Decluttering Tips For Your Home: Prevent Clutter In Your Home With A Dumpster Rental

What happens with all of our household clutter?

Why are we still hanging onto these household items even though we know we shouldn’t? Well, because cleaning is a pain!

According to a study done in 2013 at the Yale School of Medicine, researchers studied both hoarders and non-hoarders, and hoarders showed an increase in activity in two areas of the brain when they were forced to get rid of their own household items. According to the study, the subjects said they felt “something wrong” about tossing something out. The two areas of the brain that lit up are known to be associated with conflict and pain. When we have fondness for any object, for any reason, even the thought of getting rid of it causes discomfort.

Therefore, to help improve your chances of decluttering and keeping your home clutter-free in the long term, you need to take the steps to avoid clutter in the first place or understand that there doesn’t need to be a connection between you and your clutter.

How Clutter Affects You

While people might find some comfort in their clutter, there is evidence that a messy space impedes performance. According to a study done in 2011 at Princeton University, “physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.”

Clutter affects us in other ways too! Sometimes clutter can make a house so messy that people don’t want to go home. Clutter can directly affect your stress levels too, it is observed that female homeowners with a high density of household items experience high cortisol (stress) levels.

Another study shows that 25% of Americans cannot park their cars in their two-car garage because it is filled with clutter. This is just one statistic of clutter, here’s more:

• Most Americans spend 2.5 days every year, just looking for misplaced items
• 60% of Americans are late to school or work as a result of clutter
• 49% of Americans miss appointments or meetings as a result of clutter
• 22% of Americans miss bus rides, trains, or flights as a result of clutter

Are you ready to start decluttering your home? Consider renting a dumpster to make it easier!

5 Steps To Declutter Your Home Creating A Clutter-Free Zone

Clutter can easily pile up anywhere in your home, from your garage to your coffee table to your attic. Let’s examine a number of strategies that will help in decluttering your home:

1. Divide your stuff into three categories and a “maybe” pile.

A helpful step to declutter your home is separating your stuff as early in the process as possible — this helps establish what you want to:

• Keep
• Donate
• Throw away

Anything that you keep should be something that you have used in the past 6 months and be strict with this rule. If the item under consideration has significant sentimental value that you’re absolutely heartbroken, you may put it in a “maybe” pile and if it isn’t used in the next 6 months, there are no second chances!

Anything that’s still in usable condition should be donated. If you wouldn’t mind still using this item, donate it! Someone else may find great use of it.

Lastly, anything that can’t be used anymore should be thrown away. Don’t reminisce of the good ol’ times because the good ol’ times will still be there with or without your stuff! Don’t hesitate, if your first instinct is to toss it — then toss it!

Most people who are decluttering feel psychologically overwhelmed and tight on space. One great question that often helps people make swift decisions when deciding whether to keep or release an item is: What do I want more of right now, more space or this household item

It is wise to remind yourself while you are editing your household items that you are engaging in this task because you are longing for more, ease, clear surfaces and easy-to-find items.” — Lindsey Whisen — Ease Up: The Organization Expert

2. Donate your clutter!

You guessed it, the next step is to take that donation pile and DONATE it! If you want to make a quick buck, you can save some household items that you think will sell for the next step.

Everything that you donate should be in usable and reasonable condition — please don’t donate unusable items! Here are some places you can donate to:

• Goodwill
• Salvation Army
• Habitat For Humanity
• ReStores

Don’t forget to check out any other local re-use it stores or thrift shops that might make good use of your old clutter or household items.

3. Have a garage sale.

Now here’s the kicker, there will be items in your “keep” pile that you probably still should get rid of. You might only be keeping that clutter because you feel guilty for spending money on it. Well, let’s make some of that money back!

It’s unreasonable to think you’d be able to get full price on certain household items but you can make some money back from unused and lightly used items. It’s time to take those items out of their storage boxes and host a garage sale.

Keep your mind open! It doesn’t necessarily have to be a traditional garage sale. There are tons of online shops that you can list your items and sell them. Here are some websites that allow you to sell your secondhand goods:

• Facebook Marketplace
• Carousell
• Craig’s List
• eBay

Local vintage or thrift sellers may also be able to sell some of your household items if they fall under the category of vintage and lightly-used.

4. Hire professionals to dump your trash — safely!

We’re so close to being done! The most emotional step is upon us, and that’s parting ways with your clutter. You’ll need to find a way to get rid of all the stuff in your “throw away” pile — and everything left over from your garage sale.

