
Extras: Jettison extra towels, extra teacups, extra anything.Many senior residences maintain libraries and would love a fresh supply of reading material.

If you’ve read them, and don’t think you’ll ever read them again, donate them to a local library.

Books and magazines are heavy and bulky to move.Keep “forever” documents (e.g., your birth and marriage certificates) in a separate box so you don’t mistakenly pitch them with your Dave & Busters receipts. You can toss ATM and bank deposit receipts after a year. If you file your tax returns online and report everything you should, the IRS says to keep returns and documentation for three years after you file. Past paperwork: We all have boxes of documents, clippings, and recipes that we never read-they don’t need to be schlepped to a new house.Don’t pour or flush medicine down the drain, which can contaminate drinking water with chemicals, according to Earth911. Bag up your pills and take them to your local pharmacy for safe disposal. Some pharmacies will take back unused medication, and cleaned plastic pill bottles are recyclable. Expired: Food way past its sell-by date and expired or unwanted medication shouldn’t live with you in your new place.If it’s stained or hopelessly out of date, toss it. If it’s in good shape, donate it to charity. If you haven’t worn or used something in a year, you probably never will again. Not used: Tastes and waistlines change.You might even be able to raise some cash by selling this clutter online. Surely, someone will appreciate these goods that fell by the wayside. Still boxed: These items never made it out of the boxes: gifts, Groupon deals that seemed like a good idea at the time, bulk purchases of all those giant jars of capers you won’t live long enough to eat.Be merciless, and get them out of your life! Here are some common items you can almost certainly do without. Clutter and extraneous crap-is clutter and extraneous crap! Step #4: Target these top things to toss But even if you’re moving into a home with equal or more space, that doesn’t mean you should use this as an excuse to keep everything you own. That will help you decide whether to move that extra set of pots and pans or donate them. Step #3: Consider the size of your new homeīefore decluttering, think about your new home and how much space it contains. You can see what’s inside, and they’re easily stackable to save space. After all, you’re going to need to get this stuff for moving day anyway, so there’s no harm in kicking things off early.Īnother huge help? Clear plastic bins are your friends-and great homes for small items like batteries or office supplies.

Gather organizational tools like packing tape, black markers, and labels in a tote that way, you don’t have to rummage through drawers whenever the decluttering bug bites. Step #2: Gather the right packing materials Designate “toss,” “donate,” and “sell” boxes, and when you decide on an item’s fate, toss it into the correct box. Try to tackle one room or one closet (or one drawer) a day-it’s less overwhelming-and never handle an item twice. Plus, advanced decluttering “spreads out the (task) to make it feel like it’s less work than it actually is,” Spair says. The reason: This gives you time to, say, sell items online or drive them to a consignment shop. Try to start purging at least a month before you move, says Ross Sapir, CEO of Roadway Moving in New York City, which moves up to 6,000 customers each year.
#Tips to declutter your home how to
For help on that front, check out these guidelines on how to declutter before moving. All of this is our long-winded way of saying it’s high time you started chipping away at your possessions.
