It’s hard to believe that another year is about to come to a close. It may seem like spring was just here, and now winter is coming on. While holiday plans and preparations may be consuming your life right now, it doesn’t hurt to start thinking about next year. When January rolls around, there are a number of things you’ll need to do. Your kids will be going back to school, you may have new projects at work, and you have to make sure you have all of your tax documents ready to go.

There’s something else you may want to do in the new year: declutter your home. Many people make New Year’s resolutions to get in shape or eat better, but if your house is disorganized, it may be time to resolve to clean it up. Living in a clean, organized home has been proven to positively affect your mood, plus it makes it much easier to find things. Let’s take a look at what a New Year’s resolution to declutter entails and how Junk King St. Paul can help you achieve your goals.

Do an Inventory of Your Home

The first step in decluttering is to know what spaces need to be better organized. Where is the clutter, and what do you need to do about it? In some cases, the solution is simply to straighten things up. For example, if you have a lot of papers, files, and other things spread out across your home office, straightening them up and placing them in their correct places is all that you really need to do. There’s likely not much to get rid of there.

On the other hand, your basement may have some boxes you haven’t opened in years. What’s in them, and do you still need it? That’s the big question, so you’ll want to sort through those things. You may determine that you do want to keep what’s in those boxes. They may contain old family heirlooms and other treasures you don’t necessarily need on a daily basis but won’t part with. In that case, you may want to organize them better. You may want to invest in some plastic storage bins that you can clearly label so you know what’s what.

One of the biggest reasons junk tends to collect in homes is because it becomes invisible. If you don’t know what’s in a box, closet, cabinet, or other space, you don’t know if it’s trash or not. Labeling boxes or assigning certain drawers or cabinets for specific things is the best way to avoid this. The other reason junk accumulates is because of a lack of organization. You may shove as much as you can into a closet without really considering how you’re storing it. This can result in things that should go together being stored in multiple places, which isn’t helpful.

Make a Plan

Now that you know what areas of your home need to be touched, you can make a plan. It might be too much to try to organize and declutter your entire house from top to bottom in a single day. It could even be too much for a single weekend. That’s okay. In fact, that may actually be the best way to tackle your home since it gives you time to recharge in between rooms.

The first step is to decide how much cleaning you can realistically do at a time. This may be one room, or it may be part of a room. This can vary from room to room, too. For example, in the bedroom, your closet may need a dedicated cleaning session, while you may be able to do the entire dining room in an hour. Don’t plan by room or by hour but by how much stuff you have to sort through. Some spaces, like the attic, might need a couple of days if it’s full.

Once you’ve got your zones defined, consider what tools you need. This doesn’t necessarily mean brooms or mops—those are for daily maintenance cleaning. Instead, think about bins, storage boxes, labels, hangers, and other things that will help you organize. You may need to do a few shopping trips to get these items before you can start cleaning.

Consider Installing an Organization System

Depending on the space you’re organizing, simply putting things into labeled bins may not be the right approach. Organizing the garage, for example, may be better done by using pegboards or a rolling tool chest. Your home office may need a filing cabinet or a set of trays for project organization. Your closet may need a new system of drawers, open shelving, and hanging rods for clothing.

Think about the best way of organizing each space, and remember that what works in one room may not work in another. Likewise, a system that works for others may not be the right one for you. You’ll want to organize in a way that makes sense to you and helps you find things easily. Some people may find it best to have cabinets so they can tuck everything away and close the doors. Others may fill those cabinets with all sorts of junk. For them, open shelving is better because they can always see what they have. It all depends on what works best for you.

Pick an Organization Strategy

There are several different organizational strategies out there that you can use. Many people use the three-pile system. This means that each item you pick up has to go in one of three piles: keep, donate, or trash. While the keep pile is likely to be the largest, you may find that you have more things you can donate than you thought.

Another approach is the one-year rule. If you haven’t used an item within the past year, do you really need to keep it? There are some exclusions to this rule, but it’s not a bad way of sorting through things, especially clothing. You might give a pass to your heavy winter coat if the past winter was fairly mild, but on the whole, do you really want to keep clothing you haven’t worn in an entire year?

The Marie Kondo method of sparking joy is another option. If you don’t get joy from something, why keep it? Again, this may not apply to everything. Your cheese grater may not spark joy, for example, but it may be a kitchen tool you do need every now and then. Some other items, especially items you’ve inherited from family members who have passed, may spark a number of emotions rather than pure joy, but they’re still items you will want to keep.

Regardless of which approach you use, Junk King St. Paul is here to help you deal with anything in your trash pile or that you’ve determined does not bring you joy. We make the entire process easy so you can focus on organizing what you are keeping.

What Will Junk King St. Paul Do to Help with the Decluttering?

Junk King St. Paul is a full-serve junk hauling company. This means we will do everything from getting the junk out of your home to dropping it at the landfill or other destination. You don’t have to do anything other than tell us what you want us to take. We handle just about everything, too. From furniture to appliances, hot tubs to yard waste, it can go in our truck. The only thing we have to decline is hazardous waste due to the safety issues surrounding its disposal.

Our process is very simple. First, you reach out to us for a free, no-obligation quote. You can do this over the phone, via text, or through our website. The more detail you can provide on what you need us to haul away, the more accurate our quote will be. In some cases, we will need to do an in-person estimate. That usually happens if you have a large project or unusual items you need us to take. We will always do a final in-person quote when we arrive regardless of what method you did first just so we can make certain there’s nothing unexpected.

While our traditional full-service crew will come into your home to quickly and safely remove the junk, we do offer a no-contact junk removal option. For this, you will need to move the trash out to the curb, driveway, or other area. Then we will pick the junk up from there. You don’t even need to be home, and all payment arrangements can be made over the phone.

Contact Junk King Today for Your Quote

If you’ve made your New Year’s resolution to declutter your home, there’s no time like the present to get started! There’s no harm in getting a little head start, even if it’s just in planning out what areas of your home need to be organized. You can also learn more about junk removal services and what Junk King St. Paul can do for you. Call us today at 1-888-888-JUNK (5865) or send us a text to 1-737-888-5865.