Hey there!! Welcome again to the series of – Moms guide to decluttering your home part two!!

Have you been planning your days as I have asked you to in the previous part of this series?

If you haven’t read the first part, then I’d recommend you read it first here. And implement the task given in the first part before you start with the next parts.

If you have already read it and implemented it then we are all good to go ahead!

So, in this part, we are going to talk about the items you’re going to need to declutter your home. I call them my decluttering kit!! Don’t worry, you won’t need any kind of fancy gadgets or any costly products. In fact, the items we are going to use are the ones which you most probably already have them in your home!!

And even if you don’t have them, they are super cheap to buy!! So, no worries here!! I am not gonna cost you any money to declutter your home successfully!!

So, let’s dive in and see what you’re really going to need for the next few weeks to do the task!!

Moms guide to decluttering your home part two – items you’ll need to make your own decluttering kit

So, here the list ( a really short one) of the items you’re going to need:

1. Laundry basket(s)

You’ll need a laundry basket that’s big enough to keep things in it while you sort the things from your drawers/cabinets/wardrobes. Things that you are going to keep will go into this basket.

As we’ll be doing just one room for a whole week and each day we’ll be focusing on one area of that room to declutter (for ex. one drawer of the study table or just one shelf of the bookshelf or just one cabinet in the kitchen), you won’t need more than one basket if it’s big enough.

But if you have a lot of stuff in your home then you should probably think about having another basket available for the task. You know, just in case!!

2. Bin bags.

Of course, there is going to be a lot of trash!! You are going to purge it all ruthlessly and trash the things that you don’t need at all or the things that are not in good shape to keep them.

For all those things you’ll need the bin bags to collect them, so, it would be better to stock them up before we start the decluttering sessions.

3. Boxes.

It’ll be good to have a few boxes at your hand to store the things that you’d want to donate.

Or you can also use storage bags for this purpose. I have found that boxes usually take up a lot of space to keep in the house and hence we try really hard to get rid of them, and it ultimately gears us up to donate the things as early as possible and get rid of those boxes to clear the space!!

It always works for me! My husband never likes the stack of boxes kept in the house waiting to be donated and always takes the initiative in getting rid of them!! Maybe it’ll work for you too. Or just see what works for you -boxes or bags?

4. Labels.

Labels are great help. You’ll need labels to stick them on the sorting devices (laundry baskets, boxes,bin bags) you’re going to use to put the sorted items while decluttering.

Don’t worry, you won’t need a tons of them, in fact you’ll need exactly six kinds of labels!

1. Keep
2. Fix
3. Donate
4. Trash
5. Maybe
6. Give Away

Labels will also be helpful if you’ll be getting a helping hand from your family or kids and they will know what goes where without you telling them for .. maybe…20th time! Even though if you won’t get any helping hand ( which is the highest possibility) still the labels will make it easy to know what the boxes and bags have inside after the work is done, and you don’t have to open every box to see which hold the things that you need to donate.

So let’s quickly see where these labels will go:

1. Keep: This one label is for the boxes or laundry baskets in which you’ll keep the items that you really want to keep. You’ll keep only those items in this labeled box/basket about which you are 100% positive that you want to keep them, without any doubt.
2. Fix: Stick this label to the bag/box in which you can store anything that you need to keep but needs some kind of fixing and can be used again after fixing. You can use relatively smaller bag/box for this purpose as there won’t be that much of such items that need fixing.
3. Donate: You can use this label on the boxes in which you’ll store the items that you’ll be donating. Always make sure that the items are in good condition before you put them into this box.
4. Trash: You can use a box with this label to store the items that can immediately go into the trash and then pour them into the bin bags once you’re done sorting. Or if you are going to use bin bags directly ( I prefer this) then you can skip this one label as the bin bags convey the same message and you don’t need to label them!
5. Maybe: This label is super helpful. You’ll use a box or bag (in case of clothes) with this label on to store all those kinds of things about which you are not so sure if you want to keep it or get rid of it. Of course, we all have such items (especially clothes) that we are not really ready to give away or donate even if you haven’t used it in the last six months or maybe even the whole last year but still, you are too attached to them to get rid of them. All such items can go into this ‘Maybe’ box/bag.

But here is the rule about this ‘Maybe’ box – once you’ve put all the ‘maybe’ items in it, you’ll immediately close the box with tapes and keep it somewhere out of your sight. And if you pass 6 months without opening this box and without needing anything from this box, then you’ll get rid of all the items from this box!

5. Give Away: This label goes for the boxes in which you’ll store the items that you want to give away. For example – if you have a sweatshirt that doesn’t fit you but is in really good shape then you can give it away to your sister or someone who will willingly accept it. Just make sure that it’ll serve them well and won’t add extra clutter to their home. Always ask if they need it and if they’d like to have it before giving away.

And 6th type of label you might need – if you are a pro at decluttering – is Sell! But it’s a completely optional thing. If you’ve anything that’s in really good shape and you want to get rid of and can sell (like old study books or old mobile phone or anything that’s of no use for you anymore and you are confident about selling it), you can use this label to stick on the box in which you’ll put all these sellable items.

5. Duster/rag/ cleaning cloth.

To quickly get done with the cleaning while you’re decluttering, you’ll need a duster/rag/any cleaning cloth that can work.

It’s really easy to clean while you’ve emptied the space to declutter it rather than making the ‘cleaning your house’ a different project of itself! You get the cleaning job done in almost no time!

6. Oil soap: furniture cleaning and polish.

Ok, I am not turning this decluttering session into a cleaning session, but it’s only wise to quickly wipe it clean when you’ve done half the task of emptying that drawer to declutter it rather than doing it all again only for cleaning purpose!!

So it’s good to have these few basic cleaning supplies at your hand when you’re going to purge items from some area in your house!!

One of my favorites is Murphy’s oil soap. It keeps the furniture well polished and in good condition for the coming years.

7. All-purpose cleaners.

All-purpose cleaners can be really handy when it comes to quick cleaning. You can clean everything from your kitchen counters to mirrors by these cleaners. So I’d recommend you to stock up some all-purpose cleaner if you don’t have any.

You can try this – Mrs. Meyer’s clean day- it’s a really great product and goes really well with all surfaces.

These cleaning supplies are completely optional as they won’t play any part in the decluttering process but they will help you get done with all the cleaning while you’re at it and you won’t have to visit the same area again just for cleaning!!

That’s it!! You’ll need only these things to do the decluttering in the next few weeks!!

In the next week, we’ll be starting with the decluttering of your living room. In the next post, I’ll tell you the easiest way to declutter your living room step-by-step. We’ll be focusing only one room per week and each day you can focus on different areas of that room so that at the end of the week you’ll be done with decluttering the whole room!!

So, before we start next week, be ready with all these items!!

See you next week!!

Until then, have a happy time and take care of yourself :)!