As the New Year draws upon us, we enter a period of reflection, moving forward and fresh beginnings. Some of us like to use this time to make personal resolutions and goals for ourselves, (even if we don’t always stick to them!) and prepare and organise ourselves for the year ahead. With all this in motion, there is no better opportunity to let go of the things that are no longer serving us.
Decluttering your home is a great way to kickstart your good intention making. With the help of ‘Professional Home Organiser’ Emma George, we’ve put together 10 things you should be getting rid of before 2023 for a clutter and stress-free home.
Why is it important to declutter?
Tidy Space, Tidy Mind
When our environment gets cluttered and unorganised, we feel increased levels of stress and anxiety. Clutter works to raise the stress hormone cortisol, and overtime this can have negative impacts on our physical and mental health. Whilst decluttering alone won’t fix all of life’s stresses, it’s a good starting point when trying to simplify your life. A tidy space means less clutter and mess, allowing more room for the mind to focus.
1. Candle Jars
How many candles do you burn through a year? Or more importantly, how many do you burn all the way through? If you’re a lover of candles, the chances are you tend to buy more than you realistically need, especially with the changing of the seasons! Now that it’s the festive season, it’s a great chance to throw away all your old candles that you no longer burn.
HACK: If the candle jar is in good condition, you can clean it out and reuse it as a container! See our TikTok video here:
@purdyandfigg We love this candle jar hack! 😍 #candlejarhack #diyproject #homehacks #learnedontiktok #storagehacks #masonjarcrafts ♬ Super Freaky Girl - BARBIE 💝 🇳🇬
2. Unused Pantry Items
It’s easy to hoard canned foods and condiments as many of them have long expiration dates, but it might just be taking up cupboard space.
There’s plenty of food banks and collections where you can drop off unopened canned goods and dry ingredients like rice, pasta and grains. Anything not in date, you should throw away.
TIP: If it’s unopened, within date and been in your cupboard over 3 months, then it’s probably better off being donated to someone else.
3. Kitchenware & Appliances
Old pots, stained dishes, mismatched food containers… These are just a few of the things we’re guilty of holding onto that may be taking up valuable cupboard space in the kitchen. If you haven’t used it all year, the chances are you probably don’t need it.
4. Christmas/Party Decorations
Now is the perfect time to sort through your Christmas decor, because anything that isn’t already up in your house, you can get rid of! If it’s in good condition, you can donate it to charity or pass it on to friends or family.
5. Cables & Wires
Everybody has that one drawer in their home dedicated to old wires and charging cables- just in case we happen to need them in the future! In most instances we never do, and they just end up taking up valuable drawer space.
Sort through the charging cords in your house and match them up with the things you still have, then test them to make sure they work. Any that you no longer need or work, dispose of.
6. Old Magazines, Leaflets & Takeaway Menus
Magazines are great to read, but they’re also just another contribution to the unnecessary stuff that accumulates in our homes. If you have a specific page in a magazine that you want to read again (e.g a recipe you want to make), keep that one page and put it into a binder, then you can discard the magazine.
The same principle goes for Instruction manuals. How often do you find yourself re-reading old instruction manuals? If the answer is never, then you should definitely add these to your list of things to throw out. And besides, you can find most instruction manuals for household appliances and electrical items online.
7. Towels & Bedding
Many of us are guilty of hoarding old bedding, however as a rule of thumb you should keep no more than two sets of sheets per bed that you own! You should also use this opportunity to throw away any old towels that you no longer use.
HACK: You can repurpose old towels into microfibre cloths for cleaning with. Check out our Instagram Reel here to learn how:
8. Carrier Bags
As much as we try to avoid it, we can unintentionally collect quite a few shopping bags over the years. Although it’s a good idea to reuse your bags instead of buying new ones, it defeats the point if you have hundreds stored away in your cupboards. Take a few minutes to go through your bags and see if you really need to keep them all. It’s good to have around 5-7 reusable bags on hand, but any more than this may be excessive and make your cupboards feel cluttered.
9. Bills, Statements & Letters
After you’ve paid your bills and reviewed your paper documents you probably won’t have a reason to keep them anymore, especially now that most documents are available online. Spend some time going through your letter drawer and shred anything that you don’t need to reread! If there’s the option, switch your mail to fully digital so you don’t need to worry about keeping track of it all.
10. Toxic cleaning products!
We couldn’t not include a good clear out of your cleaning cupboard. Whilst we wouldn’t advocate throwing away unused products (it’s always best to use up what you have), now is the perfect time to consolidate your cleaning products and evaluate what you really need.
Purdy & Figg is launching a brand new limited edition scent; Fir & Bergamot in the new year - the bright & sparkling scent is perfect for refreshing your home for 2023 and replacing all those nasty chemical-based products.
Sign up below to get early access to the limited edition scent!
