Decluttering can also help you

• Tidy up your house;
• Organize your space better;
• Make room for other things;
• Get rid of things you don’t need or want anymore.

Not only that, but decluttering can also save you money, but more on that later. 

The most important thing you can do now is to plan and execute a decluttering process in your home. 

Trust me, it will make a huge difference in your environment and it will be beneficial for your mental state, as well. Less stuff, less things to clean / put away / wash, and so on.

Here we go!

How to declutter your home – the process

I actually have an entire dedicated post on How to declutter your home, which you can find the link for it here.

But here are the main principles and actions you need to take so you can best declutter your space:

• Start by writing down each room of your house. 
• Then write at least one area that can be decluttered in each room. 
• Step 3 is to add the decluttering process in your daily schedule, by scheduling one room at a time. Today, the bedroom. Tomorrow, the pantry. And so on.
• Start with room 1. Make sure to tidy the room so you have enough space to move around and organize. 
• Choose a small area or corner and start getting things out. 
• After the area is cleared, wipe the surface down and put back in the things you are keeping. 
• Then go through the separate pile and put away the things you don’t want anymore in dedicated bags (donate, throw away, sell). 
• Then start with area or room 2, and continue the process.

In order for this to work and for you to finish the process, you need to

• Be patient and thorough when decluttering each area. Go through each item and really think about it: do you actually need to keep it?
• Have dedicated bags ready for the things you will be decluttering, so you can easily organize and dispose of them after you’re done decluttering. In this case, a bag for trash, one for donations, and for the things you will sell. 

Where to sell your stuff

You’ve done it! The decluttering process is over and you’ve probably accumulated multiple bags of stuff to sell (or donate / throw away). 

Now it’s time to figure out where to sell your items for the best return on investment. Here are the top online places, and one offline spot, where you can get rid of your stuff and make some money out of it:

1. Sell clothes on Poshmark / Mercari 

This is the perfect place to sell new and used items in good condition. Think shirts, sweaters, skirts, dresses, even handbags and shoes. Some sites also accept beauty, home decor and electronics.

The process is pretty straight-forward: create an account, create a product page, put all the info, like pictures, sizes, price, etc. The “hardest part” will probably be to find time to go to the post office and mail the products when they are bought. 

Win-win! You get rid of an item you don’t want or need, and get some money back, and the buyer gets the item he/she wants, at a lower price.

Click now for more info on selling on Poshmark and selling on Mercari. 

2. Sell luxury items on Vestiaire Collective 

If you want to get rid of expensive or luxury clothing items, Vestiaire Collective is the place to go. 

There are so many people worldwide who hunt for bargains and second hand luxury items on it, and who will pay a good price for them. 

So if you have a Chloe bag, or Balenciaga shoes, this is the website for you. 

Here is more info on how to sell on Vestiaire Collective. 

3. Sell other items on Facebook marketplace on Craigslist (like furniture, books, etc)

For me, Facebook marketplace is the perfect place to declutter and sell stuff, specifically miscellaneous items, so things like furniture and/or books.

Especially furniture! I’ve heard so many people buy home decor and home items from it, so if you want to sell your old couch or dining room table, definitely check out Facebook Marketplace. 

The platform is pretty easy to use, you just need a Facebook account, and pictures of your products. 

4. Sell things in yard sales 

I love this method because it’s the best when you need to declutter and sell your stuff fast. 

Instead of listing each item online and dealing with shipping things multiple times, you can organize a yard sale and sell everything in one go. Less hassle overall, more time for you.

Here is a great guide on what to sell at a yard sale. 

How to save money by decluttering

And now for the best part of the article. You know you can declutter and sell stuff, but did you know you can also declutter and SAVE money? Let me show you how!

This solution is great for people who

• Decluttered too many items that cannot be sold;
• Don’t have clothes or miscellaneous items to declutter;
• Have a fully stocked pantry;

The last part is important, because the way to declutter and save money involves your pantry. 

Here is the gist: One weekend / month, eat and cook with ONLY what you already have in the pantry and freezer. So that means you won’t need to go spend money on groceries and take-out. 

This is a great idea, because not only it will stop you from spending more money, but it will also encourage you to use up your pantry items that you might have forgotten about. 

