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Cleaning|Cleaning Around the Seasons|Spring Cleaning with Clean Mama
The Hidden Benefits of De-Cluttering
March 13, 2013
March is spring cleaning month – a month to get our homes clean, tidy and ready for the next season. If you’ve been following along, we talked last week about de-cluttering. Have you started the de-cluttering process? I know it’s hard to start there, but it’s so beneficial to the spring cleaning process and really it’s a huge timesaver in the long run. My favorite part of de-cluttering? The rearranging that happens. I come up with new, fresh ways to put together little arrangements, shelves, and areas in our home and that’s the fun part for me. So before we launch into the big spring cleaning session, I thought it might be fun to show a couple hot spost I de-cluttered this past week.
We have a great built-in bookcase around the refrigerator, but it gets dusty fast with the refrigerator by it. So I took all the cookbooks out, got rid of a couple that I haven’t used in the last year, moved my recipe binders into a cupboard and cleaned and dusted the bookcase and refrigerator and came up with a new arrangement in the middle of the bookcase. It’s was just the de-cluttering project to get my spring cleaning started because it combined a little cleaning and de-cluttering.
and yes, that’s a headband acting as a makeshift baby latch on the lower cupboard
I also did some major de-cluttering in my office this weekend. Lots of shredding, sorting, and tossing. But it looks great and after 4 years it’s finally a room that I love!
Here’s a hint of what helped put get me in gear to get the office de-cluttered. And you’ll have a chance to win one next week too!
So let’s finish up the de-cluttering so we can get on to some spring cleaning! What hidden benefit have you found to de-cluttering?
 Check out my brand new ebook/guide – Cleaning Around the Seasons: Deep Cleaning On Your Schedule – you’ll love the simple and thorough approach to deep cleaning on your schedule!
You can see all the posts in this series here.
lynda Says...
My husband is very resistant to the whole decluttering process. I have been listing items on Craig’s List for sale, and selling some. He had boxes of papers and files, and silly me, I thought they were important. I started going through them. I did find un-cashed checks too old to cash, gift certificates, lost items, 8 gift movie tickets – 2 per birthday from his boss. I also found a lot of unopened bills; bills, insurance policies and documents on homes we don’t own any longer, pets who have passed on, apartments we don’t live in, cars we don’t own any longer – and general junk mail. I came to the conclusion his record-keeping procedure is to pitch everything in a box until it is full and start another. I ended up with 7 leaf bags of shredded papers. I issued a decree that every time he sees a box with papers of any type, to bring it to me.
We are constantly in the renovation process with our house, so I can’t completely declutter it or get it clean. That is very depressing to me. At least now I can feel like I am making baby steps toward progress.
Gemma Says...
Paper de cluttering is an awful task but so rewarding when it’s done….we set trying to attempt going paper free and keeping records of bills paid in an excel sheet. Our desk is in the main sitting room and is very open with no draws or hideaways to stash so it has really kept us in check of paperwork.
Anna Station Says...
We just moved from the townhouse my husband bought in his bachelor days to a “real” family home. Needless to say in the three years we were there we outgrew the townhouse, it was stuffed to the gills, when our son turned 1 we got a storage unit to help with the ever growing clutter, that too had become stuffed with stuff. During the move we had “the great purge of 2013”. I continue now to declutter and purge. It feels so great to know that everything has its own home in the house, and when things begin to get out of hand its a simple 10 min tidy-up because everything does have its own home. Yay for decluttering!
Robin Says...
I believe the greatest hidden benefit to de-cluttering is how free I feel when throwing things away. It is like weights are being lifted from my soul. My mind seems clear as well. I just started understanding in the last few years how free I feel when things are not cluttered all around. Simple is clean, peaceful, and free. Thanks Clean Mama, your techniques and ideas are so awesome and have helped me in so many ways. THANKS!!!
Emilie Says...
Robin:
I like how you’ve described the freeing feeling one gets from de-cluttering – I’ve actually been having fun (yes, fun) de-cluttering. Who would have thought I’d be feeling like this when I started – when it was like pulling teeth for me to get rid of anything (even the 15 v-necked t-shirts that I hadn’t worn in at least two years, but hung onto because of the money they cost me at the time I bought them). I now look forward to purge days because of the rush I get when I realize that what I’ve kept I can actually wear/use/whatever and everything has a place. Thanks for putting my thoughts into words.
-Emilie
Pat K Says...
More time to spend on my craft projects.
Cerise Says...
I find I have to declutter pretty frequently, but I love how easy clean up is after I’ve gone through a clutter purge!
By the way I LOVE the shelves around your fridge. I wish we had the room for that, it would be amazing. Now, I’m wondering if I couldn’t make some room.
KEYJONZ Says...
The April 2013 issue of HEALTH magazine cites a study that merely looking at clutter can raise stress hormone levels.No wonder letting go of too much “stuff” feels so good.
Sallie Says...
After 34 years, we are moving! Funny how my mind set has all of a sudden changed. All of those precious “treasures” and “will need this someday” are all of a sudden UNNECESSARY! I keep looking at the listing photos of our new home and love the clean, uncluttered, no knick-knack look. Our children are happy too because they think that we have hoarded too much. All of a sudden, we feel so free and excited to start a new minimalist life.
Doe Says...
The saying goes if you haven’t seen it in 2-3 years you don’t need it. So I need to get started on a don’t need mode.
Deb Says...
We are in the middle of moving into our forever home after 25 years of AF service. All the years of gifts and memories are wonderful but we have been purging our stuff for two weeks. Our first shipment was 11 thousand pounds. We still have another 5000 coming from storage we havent seen in 4 years of living overseas. Its like Christmas opening things, but the best part is when I see something that I’ve held onto and it doesn’t own me anymore. Out it goes to the sell pile, donations or trash. Gone. Yes, freedom is indeed the word. I own my things and they dont own me. Our house will still have nick nacks but they are chosen much more carefully now.
Thank you Clean Momma for keeping the inspiration of de-cluttering going. Im going to need it when the next shipment comes in a few days. Happiness is living Clean.