10 Things I Always Declutter (for a peaceful home)

60% of Americans are late to work because of clutter. Messy environments have been linked to poor eating habits, and the average American spends $2,000 a year replacing items they've lost in clutter. There are countless studies showing how clutter can have a negative impact on our lives, but we can change this. After seven years of decluttering our home, I have learned certain items that I know just have little meaning or importance to me, which makes them so easy to let go of. Today I'm sharing the top 10 things I always declutter, and with almost no thought, to inspire and motivate you to find items in your home and your life that are potentially just clutter, and adding unnecessary stress to your life. I will never forget the first few things that we got rid of when we first started decluttering. Our kids were both really tiny, and at that stage where they just pick up every single thing and just drop it back down wherever they are, and one of the most common things that they would do this with are the throw pillows on our couch. I remember thinking I was so mad that it was even spending a second of my life picking up these cushions and putting them back every day, multiple times per day, onto our couch. The second that I gave myself storage permission to even think, wait a second, we don't even have to have these pillows, it was so eye-opening and honestly exciting. The pillows were gone, and I never looked back. This is an example of category number one, which is any home decor that I don't totally love. After I let go of the cushions, I realized how much I was affected and impacted by visual clutter, especially in the shared spaces in our home. I also started to realize how many home decor items I had throughout our house that I didn't even really like, let alone love, and that they were really annoying me more than they were bringing me any kind of happiness. With each piece of decor that I let go of, it was like an invitation to simplify and just be in a space that felt like me. Next up is unfortunately an ongoing category for us. My kids are currently seven and nine, which are like the ideal ages for those teeny tiny free kids toys that can take over an entire house. We get them from birthday party treat bags, kids meals, the dentist, community events from school. It is an ongoing battle, but I have also learned the majority of these toys don't get played with long-term, so we just do not keep them all. Item number two that we declutter all the time are tiny free kids toys. Sometimes we donate to them to the thrift shop. You can also donate them to your school, back to the teacher to give out as prizes. Or just recently, we put them in Halloween in our Halloween candy for trick or treaties. This is great. A lot of families love this for if they have kids with allergies or just who can't eat like the traditional candy out of the bowl. Regardless of how you get rid of them, getting rid of them has saved my sanity over the last decade. Next up is more of an adult issue, but I guess sort of kids too. My job before I started organizing for clients was working in as an admin role in an office environment. That included a lot of actual physical paperwork and files, and I actually loved it. I love organizing, so this was a really good fit for me. However, one valuable lesson I learned was that how paperwork can take our entire areas and add up so fast and become a huge problem and leave us with completely inefficient systems. So number three that I always declutter is paperwork that I don't need. If you're thinking that paperwork is the worst and you hate dealing with it, I get it, but the beauty is that having less will make it easier. A few example of easy paperwork that I always get rid of, anything that I don't need like for taxes or to refer back to, party invitations for parties that are over, information sheets for class trips that are done, any scrap notes that I've written if it's something that I actually need to know or act on, that needs to either go into my computer or my phone or my agenda, receipts if I don't need them for work or for income tax, they are gone. 99% of our school kids' creations go. Getting out from underneath paper clutter can be life-changing. Next up is something that I think a lot of people struggle with and that I have mostly overcome. Clothes were always a sticky catty category for me. I'm not like a huge shopper, but I do like to be somewhat put together, but I'm not like passionate about fashion. But what really helped me get over this, what truly inspired me was actually seeing my kids and what clothes they kept and what they chose to wear and what they refused to wear and what they chose not to keep. And more specifically, showing me that being comfortable in my clothes should be like way more of a priority than I was giving it. Clothes that felt like me, clothes that fit me perfectly. Working in an office environment for so long, I just sort of got used to focusing more on looking at the part and looking put together than whether I was comfortable or felt like me. But my kids are still young enough that they don't really care about fashion. They don't care what people think. They'll try something on. They're like, oh, it's got pockets. Oh, I can kick in it. Oh, it's comfortable. I can do the splits in it. Perfect. And that is surprisingly inspiring to be around. Category number four of items I declutter are clothes that don't fit me well. Now, obviously not every item in my closet is a 10 out of 10 all the time, but I've become pretty ruthless about how my clothes should feel. Next up is one that I think is specific, but I think a lot of people can relate to it. We see so many clients who are gifted candles, but they never end up burning them, but just sort of feel guilty getting rid of them, so they just keep them. Or clients who have changed to non-toxic candles or non-toxic scents, but then sort of just keep all the candles just out of habit. And seeing this in other people's homes has encouraged me to like, wait a second, pause and reflect on what I keep and what I have. So number five are things that I always declutter are candles I just don't like. And this is a good example of something that can be tricky if you are fairly frugal. I find candles to be fairly expensive. So it's one of those things that once I have one, or especially if I've personally spent money on it, even if it kind of smells bad, I tended for so long to just hang on to them for so long thinking, well, I would use it one day. But I started to force myself to ask myself, would I rather burn this horrendous candle that I hate or just have no candle at all? And the answer was usually B. Next up is something that I find weirdly relaxing to declutter. My husband Scott has this fantasy where he gets to wear fresh socks, like brand new socks out of the package every day of his life. Like that, he loves the idea of having brand new socks. And something that I find equally satisfying is a brand new marker or Sharpie. I also think that having fresh writing utensils is such a simple way to level up your office area or your crafting area or your kids crafting area. Number seven that I always declutter are dried up markers or pens or pencil crayons