One of my 2016 goals is to de-clutter my flat. I only live in a small flat and for both me and my boyfriend its our first place outside of our parents homes so we have essentially tried to cram everything we’ve ever collected through out our lives as well as all the new things we had to buy into the tiny space we’re renting.It wasn’t pretty let me tell you. Because of this i thought that now would be a great time to let you know some of the things I’ve gotten rid of, not missed and i don’t think my boyfriend has even noticed they’re gone! Its the perfect time to clear out ready for spring and i hope my experience can help you!
I started my decluttering in my kitchen so i’ll talk about that first. My kitchen is TINY and upon moving in we had bought everything we could possibly need and then been gifted more by our parents meaning our cupboards were full of things we never used. The first thing i got rid of was any doubles. Or triples. Really, we had three spatulas and now we just have one good one. I also got rid of pans. I had 3 huge saucepans and considering its just the two of us 99.9% of the time they were pretty much never used so out they went.
Think about what you actually use. Do you have a wok and a frying pan but only ever use the wok as a frying pan? Throw out the wok. Got a load of baking items but never use them? Throw em.
Get rid of extra cutlery. This obviously depends on how many people are in your family and if you have people round to eat. I keep five sets of cutlery because there is no way that more than three guests could comfortably fit into and eat in our flat.
Multiple mixing bowls. Lets face it, you need three. A large one, a medium sized one and a small one. Don’t ask me why but we had 3 huge ones, a set of nesting ones and at least 6 small ones. I don’t know where they came from and I’m pretty sure i had only used two of them in the last year.
Chipped mugs, plates, bowls or glasses. They’re unattractive, you can get hurt on them and i know that if a bowl of mine is chipped i will never use it again and it will just sit in the cupboard.
Finally for the kitchen, tins and tupperware. I love baking, i really do but there is no way in hell we would ever have used all of the 4 tins and 13 pieces of tupperware we had. I kept two tins for any baked goods and four pieces of tupperware so that, in an extreme case of productivity, i have 2 for left overs and two as lunch boxes if we go out somewhere.
Next i moved onto the living room and this is where i got rid of the most.
Books. I love reading, i love books but if i’ve read a book and didn’t immediately love it i know I’m not going to read it again so they go straight into the charity shop. This also applies to any that i haven’t read in the last two years.
The same thing almost applies to DVDs. If i haven’t watched it in the last year or if I’ve already seen it and know i won’t watch it again i sell the in CEX.
Blankets and cute throws are my weakness. I love how cosy and warm they are so whenever i see cute ones at a reasonable price (I’m looking at you primark.) i can’t help myself. Which ended up with me having 15 thrown over the back of the couch, down the side and on my armchair. It broke my heart but i downsized to five that actually mean something (one was my mums, one was a christmas present etc.).
Candles. Everyone loves candles but if you have pretty ones that you can’t bare to burn cluttering up your shelves its time to let them go to someone else who will love them like you did, and maybe actually use them.
Honestly, that was pretty much all i have in the living room so i moved onto the bedroom which is probably where i got rid of the most stuff.
Socks. I don’t know where they come from or how they get into my drawers but i literally had 3 drawers of socks (and some in my boyfriend drawers but he didn’t notice since i cleverly shoved them to the back. Its not like i wore them anyway.) I got rid of all the odd, hole ridden or plain gross looking socks and realised i suddenly had the same amount of socks as normal people do! I don’t miss any of them, apart from those pretty frilly ones that my boyfriend accidentally put on once. I miss them but there was a huge hole in the heel of both of them.
Everyone knows the rules to how to declutter your clothes, pinterest is full of them but getting rid of a whole load of my clothes really cleared up more space than i would have thought.
Meaningless knick-knacks. Obviously don’t get rid of that snow globe from the amazing trip you took to Paris in 2008, but those mini deer heads they had in Primark right before christmas, the ugly vase someone gave you for christmas three years ago, the birthday present of a piggy bank with shifty eyes you got for birthday from a random co-worker, they can all go and you’ll barely notice they’re gone.
Leads. I had a charger from the nintendo DS lite i had as a kid and my last four mobile phones, not to mention a ridiculous amount of AUX cables. If you don’t know what somethings for that because you don’t use it so just get rid. I upgraded from an iPhone 4 to a 5s recently and still had at least 6 multi coloured i phone chargers that were now unusable lying around my room.
My last tip to declutter is find a place for everything. If you can’t find a place for something then honestly, i don’t think you WANT to find a place for it or it could definitely fit in a cupboard or under a bed.
I’m still working on the whole declutter thing so if you have any tips i’d love you to share them down below and, of course, let me know if you found any of these useful!!
-Dana
Carry on Beautiful! 