5 Hot Annual Declutter Tips

1. Notice what you aren't using

You will notice what items you aren't using during your monthly and quarterly cleaning tasks.

These items either didn't work for you (i.e., products), your taste or style changed (i.e., clothing & décor), or you made a mistake purchasing something or received a gift (i.e., an appliance you never used or a duplicate of something you already have).

2. Add to your annual decluttering tasks

In my last video, I said that I would show you how to add in annual cleaning tasks to your cleaning routine.

As the seasons change, you typically might be wearing a different wardrobe and might change up your home décor.

So, quarterly, you will add in these annual deep-cleaning tasks to help declutter your home each season:

SPRING:

[ ]Launder, or steam in place, curtains, and dust lamp shades & blinds

[ ]Get upholstery, carpets, rugs & flooring professionally cleaned

[ ]Wash outdoor windows

SUMMER:

[ ]Deep clean closets & dressers

[ ]Scrub outdoor furniture

FALL:

[ ]Deep clean under & behind large appliances

WINTER:

[ ]Clean out the attic & basement

You can choose to do these tasks within these quarters or seasons … maybe on the second Saturday of the month.

Or you can choose to do them all once a year. You can do any of these tasks in any season you prefer.

You might want to move the deep cleaning of your closets and dressers to spring.

To declutter each season, all of these tasks depend on how your items are stored or how often you want to change them out.

3. Change out decorative items

As you clean your curtains, lamp shades, rugs, and other decorative items, you can change them out for the new season.

You can check to see if any items are soiled or damaged or if they no longer suit your taste.

4. Purge duplicate items

You can do the same for your wardrobe and check to see if you have any duplicates of the same item or the same style item that you don't need and never wear.

In my freebie, I go into detail about how to sort your items into "Keep," "Elsewhere," "Donate," and "Toss," the reasoning behind the categories, and what to do with them.

This is an essential sorting stage in any organizing task.

5. Have spots to place items for donating or selling

To make it a habit to declutter each season, I recommend keeping a spot or multiple spots in your home where you place items to donate or sell.

This could be a shelf or boxes in your garage or shed or bins or baskets distributed throughout your home, like laundry baskets in the closets that are labeled specifically for donations. 

When you go through your monthly cleaning tasks, as noted in the previous video, you can place these items in these areas until you are ready to bring them to the donation center, or you can have a garage sale.

My next video will show you how to maximize sales at your garage sale, and I will have a video following that about how to use garage sale type apps to maximize sales as well.

Annual declutter

Do you have a hard time purging items? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy organizing!