Looking for ways to make decluttering fun?
If you’re a slow declutter like me, who only have 15 minutes to purge (so it has to be done everyday to be really successful), or maybe decluttering is just not your thing (I know the feeling), sooner or later, you’ll get bored with it.
No need to worry, however, because there are many ways to make decluttering fun! All you need is to ask yourself, what sparks joy in you? Perhaps its when you do things together with your husband? Or maybe its music?
Whatever it is, if you can find a way to connect that to decluttering, that can make it an enjoyable experience.
Here are 12 easy and creative tips to help give you an idea of how you can make decluterring fun and enjoyable even it means a lot of work.
Enjoy!
1. Listen to your favorite songs.
Play your favorite music while decluttering.
Listening to an uplifting music relaxes and brightens your mood. If you feel overwhelmed, music can reduce that feeling.
When I’m writing and words just won’t come out, I listen to music – those concentration music that you can find in Youtube. Then words would start to flow.
The same principle can be applied to decluttering.
It’s up to you whether your music is that with lyrics, or like mine, concentration music. Whichever you play is fine as long as it uplifts and energizes you.
Decluttering then, will no longer be as dreadful as it seemed.
2. Take before and after pictures.
Sometimes we are too focused on the still-cluttered spaces that we don’t see how our homes are slowly being transformed by our decluttering efforts. Until we see a picture of how our house used to look.
This is especially true for slow declutterers, who can only manage to purge a little each day.
You may think and feel that you are not doing enough, and your efforts are not having any impact in your home. But when you see the picture of your space before you decluttered it, you’ll be amazed.
Don’t be surprised if you’ll feel a little impressed with yourself.
So take a picture of any space before you declutter it. Then take another after every time you declutter it.
This way, you are focused on the improvement being done each day, not on the tasks that are still ahead of you.
If you focus on the amount of clutter that you still have to tackle, you really will feel overwhelmed. But if you focus instead on the little success you get each time you purge, the idea that you can do it will sink in your mind little by little.
The transformation will inspire you and motivate you to continue.
3. Have a fresh, clean scent.
When you think of a clean and happy home, does it also make you think of a home that smells great?
If it does, decluttering with a fresh, clean scent can be just the right start to set the house into a clean house mode and make decluttering fun.
Light a scented candle or diffuse essential oils. The scent will motivate you to match it with a clean environment, prompting you to declutter.
4. Set a timer.
This is my favorite. Challenge yourself and race against the clock!
I normally set the timer for 15 minutes when I declutter. And you bet it’s not that hard to squeeze in even if you’re busy. Others do it for 10 minutes and even 5.
Decluttering doesn’t have to be done all at once. You can do it for a few minutes everyday, if that’s all you have. A little decluttering here and there will surely add up until you have covered your entire home.
5. Do it with a friend.
Tell a friend that you are decluttering and you’re gonna need help. If you love challenges, you can ask her to declutter her stuff too, then you can chat each other while you declutter, and then both of you will show each other’s work when done.
You can also just invite your friend over to your house and let her help you with your stuff.
Or simply ask her to just sit there and chat with you while you purge. Perhaps you can ask her opinion about your stuff when you are unsure of what to do with it. Ask her “What do you think? Do I still keep this?”
We all need encouragement from time to time. Decluttering can be really daunting especially when you feel that you are alone. But if you’re with a friend, even if she just sits there and talk with you while you declutter, that can lighten things up.
6. Participate in online group challenges.
You are not alone.
That is one thing you should never forget when you feel like you wanna give up on decluttering. There are others who have even more clutter than you do. They too are struggling to purge and keep their lives simpler.
Sometimes you gotta be in a group to help you be reminded of that. That is where you can make use of online group challenges.
The goal of online group challenges is to make decluttering easier for its participants and for you to be with members who are helping each other in decluttering and organizing their homes.
The participants that you will meet there are also struggling to purge, so they know how you feel and what you are going through. They’re there to help you and encourage you. Sometimes that’s all we need to get things done.
7. Turn it into a game.
Ever hear of Did you miss it?
Did You Miss It? is one example of a game that you can do with your spouse or anyone living with you.