And that’s important because the pantry items do end expiring and you don’t want to waste money by waiting until after their expiration date to use them, right? 

So go now and take an inventory of your pantry and freezer, and see what you can use up. Look for meat, frozen vegetables, canned vegetables, sauces and grains like rice and quinoa. Now it’s time to use them. 

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s called Shelf cooking! Jordan Page on YouTube does it! 

Conclusion

If you want to make money and save money, it’s time to declutter and sell stuff! The 4 options mentioned above (Poshmark, Vestiaire Collective, Facebook Marketplace and yard sales) are great places for you to get rid of your unwanted items. And shelf cooking will help you save tens and hundreds of dollars a month. 

Let me know in the comments which works for you best!

The post Declutter and sell your stuff NOW: How decluttering can make (and save) you money appeared first on Cozy Home Hacks.

Actually, the more you use it, the more you need to organize it better. That’s because we tend to accumulate (sometimes) unnecessary things on it, like we (sometimes) do in our homes. 

So if you’re hoarding certain items or haven’t cleaned your phone in a while, then this post is for you. 

I will show you the 4 main areas you need to go over in order to save up space, but also improve your experience on it. 

Time-wise, you can do it in chunks. For example, you can allocate 20 minutes per area. 

(Except area 2, Photos, which will probably need to be split in even more chunks, especially if you take A LOT of photos.)

Or you can spend 1-2 hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon and go through all of the phone areas I mentioned above.

By the end of it you will have a clean, organized and clear smartphone that will help use it more efficiently. 

So let’s get going! Here’s how to declutter your phone: 

HOW TO DECLUTTER YOUR PHONE – Main Areas To Go Over

1. Home Screen

This is one of the easiest and fastest things you can do right now to clear space on your phone. 

Open your home screen and do the following:

a. Delete unused apps. Be ruthless about it. That online store you bought from a year ago, but haven’t touched ever since. It needs to go. Same with the photo editing you don’t like and don’t use, or that random grocery store app you downloaded during Christmas shopping for points and stopped using it afterwards. 

b. Create folders. For example, one for Utilities apps. One for Shopping. Photo Editing. Social Media, and so on. 

This is helpful in so many ways:

• You spend less time to find the specific app on your home screen
• If your apps are organised by category, you can work faster and more efficiently. 
• Better use of notifications. If the bank / utilities folder has a notification, and so does the social media one, then you probably already know that you need to check the first category folder. You can leave social media for later. If you didn’t have this segmentation, you would have been fooled by the Instagram or Facebook notification and you would have spent a lot of unnecessary time on them. 
• Also easier for future decluttering tasks.

c. Change background, if you want to. This is a great time to change the background or lock screen visuals, too. According to likes, season, or just change up your family photos to recent ones. The purpose is to make it prettier and nice to look at.

2. Photos

This area is going to take the longest, especially if you like to photograph EVERYTHING. But it’s probably the most important section of this “how to declutter your phone” guide, because this helps you organize and clear the space the best. 

You need to go through all your photos and delete

• Photos you don’t like
• Duplicates / Very similar photos
• Blurry ones
• Screenshots of things you don’t need anymore

BONUS tip: Favorite the best pictures, then download and print them. Create an album and have it forever to look back on. This will be invaluable if you have the misfortune of losing your online photos. (if you delete them by mistake, or a virus prevents you from using them)

3. Media section of Whatsapp app 

You probably didn’t think of this, right? 

Well, the app has the option to automatically save the whatsapp pictures and videos people send to you. And that can occupy so much space. 

If you want to know if this is turned on for you, go to Whatsapp Settings, then chat and check off the Save to Camera Roll, if applicable. Choose not to save them. 

Another thing you can do is to or delete much older media content in your app. While it might not be saved in your photo gallery, it does occupy a lot of space in the app, so the app occupies more space in your phone. 

You can do it by going to the Whatsapp Settings, then Storage and Data, then Manage Storage, then go into the “Review and delete items” section and start going through it. I recommend going way back and start deleting the videos you don’t need anymore, those occupy a lot of space. 

4. Music  

Clearing this area will probably not apply to all, especially if you don’t have a music app or if you don’t download music to listen offline. 

