I like when the house is clean, everything is in its place and tidying up does not take more than half an hour a week. But it wasn’t always the case.
I can’t stand to think that before I was inclined to compulsive hoarding. It got even worse with my passion for handwork. I couldn’t throw away anything: beautiful fabrics, nice buttons, small boxes and even twigs. It was impossible to clean up all this stuff, so that organised chaos dominated in my room.
After that I moved to another city, a few years later I moved again and then one more time. While moving I always took with me only one bag with the most important things and I bought the rest in the nearest supermarket. But time went by, I started to feel at home, I bought more things that took all the space and littered the room.

It went on like this until one miraculous morning.
«Good morning!», I told myself. It’s high time to organize the marathon «Put the house in order».
My cleaning method was extremely easy. At that moment, I didn’t want to do everyday tasks or organize my house according to feng shui. Therefore, I deduced the simplest decluttering formula.
Surround yourself with only two types of things:
- Тhat are indispensable for your life
- Тhat have some sentimental value
The next month was the time of decluttering! Everything that did not fit in «two types of things to leave» went directly to the rubbish bin. After a small break, one more revision and then another one… Over time I got a steady habit to sort out my stuff every 1 or 2 months. By the way, it is very practical to add decluttering to your regular week plan.
My advice is simple! Don’t keep valentine cards from your ex (except if you collect postcards), figurines with zodiac signs (except the one that your grandma gave you, that she brought from China in 1956), old wrapping paper, clothes, that you didn’t wear more than a year! You just don’t need all this stuff; it surrounds you and doesn’t allow you to breathe freely.
Here is the checklist of the most obvious places that need to be decluttered:
- Wardrobe
- Linen closet
- Kitchen cabinets with products
- Freezer
- Kitchen cupboard
- Medicine box
- Social networks (delete news that you are no longer interested in)
- Web bookmarks
- Drawers with bath and makeup accessories
- Photos and videos (both paper and digital formats)
Approximately one time a week I look through my social networks and I unsubscribe from news I am no longer interested in. I have only one passion that I couldn’t throw away – it’s paper books. Nonetheless, even in this case I could find a compromise, I simply started to read electronic books.
If I am fond of a book and I am sure that I will read it one more time, I go to the shop and buy a paper version of the quality I like (without glossy pages and screaming book covers) and put it on the shelf. Frankly speaking, it also helped me to save and gain lots of money because picking over the books I found good ones that were new but not interesting for me. I quickly placed an ad on the internet, selling books at half price, and got rid of them within a week!
Then picking up this practice, I sold useless stuff (bye bye electric manicure set, making noises as if I was drilling walls and not doing nails!), I gave it to my friends and, of course, I threw some things away.
If you don’t have enough inspiration for cleaning or you don’t know how to start, here are some useful links:
- Book Flylady – for someone who likes daily challenges, marathons and breaking down the house into cleaning areas.
- Book of Marie Kondo “The life-changing magic of tidying up” – inspires you to throw away even stuff that you couldn’t put to the rubbish bin for a long time.
- Book of Marie Kondo “Spark joy” – the second book of the author, offering an illustrated guide to her acclaimed KonMari method.
Tell me, do you like to store things? Which stuff do you usually keep and which things you can easily throw away, with no regret?