or highlighters or crayons. And if you avoid this because you feel guilty about the environmental impact, one way to make this a little bit easier to swallow is using the recycling program. We have one through our stationery store in our area, which is Staples. So you just drop off, I think it's through TerraCycle, and you just drop everything off and they just send it to the recycle. So then it's a little bit less waste for the world. Next up is something that I talk about a lot, but I have a small confession to make. You all know that our family are big readers. We love the library. We love books. But one thing that is like kind of a non-reader characteristic is that I don't like keeping my books. So number eight that I always declutter are books. Kids' books, workbooks, fiction books, cookbooks, pretty much all of it. With that being said, the confession I have to make is that recently I went through Leo's books, our oldest, who's nine, and I came across a few that he's outgrown and he's not reading anymore, but they're really sentimental to me, so I think I might keep some of them. If you watched my recent pre-holiday purge video, you would have seen that there. And the books are still in limbo, but I promise that I will share very soon what we end up doing with them. If you are a book lover, but you don't know where to start, I would suggest three different types of books to get rid of. One are books that you never really loved, two books that your family has grown out of, and three books that you've owned for a long time, but never read. I personally hate having books around that I feel like I should read. For me right now, reading is pure pleasure, and I hate the feeling of having obligation when it comes to that part of my life. And I love getting rid of our books through our little free libraries in our area. If you've never used one or don't want to have it in your area, just look. I think it's littlefreelibrary.org. And then if you look it up there, there should be a map and you can find if there's any or multiples in your area. Next up is something that can be physically small, but I find is a huge weight lifted. Throughout my life, I've gone through multiple phases when it comes to my recipes and cookbooks. At first, when I was really young, I just basically used Pinterest for all my recipes. Then I started to move to more classic cookbooks. Then I started to get a lot of handwritten recipes from friends and family. And more recently, I've switched all my recipes to one single binder. I love having everything in one spot, and I find myself constantly tweaking what recipes I keep. If I try a recipe and I hate it, it is gone. Number eight of things that I always declutter are recipes we don't like. I find this oddly freeing, even though it's such a small thing. I think because making dinner right now is such a time suck, I spend a lot of time planning our meals, shopping for our meals, making our meals, that anything to make it simpler and more streamlined has just been such a benefit for me. I feel like it's actually made it easier for me to consistently meal plan and cook at home and just save money and save time. With organizing our homes, it's so often that question of the chicken or the egg. Do we declutter first or do we create systems first? And I think it's an example where it's sort of kind of both. Like I found systems that work and just continually declutter, and I think it's okay to just continually sort of tweak these. Do you ever end up keeping things because you feel like you should keep them? That is my next one. After our kids were born, I had like typical aches and pains. And around that time, I got one of those rollers that I use for my back, and I was supposed to be using it to roll out sore muscles. And when I first got it, I did use it periodically. However, months would go past and then years would go past and I just wasn't using it. Should I use it? Would it help with sore muscles? Absolutely. Yes. But do I currently have the capacity to really, truly spend 10 minutes a day rolling muscles in addition to all my regular obligations? Absolutely not. Maybe when my kids are teenagers and they can drive themselves to baseball, I can start doing that. But I know right now it's just not going to happen. So I let go of the roller and never looked back. I'm calling category number nine, aspirational self-stuff. And letting go of this stuff can be so freeing. Sometimes I do find these items sort of like hard to spot. So if you're looking around your house to see if there's anything like that, it's often items that you maybe hadn't touched in over a year, something you bought because you felt like you should, or something that every time you see it in your house, it sort of makes you feel guilty. Have a look around and let me know if you find anything in your house from this category. Next up is my last one, and I am pretty ruthless about it. Without a shadow of a doubt, words of affirmation are my love language. My favorite thing in the entire world is someone telling me or writing on paper how they love me or what are they're grateful for something I did for them, or that they're just happy that we're friends. Therefore naturally greeting cards and thank you cards are one of my favorite things in the world. However, in a similar vein, if I receive a card without a special message in it, cards that just have the person's name written on the bottom, I'm obviously still touched by the gesture and the thought, but that's just not something that holds meaning to me long term, which is why something I never keep are cards without a special message. There was a comment on a recent video where I was letting go of greeting cards within the same month that I got them and someone was like, wow, they can't even imagine that, which makes total sense if you're not used to it. But I have a little strategy that has made it way easier. I just keep one or two cards from that person so I have a sample of their handwriting basically. My mom and Scott's parents are both examples of people who just don't write messages. They just always write their name in the bottom and that is their style and that is totally fine. And I know that I have in my stash downstairs, I have a card from each of them, at least one. I think they all might've got a card for each of the kids on their first birthday. So I kept one for each of the kids so that they have their grandparents' handwriting because I know after my dad died, I loved having cards from his hand or little notes that he's written with his handwriting. And knowing that I have those few that I kept means that all the rest that come in, I know that they can just go and I won't regret it. All right, that's 10 guys. That is 10 things from my home that I consistently declutter to create and maintain a simple house that I just love coming home to every night. I would love to hear in the comments below. If you have one category or something that you always declutter that you find super easy to let go of or super satisfying. If you are working on decluttering your spaces on your own, check out my ultimate decluttering guide, which I'll link below for motivation, inspiration, and honest real life guidance. Thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Bye guys.