Declutter your space

Five steps to a clutter free space

1. Take one room at a time. Start with the obvious.

• Start by looking at what items are in a room, where they are stored and if they can easily be reached.
• Things laying around like magazines, newspapers, clothing and paperwork are the easiest to tackle first. They are also more likely to make you feel out of sorts when they are messy and disorganised.
• Don't get distracted by other rooms. It is important to focus. Take one room at a time.
• To start, it may be helpful to find four boxes and label them with four categories:
  1. rubbish
  2. donate
  3. storage
  4. put away.
• Why not put on your favourite music to energise you?

2. Sort out the rubbish

• Items to bin include items which can't be fixed, things you haven't used for several years and those things you've kept because "it may come in handy one day" that you will never really use.

3. Support charity - drop a bag of goods into your local Marie Curie Shop

• Marie Curie Shops accept lots of different items as donations. These include: brac-a-brac, jewellery, CDs, DVDs and clothing. For a full list, take a look at our A to Z recycling guide (coming soon).
• By donating your unwanted items to Marie Curie Cancer Care, you can declutter your space and help cancer patients at the same time.
• Click here to find your local Marie Curie Shop.

4. Boot it out

• You could consider holding a boot/garage sale - someone else is more likely to get use out of your unwanted possessions than you with them just buried away in drawers and storage cupboards.

5. Little and often

• It will take time to clear your clutter so do a little and often.
• Try to prevent clutter from building up in the first place.
• Become more organised by filing things away and having set places for your items.
• With less frantic searches, you will have fewer headaches and feel better and more organised.