8 Easy Steps to Help Minnesotans Declutter During the Winter

Winter in Minnesota is a great time to get outside and play. But when you are staying inside, winter is a good time to work on decluttering your house.  

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Most of us have stuff that we could either throw away, sell or donate that would open some space in our homes and in some cases offer some new life to the objects that you are holding on to. 

Before the warmer weather gets here and we want to spend more time outside, here are tips that could help maximize your decluttering process. 

First, let me say that when I began to look into this topic, I found a variety of concepts to getting rid of stuff around the house. Some of these took so much time and effort that it felt almost counterproductive for people who are busy and aren’t devoting a whole week to cleaning up. 

I found an article from AARP from 2021 that offers eight steps that seemed easy to navigate without impeding your life or schedule. 

The first step is to remove any trash that you see. This may sound like low hanging fruit, and it is, but you may be surprised by the things all around the house that could have already been tossed. 

Secondly, start by choosing one small area to organize, like a drawer. It’s a small step, but an important one to help you build the momentum you will need for the bigger areas that are still to come. 

From this step it is advised to put the contents you are dealing with into three piles: keep, donate and throwaway. You could have a fourth if you want to try and sell any of the items you no longer want. 

Next, for the items you intend to keep, find a permanent resting spot for those items. If nothing else, at least know where you are going to put everything. This will help you in deciding the fate of some of the other things you have. 

Any items you have that are similar to other things you are keeping; a pro tip is to group them together. This keeps you from scattering them around the house.  

Here’s an important one that is hard for a lot of people to adhere to; if you buy something new, you must get rid of something that you have. So, you are not adding to the items you have, you are essentially replacing. 

This step is something that could be a big help to many of us, if you have things you are keeping for others in your family, for instance your grandkids, is it something you can give them now? If so, part of your problem is solved. 

Lastly, remember when I said I liked this plan because it was considerate of your time, the last tip from AARP is to allot scheduled times to work on this. This helps you not to get overwhelmed or burnt out on the process. 

You could take a room a day or set aside three hours of out a day to work on your decluttering and you don’t do have to do those in a row. Take a break in between projects so you give your mind a break on the whole process. 

Cleaning things out around the house can be a lot of work, but it can also be fun as well. There is a payoff once you get going in seeing things tidier in your living space.