Since it's summer vacation now and chances are that you are spending most of your days binge-watching Netflix or hanging out at the beach, you have the perfect opportunity to clean up your space. When your life and living area begin to get too cluttered, it can cause some serious stress and uneasiness. But lucky for you, here is a list of 12 easy ways that you clean up your space and declutter your life.
1. Delete old contacts.
If there are people from high school or old classes that you no longer talk to (or need to talk to), delete their contact information. It’s an easy way to make your contact list look not as daunting, and it takes no more than five minutes to do.
2. Throw away all of your school work from the previous semester -- it isn’t necessary.
This might be a no-brainer for some, but for people like myself, I let my old schoolwork sit in my room and collect dust. But if you go through it and only keep the work that you’re most proud of or may need, later on, you can make your room look way less cluttered.
3. Go through your scented body care and give away your unused lotions as gifts.
While Bath and Body Works is amazing, it also is a major contributor to clutter. Their semi-annual sale always results in purchasing copious amounts of body care items that honestly may never be used. If this sounds like something you do, take the unused products that you have sitting in your cupboard and give them away to friends and family as a little gift.
4. Delete old screenshots and photos that are no longer necessary.
Our phones tend to be a breeding ground for clutter – often times because of screenshots of funny memes or photos of random things. But if you just spend the time to go through your camera roll one time and delete any photos that have no meaning to you, you can easily clean up your phone space.
5. Go through your pantry and donate the food you know you won’t eat.
Let’s admit it, we sometimes buy food that just ends up sitting in our pantry and it never gets eaten. Even if it’s only a few cans of peas that you don’t plan on eating, your donation to a food pantry could really help someone in need.
6. Unfollow people you no longer talk to.
Why bother clogging up your feeds with content from people that you don’t associate with anymore? You can minimize the amount of mindless scrolling you do when you’re bored by just unfollowing accounts you don’t have any interest in.
7. Cash in your coins that are scattered around your room.
You can make money and clean your room – it’s a win-win.
8. Pick two decorative pillows to keep and get rid of the rest.
Even though having nine decorative pillows makes your bedroom look absolutely majestic, they’re unnecessary. Get rid of the excess and you will surely see less clutter.
9. Refold any clothes that may be crumpled.
This one may sound weird, but if your clothes are crumpled, it can make your room look messy and unorganized. Just refold the clothes that need some attention, and the small change will make all the difference.
10. Keep only one pair of shoes for each style and donate or sell the rest.
You don’t need two pairs of boots, five pairs of heels, three pairs of sneakers, etc. If you just pick your favorite pair of each, you can allow for much more space in your room.
11. Invest in wall shelves to organize your books and create more space.
Instead of just stacking your books on your desk or TV stand, buy a shelf or two from IKEA and organize them there. This gets the books off of those surfaces and gives you more space to put something else there.
12. Throw away any makeup you’ve had for more than six months.
Come on now, you have to do this. I know it can be hard since you spent way too much money on an eyeshadow palette, but keeping it for three years takes up room and is a breeding ground for bacteria – toss it.
