.
STEP 2: TAKE EVERYTHING OUT
The next important thing to remember is that you need to take everything out in order to successfully detox, purge and reorganize. Don’t assume you know what’s in the back of every cupboard, or that all of the condiments in the fridge are still in date, or that you’ve worn everything hanging in your closet. Take every single thing out. And since we are focusing on only one room and/or area at a time, it’s not that overwhelming and will not make your house a mess.
STEP 3: CLEAN THE AREA
Once you’ve taken everything out, I think it’s important to thoroughly clean that space. Be it the inside of the fridge, the shelves in cupboards or storage units, the floor in the closet, etc, etc. A lot of the time, these areas we are detoxing don’t get much love throughout the year so its important to take the time to wipe them down. I’ve been a Seventh Generation fan for quite a few years and always have their all purpose cleaner, glass cleaner and bathroom cleaners on hand at all times. They are all-natural, clean products so I know I’m not only getting a good clean, but I’m not using an harsh chemicals in my space or on my things.
STEP 4: ORGANIZE INTO 3 PILES - KEEP, TRASH, DONATE
You’ve taken everything out of the space, cleaned the area and now it’s time to go through all of those things you took out. I like to organize things into 3 different categories: keep, trash and donate. I make sure these piles are easily identifiable so that I can quickly and efficiently declutter and organize.
I trash anything that is expired, broken or not in good enough condition to be donated. I look to donate items that I either no longer use or wear, but are still in great condition. It’s important to me to give back and it always makes me feel good to give things to those that aren’t as fortunate. For keep items, these are things I know that I wear, use and love.
With clothes, 99% of the time I will actually try each piece of clothing on, even if it’s something I wear all of the time. I make sure that I still love it as much as the time I bought it. If I have any sort of hesitation, it goes into the donate pile. I was notorious for keeping things because I wore it once to this thing and it reminds me of that, we’re all guilty of it! I finally said enough is enough and put it all in the donate pile and I never looked back!
The same goes for home decor type of items. I go through the same process of creating keep, trash and donate piles. Over the years I’ve accumulated A TON of home accent pieces that I had in college, from my parents or that I bought myself over the years. So much of it no longer served me or brought joy, so I donated them. I realized that keeping just the things that I loved or meant something to me were of the most value. Living with less sometimes brings you the most!
When going through food in your fridge and pantry, check each and every single expiration date. Anything expired obviously gets tossed. If it is something expiring soon, put it towards the front of the fridge as a reminder to use it up. If you have unopened things that are still in date but you aren’t going to use, donate them to a local food pantry or shelter.
It’s also important to go through personal items like yearbooks, cards, arts & crafts, the list goes on and on! I know for me, these things tend to pile up quickly and just get tucked in a bin in the closet as a keepsake. It can be hard to get rid of some of those things, don’t get me wrong. But when I stepped back and saw everything I had, it was easier to pick out those of most sentimental value and importance.
STEP 5: PUT EVERYTHING BACK IN AN ORGANIZED WAY
Now that you’ve gone through everything and created your dedicated piles of keep, trash and donate, it’s now time to put those keep items back and give them a dedicated home. The key here is to not just throw things back into a cabinet, or on a shelf haphazardly, or hang back up in the closet with no method to the madness. You want to make sure you are being methodical and smart in how you put things back. Keep things as organized as possible. Not only will this make your daily life easier, but it will make your next home detox an even simpler process.
Use boxes, bins and organizers to help keep everything in place and having a dedicated home. I love these wicker storage baskets from Target and have them all over my space! Not only are the helpful and functional in keeping things organized, but they also look good and become this combination of decor and organization…decorganization I like to call it! They come in so many different sizes and shapes which help make every organization task a breeze!
STEP 6: REPEAT FOR EACH AREA IN YOUR HOME!
You’ve now conquered each step in one area of your home, now it’s time to repeat that in every room and space! Give yourself some grace and don’t try to tackle it all in one day. Maybe dedicate one day a week to a specific area. It will help keep your mind focused and seeing your progress throughout the week will keep you pumped up and motivated!
So there you have it, my foolproof and easy way to detox your home in 2020. Do you have tips for de-cluttering and organizing? If so, share below in the comments!