My current favorite way to declutter or downsize is to sell my belongings. I am on a tight budget, so any money I can bring in by divesting myself of belongings not only makes the place more presentable, but also helps pay the bills. I've been having difficulty with finding a good venue for selling items right now, but I keep looking for one or more that will work. So far, the Facebook groups don't seem to be working, nor do the selling apps, at least the ones I've tried thus far. In addition to selling the items I no longer need or want, when I am able, I really enjoy donating my items. Knowing that my clothing, accessories, books, entertainment items, and household goods are going to help someone else in need makes me feel better about myself, and it's a free way to lift your spirits while making a difference.
Oh my I really need to de-clutter, I am a clutter bug, I have been trying to get rid of things but it is very hard for me. I don't like buying a lot of things so most the stuff is things people gave me or I got for cheap at thrift stores. I also have a vintage resale business so I am always going to auctions. I have found that my business is a way for me to dig though boxes of stuff (which I like to do), buy stuff cheap, enjoy looking at it but then I sell it, it help curb my addiction to generating more stuff in my home. Everything I get at an auction gets sold, that is my rule. For clothes I use to have a hard time letting go of clothing, but now I get my clothes from a family friend that literally spends like 200 dollars on clothing a month (its crazy) and she always getting rid of hers and giving them to me (every 3 months or so) so when new pieces come in I take two old clothes away for each new piece and toss or donate them. Right now I am trying to declutter my bedroom closet, I find working on small sections help me, next will be the attic. I sell what I can and donate or trash the rest.
One of my favorite tricks for too much furniture (that you don't want to part with) in a smaller house, is to put bookcases and/or chests of drawers in closets. Although they're not huge, a few of the closets in this house afford me the ability to do that. I have a smaller bookcase (my middle sized one, since I have three) that my dad made me many years ago. I will never part with it, and I haven't downsized enough yet to get rid of the largest bookcase that I really don't care about, so I just put my dad's bookcase in the wider closet up here in the office. The books are still in it, so I don't have to find a place for those just yet. Moving that into the closet enabled me to move the former printer stand (also former supposed kitchen island) in front of the window, where the bookcase was. That is going to be my work table for crafting now, and I placed it in front of the window so I would be inspired by nature while I work. Having an actual work table will now give me a chance to get my craft-related items off this computer armoire desktop, and having everything organized in one place will help me to decide which items I want to get rid of, as well as which I need to replenish.
I Needed storage In my laundry room so I use a big entertainment center (also I can't part with) for storage, I use it to store extra products on the the big cut out I use to but my laundry baskets on. The top I use to store folded clothes till I am able to put them up. It literally was a perfect fit between my washer and dryer!
As a lifetime of frequently moving from one place to another has made me extremely minimalistic and am also someone who doesn't particularly like clutter either - I don't really have a favorite way of de-cluttering - simply because - as its something I'm constantly doing almost without thinking - its one of those tasks that I never have to make an effort to do or put time aside for. In fact so much so that I've even just recently amazed myself - as after having lived in the same house for well over twelve years - which is way, way longer than I've ever lived anywhere and am currently in the process of packing up as we're moving at the end of September - I'm totally astonished at just how little I'm having to discard.
I would recommend using eBay, you wouldn't believe the turn around for people who sell most of their stuff on their. It seems like it's the best place to go to sell in home used items as far as I've heard.. I used to find de-cluttering really hard because I had so much stuff that I did not want to give up, but I got really strict on myself and did it like this, "If I had to move because of a tornado or something, I would take these items". Everything else was irrelevant and became much easier for me to get rid of.
