How to Easily Declutter Your House in a Weekend

When your home is a flooded with clutter, it’s impossible to keep the house organised and nice-looking. It can even be hard to find the motivation you need to tackle the everyday chores, and to make matters worse, it’s tough to get anything done around the house, no matter how hard you try. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed out at home, it’s important to take the time to simplify and declutter your house. It can be a daunting task but just think about how much less stressful your home will be once you’re no longer spending hours a day putting away, cleaning up, dusting, and moving around all that clutter.

A good decluttering can go a long way toward helping you find peace in your home and give your home the room to breathe. Not to mention, it can be life-changing. In fact, clutter can be quite the energy zapper so getting rid of things you no longer find joy in, can be incredibly empowering.

Now it’s time for you to say goodbye to your clutter-filled house once and for all. To easily declutter your whole house, follow these steps below, getting rid of the clutter, chaos, and stress in your home – all in one weekend!

How to Easily Declutter Your House in a Weekend

Make a Plan

Clear your calendar and plan to devote the entire weekend to get your home free from clutter. If your kids are very young, you’re going to want to drop them off at a relative’s or a friend’s house. If you have pets, it’s a good idea to consider getting a pet sitter for the weekend.

Plan your meals ahead of time by making easy make-ahead meals or preparing freezer meal. This will allow you to focus all of your energy on decluttering instead of spending half the day cooking and doing dishes. Also, make sure to have snacks, granola bars and water bottles near, so you’re not slowed down by thirst or hunger.

Next, make a list of all the rooms in your house and estimate how much time you need spend to go through every room. A bathroom will take approximately 30 minutes to declutter and clean, but your kitchen, kid’s bedroom, and living room may take 1 ½ – 2 hours each. Limiting your time in each room forces you to make progress and prevents you from getting sucked into side projects.

Get Your Family on Board

Getting rid of your belongings can be hard. The minute I decide to start decluttering, I suddenly get emotionally attached to every single item. Everything has a memory and it’s difficult to part with them. But luckily, my husband doesn’t feel the same kind of attachment to everything our kids have ever touched or we’d never get anything done.

If you’re having trouble getting your family on board to declutter your whole house in a weekend, you can create a reward that your entire family can work toward. When the decluttering is finished, you can all go out for ice-cream, go see a movie or have a picnic in a park.

At some point during your decluttering session, you will stumble upon items that you’ll want to get rid off but that someone in your family just can’t live without. It’s only natural to find it hard to part from material things, even with items that have no sentimental value because no one wants to throw away something they spent hard-earned money on. When this happens, you can give everyone their own small veto box or bag. Let everyone put things in their veto box without questioning it. But when the box is full, it’s full!

Sometimes it’s just easier to declutter without having every member of your family questioning and analysing everything you want to give away. If this often is an issue in your house, consider sending your family to a friends house for the day or arrange for a fun day trip for them so you can declutter in peace and quiet.

Gather Your Supplies

There are a few things you should have in place before you begin to make your decluttering successful. Make sure you have some large trash bags and empty boxes you can use to fill with things you’re getting rid of.

It’s also helpful to have sticky notes and markers nearby so you can easily label the bags and boxes that contain the things you’re going to sell or donate. You should also have cleaning cloths and an all-purpose cleaner on hand so you can give your future clutter-free spaces a quick wipe off.

You’ll also need a kitchen timer to keep track of the time you allotted per room. Set the timer for the amount of time you set aside for that room when you enter it. When the timer is up, you have to move on to the next room. I recommend using a kitchen timer over the app on your phone so you won’t waste any time browsing through Facebook.

And lastly, putting on some loud, upbeat music can really make decluttering feel less tedious and you might even find yourself having fun!

Decide What Stays and What Goes

Go through every item room by room and decide what stays and what goes. If you’re having trouble deciding whether you should get rid of something or not, you can ask yourself these questions:

• Have I used this item in the last year?
• Will I actually use it in the near future?
• Am I only holding onto it because it was expensive or for sentimental reasons?
• Do I have duplicates of this item?
• Is it broken, and worn beyond repair?

Don’t spend too much time debating whether you should get rid of an item or not. Make a decision, move on and don’t look back. Remember, you have your veto box if you really get stuck on something and can’t decide. When you’re completely done decluttering every room, spend a few minutes going through your veto box and see if you’ve changed your mind about something.

You should only keep things that you enjoy and use. There’s no point in keeping things that no longer serve a purpose or that’s worn out or broken. Here are some things that you can get rid of without any regret:

• DVDs, VHS tapes & CDs
• Clothes that don’t fit
• Out of date newspapers
• Kitchen appliances & gadgets
• Utensils & dishware
• Toys no longer played with
• Electronics
• Toiletries & old medications
• Old paperwork
• Books
• Anything in your home that you don’t like

Trash, Sell and Donate

Every item that you no longer want to keep should be sorted into trash, recycle, sell and donate piles. Throw away the trash items right away and sort and bundle all recycling so it’s ready to go for garbage day. Put the donation boxes right into the back of your car so they don’t sit around for months, make a trip to your local charity or thrift store and schedule a free pickup online for bigger items.

If you’re interested in getting some money in return for all of your work, take the time to sell itemsthat are still in good condition or that may be worth a lot of money. Plan a yard/garage sale or post the items you’re selling on eBay or Facebook groups. You should do this immediately, or you’ll soon find that the things might migrate from the discard pile back into the home.

Celebrate Your Decluttered Home

Once your home is decluttered, it’s time for you to sit back, celebrate all your hard work and enjoy your new calm, peaceful, and clutter-free home! You’ve worked hard this weekend but it was so worth it, wasn’t it!? Now you really deserve to treat yourself to something you enjoy. Take a long bath, read your favourite book with a cuppa, or just sit down in your living room and look at your clutter-free home.

If you don’t want to keep having a decluttering weekend at least twice a year, you really need to do your best not to undo all your hard work by bringing more stuff into your home. A good rule to follow is: for every item you bring into your house, you have to get rid of one item too. This will prevent you from ending up with a house full of clutter all over again.

Keeping a home decluttered means that there are fewer things for you to clean, organize and put away every day. Clutter adds up quickly and it’s much easier to keep a home looking nice and pretty with fewer belongings. So what do you think? Is it time to declutter your house?