#decluttering tips

Wrangling a collection of Kinder egg toys? Paper clips seem to be multiplying overnight? Barrettes out of control in the bathroom? There are loads of ways to rein in all the little stuff that tends to quickly turn into clutter.

person decluttering their home Clutter can be a major source of stress and anxiety. It can also make your home feel smaller and more chaotic. If you’re struggling with clutter, here are 5 simple tips to help you get rid of it for good: Start small. Don’t try to declutter your entire home all at once. Start with one room or even one closet. Get rid of anything you don’t use or love. If you…

I’ve resolved that every Wednesday, I will write a masterpost about self care and living clean and happy lifestyles. Mainly because my blog is devoted to that too, besides being a studyblr, but I hardly ever post original content about it, so hereeee we go. :)

Plan first

Make a list of areas you want to tackle

Or items you want to go through

Set how long you’ll clean

And a little reward for yourself when you’ve reached that goal

Envision what you want your space to look like at the end

Set aside three baskets or areas: one for things to keep, one for things to trash, and one for things to donate/sell

House

There are just some ideas of things to get rid of or pare down. Feel free to add your own. :)

Bedroom

unnecessary pillows on your bed or extra blankets

monsters under your bed

chargers, wires, etc. that go to devices you don’t have anymore or that are broken

old devices, phones, ipods

books you felt kinda eh about while reading them

copies of books or CDs

old notebooks

sticky notes that have lost their stickiness

broken pencils

markers that have dried up

any art supply you don’t use

scrap paper that’s gotten too small

scrap yarn that’s gotten too small

old art projects

unfinished art projects

papers

candles w/o any smell

Scentsy-type stuff w/o any smell

Closet

clothes that don’t fit

all of those clothes you save for your “ugly days”

shoes that hurt that you don’t even like the looks of

underwear with holes (or blood stains - ya feel me, girls?)

socks without a matching pair

socks with holes

bras that are even looking tired

copies of clothes, like multiple white t-shirts

jewelry you don’t wear

childish jewelry

broken jewelry

Bathroom

hygiene products past their expiration date

faded towels

bottles with only a few drops of product left

worn out toothbrushes

hairbands that have lost their elasticity

congealed nail polish

makeup you regret buying

Digital Life

Social Media

Unfollow people, be merciless, make your social media a place of positivity

unfriend toxic people (see the next section)

go through your own posts and delete anything you regret posting

take social media breaks

Computer

upload all of your photos to Google photos or flickr or photobucket or onedrive or whatever, or even a CD, then delete them from your memory

also back up important documents or just things you want to keep to something else and delete them on your computer

go through and sort everything into files

delete any programs you don’t use

Phone

clean out your pictures, upload them to cloud or whatever

delete all of the apps you don’t use or need

go through your contacts and delete the people you don’t want to contact anymore

delete old text message conversations

give yourself a new background too, something clean and simple

Relationships

Get rid of those people who are toxic in your life, mute notifications from them, unfollow them on social media (you can unfollow someone one facebook without unfriending them), don’t answer them often

make an effort to interact with people face-to-face rather than through text or the internet

decide who you want to actively invest your energy in

School

make a study schedule

prioritize your schedule -- study the hardest subjects the most

remember that grades are important

also remember that grades aren’t everything 

(pls don’t fire me from being a studyblr)

if you can’t get everything you need to do done in 24 hours without sacrificing 8 hours of sleep and a bit of time for yourself, then you’re doing too much

Swedish Death Cleaning is for everyone of all ages. Read more about it here, and discover the missing death cleaning checklist you can use to get started decluttering and downsizing your household inventory.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I love the concepts behind minimalism -- when it comes to everything but school supplies. When stationery is involved, I go to the store and just 

But this semester, I am making a concentrated effort to streamline my school supplies! And here are some tips and steps I have taken to implement this goal.

Take inventory of the school supplies you have, and then declutter. How many extra highlighters do you have? How many spare notebooks? How many pens do you keep in your bag that have been limping along on their last vestiges of ink for awhile now? Whatever you don’t need, get rid of. Some things (like dried out sharpies) need to be thrown away. Other things can be donated. 

Look at your methods of studying and ask yourself what you frequently use. When I consider the way I take notes in class and the way I study, I can think of four staples that I absolutely need: paper, pens (in black, blue, and red), highlighters, and stick notes. Last semester I took a lot more than this to school with me, but now that I’m trying to streamline, I realize I can fit 3/4 of those items in my purse and the paper I can carry in a binder. No backpack necessary.

Keep what you want. Carry what you need. Now, I am one of those people that finds immense satisfaction in school and office supplies. I still have a lot of page flags, pens, markers, etc. that I use in my studying, but my point is to only carry to class what you need. This makes it so much easier, and instead of trying to use the correct colored pen for each type of information in the lecture, you can focus more on what’s being said.

Relegate everything to pouches. Pouches make it easy to always keep the necessities with you. For example: a pencil pouch/case. I can stick my pens, highlighters, and sticky notes in it and then throw it in my purse or backpack as needed. Another handy pouch to take is a cosmetic bag. 

My semester starts on Monday, eek! I will try to post as regularly as possible, but I may miss one of my usual masterposts depending on my homework load. I hope everyone has amazing back-to-school experiences!