The method is simple. Ask your partner to hide some of your stuff. If you don’t look for them within a specified amount of time, like within a month, or six months (you decide the time), that means you don’t need that anymore and you can get rid of that without any regret.
Also, if you want your kids to get involved in decluttering your home, making it look like they’re only playing is probably the best way to make decluttering fun for them. Encourage them even more by giving them a prize for playing well!
8. Reward yourself with experiences that you enjoy.
Another sure way to make decluttering fun is to attach a reward to your decluttering goals. Examples of thes goals could be:
- Declutter the closet in 3 days
- Declutter the entire kitchen in 1 week.
- Purge 10 items a day for 10 days.
You can create your own decluttering goals. Then whenever you succeed with one of these goals, reward yourself with an experience that you enjoy.
Experiences are better than tangible rewards because physical things have the tendency to pile up and be a potential clutter in the future. You don’t want that.
So rather than buying things to keep at home as a reward, you can focus on experiences that bring you joy. It could be a dinner out, watching a movie with your family, a massage at your favorite spa, a date with your friends, or a vacation out of town.
Be as creative as you can be. Ask yourself, what experiences bring you joy?
Focus on that.
9. Invite people over.
Some find the fun in decluttering when they invite people over to their home.
The fact that people are coming over is enough to push them to declutter and clean the house before they arrive. After all, you don’t want your friends or your colleagues coming into a messy home, right?
10. Sell your decluttered items.
How about earning some money from what you purge?
Sounds good, right?
There are ways to make good money selling clutter. You can hold a garage sale, bring them to consignment stores near you, or sell them online.
You bet that will not only make decluttering fun, but will make you want to do it more!
11. Get rid of 10 things daily.
It might be hard to declutter all at once, like your closet for example, and you may not have much time for that either. But what if you toss 10 things only each day?
Can you find 10 things that you don’t need anymore?
You bet that’s easier!
Finding 10 things is not that much of a job. And do the math. If you toss 10 things a day, in a week that would be 70. In a month that would be 300! In a year, that would mean you decluttered a total of 3,600 things!
You see, small things do add up. So do not underestimate the power of decluttering little by little. All you have to do is be consistent.
Can’t find ten things to declutter? Let me help you with that! Here is a list of 101 things you can declutter from your bedroom. Just click the link and you can download it for FREE!
12. Do a no-spend challenge for a month.
Make sure you have some allowance for groceries, gas and other essentials, though.
You are not purging anything in a no-spend challenge. But this is so much connected to decluttering because you are stopping clutter from entering your house.
If you look around you, all that clutter used to be money.
So one way of stopping clutter is not buying one in the first place. Challenge yourself. For one month, don’t spend anything apart from the basic essentials like gas, groceries and mortgage. Stop your shopping habits and replace them with other cheaper or free activities.
By doing a no-spend challenge, you may not be purging things from your home, but you are purging something more important than physical things. That is, your habit to spend on non-essentials like excess clothing, eating out when you can cook healthier meals, and anything else that you want but don’t need.
Okay… that’s it! Thank you for reading up to the end of this post. I hope I have given you enough ideas to try so you can make decluttering fun.
Again… decluttering doesn’t have to be boring.
In your own little way, mixed with your own creativity, you can make any activity fun, even if it’s a tedious task like decluttering.
How about you? Have you tried other means to make decluttering fun? I’d love to know about them. Feel free to reply in the comments section below.
Want more posts on decluttering and organizing? Check these out!
- 10 Creative Ways to Keep Motivating Yourself to Declutter
- 61 SIMPLY AMAZING Small Space HACKS for your TINY BEDROOM!
- How to Declutter Your Bedroom in an Easy, Energizing and Fun Way for Just 15 Minutes a Day!
- 5 Insanely Practical Steps to Organize Underbed Storage Space
- 12 Simple Secrets to a Clutter-Free Bedroom Nightstand
- Simple and Smart Closet Organization Hacks from the Dollar Store
If you found this article helpful, kindly take a second to pin it! Let’s help each declutter our homes in an enjoyable way!