There are two main ways that people get rid of their clutter:

1. Dumpster rental
2. Junk removal

If you’re looking for a more affordable way to get rid of your household items and don’t mind moving the items yourself, a dumpster rental is for you!

5. Adjust your purchasing habits.

This final, but most important, step is an ongoing step — and by far can be the most difficult to do! To stay away from clutter and prevent it from happening, you need to develop strategies to stop collecting more clutter. That means:

• No buying stuff you don’t need on a whim.
• No buying things you can’t find.
• No buying stuff on sale — for no reason!

The Best Ways To Prevent Household Clutter

There are two main rules if you want to prevent clutter, and they are quite simple. These rules are so simple in fact that if you follow it, you’re 100% sure to reduce the amount of clutter you have and prevent it:

1. Don’t buy unnecessarily!

If you can’t find something, or you’re not sure you need it, don’t buy something new! Did you know, around 68% of Americans make redundant or wasteful purchases?

Once you’ve finished your initial decluttering session, you should be able to find everything you need. This will save you so much time looking for things but it will also help prevent household clutter. If you’ve lost something after your decluttering session and you don’t know where this item is, don’t give up until you do.

2. Purge your home regularly.

You’ll have to purge your home of unwanted stuff regularly — and the key word is regularly! Every time you notice something that you have no use for, get rid of it. This helps prevent clutter by clearing space for future items that you may need more.

To make things less overwhelming, start decluttering one room at a time. Pick a room, like your laundry room, and start decluttering it little by little until it’s done. Removing things like paper clutter and items that have a different spot than they’re currently in. Then, you can move on to the next room.

Hot Tip: Invest in items that will help you stay organized, like drawer dividers, or underbed storage.

Why Renting A Dumpster Is The Best Choice For Decluttering

Recognizing the need to declutter is a big step, so congratulations on that, but what are you going to do with all that stuff you no longer need? If you can’t donate it and you want to do the work yourself, renting a dumpster is your best option — even if you own a pickup truck!

When you choose a dumpster you can load a lot more trash and debris. For example, in our largest 20-yard bin, you can fit the equivalent of 8 pickup truck loads of stuff — that’s a lot of waste!

We’ve included some helpful tips on knowing the right size of dumpster to rent:

Clearing Out a Two Car Garage

If you’re convinced renting a dumpster is right for you, but you’re not sure what size to go with, don’t worry we can help with that. Consider a two car garage loaded with junk you no longer need. For that type of project we’d definitely recommend a 15 or even a 20-yard dumpster.

For Single Car Garages

You wouldn’t need the largest bin available if you’re just clearing out a single car garage though. In this scenario we’d suggest a 10-yard container — maybe a 15 at the most if you really have things piled high in there!

Smaller Decluttering Jobs

When you’re just cleaning up a couple of rooms in your house you should be fine with a smaller dumpster. A 10 yard should give you tons of space — that’s still the equivalent of about 4 Dump runs in a pickup!

No matter what type of decluttering project you’re working on we wouldn’t suggest going with anything smaller than the 10-yard. It can be surprising how much junk you can actually fit in a small space!

If you do end up with a bit of room left in your 10-yard rental after decluttering, have a look around your home. Chances are you’ll find a few more items to fill it with!

Our Favorite Decluttering Tips For You To Use Today

• Good Housekeeping: This wonderful article has tips to help declutter your entire home from expanding kitchen cabinet storage spaces to tossing expired products in your bathroom and by maximizing the space underneath your bed in the bedroom.
• House Logic: This great resource from House Logic provides advice on how to get your home organized with only devoting one hour a day for a month.
• The Tiny Life: Follow the Tiny Life’s guide to go from room to room to declutter your entire home with tips on when to throw away some of those old papers lingering around the house and how to keep your bathroom countertop clutter-free.
• MyDomaine: 28 professional organizers collaborate to provide great decluttering tips like how to recognize when you need to start, how to formulate a plan and how to create ‘landing stations’ throughout the home.
• The Life On Purpose Movement: Erica delves into the one simple idea for homeowners to install in their homes to keep clutter at bay.
• Becoming Minimalist: America’s favorite minimalist, Joshua Becker gets creative with these ideas, like donating one household item every day, to keep your home organized and clutter-free.

Now you know where clutter issues may emanate from, how clutter impacts your psyche, and with tips from professional organizers in the field, how to create a clutter-free home.