But if you do, go now to Apple Music or Spotify or whatever else you are listening to. See what you downloaded. And delete what you don’t listen to anymore. This helps save you so much space and it will refresh your playlists. 

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, everyone needs to know this: how to declutter your phone. This will help you organise it, clear space, and use it more efficiently for a longer period of time. Do it now!

P.S. If you want more decluttering ideas, check out my posts below:

• How to declutter books
• How to declutter your wardrobe
• How to declutter makeup
• How to declutter your home to clear up space

The post How To Declutter Your Phone: 4 Areas To Declutter & Free Up Space In Your Phone appeared first on Cozy Home Hacks.

So from time to time you need to declutter your makeup collection. So you can make room for new products, obviously. But also, to get rid of old or broken products that you can’t and shouldn’t use on your face anymore. 

I’ve recently gone through this process and it helped so much. I freed up space for myself and it was great to go over my collection piece by piece, because I discovered some old favorites I hadn’t used in a long time. 

So if you’re wondering how to declutter makeup, I’m here to help with tips & tricks from my own experience. I hope they inspire and motivate you to do the same to your makeup collection. 

Let’s go!

Step 1: Tidy up the space before starting to declutter

First step in any decluttering process is to tidy up the space before actually starting to declutter. What I mean is to clear the space close to or around the makeup cabinets / drawers, so you can have a spot where to put products while you consider keeping them or throwing them away. 

I recommend clearing the counters and the floor around the makeup collection, you will need all the space you can get.

Also, give yourself 1-2 hours to go throw all of them, and then organize the remaining ones back into the drawers. I did in 30-45 minutes, but I have a rather small collection. 

Step 2: Prepare bags / baskets for decluttered products

The second step of how to declutter makeup is to prepare your “cleaning supplies”. And by that, I mean bags or baskets where you can organize all the products.

It could be trash bags, trash cans, random bins you have laying around. Anything works for now, you just have to have them separated.

You will have to clear out all the drawers and go through each product, then place them in the specific bag / basket. More on that, below.

Step 3: Declutter your makeup collection

Here we are, step 3 and the most important, because it’s the step where you actually get to work and declutter makeup. 

Remember the organization items in the previous steps? Well, take 4 of them and split them like this:

1. Donate pile
2. Friends & Family pile
3. Garbage pile
4. Keep pile

Now you have to go through each makeup item, one by one, and place them in their corresponding pile.

Here’s how to determine where each product fits

• If it’s broken / gone bad* / finished, it will go into the GARBAGE bag / basket
• Now, if you WANT it and it’s not broken / gone bad* / finished, put it in the KEEP pile
• If you DON’T want it, but it’s brand new, never opened, DONATE or GIVE to friends & family
• Lastly, if you DON’T want it, it’s not broken / gone bad* / finished, but it’s partially used (but not more than 75%), GIVE to friends & family (it’s recommended not to donate already opened products)

*By “gone bad” I mean any of the following:

• Has a weird texture;
• Smells bad;
• Is older than 2-3 years.

Step 4: Organize your declutter makeup collection

Now that everything is sorted and you’re left only with products you want and need, it’s time to organize. 

How do you organize and store your makeup? Better yet, in what containers?

Check out my Makeup Storage & Organizers article, you’ll get at least 10 Makeup Storage Ideas. 

And that’s it! This is how to declutter makeup. It’s very easy, you just have to make time for it and be ruthless about what to keep and what to give or throw away! Good luck! 

P.S. If you’re in a decluttering mode, check out How to declutter your wardrobe and How to declutter your books.  

The post How To Declutter Makeup appeared first on Cozy Home Hacks.

Then it might be time for a home declutter. A big, organized, but messy home decluttering process will help you get rid of things you don’t need or want anymore. 

I’m here to help. I will show you how to declutter your home in order to clear up space and make your house feel cleaner, more organized and a more welcoming place. 

In order to declutter your home, you need to sit down and plan your steps.

Here is how to begin decluttering your home: 

1. Start by writing down each room of your house. This will ensure you won’t forget any part of the house. Master bedroom, kids room 1, kids room 2, kitchen, pantry, laundry room, and the list continues.
2. Then write at least one area that can be decluttered in each room. For the bedroom, you might write down nightstand drawers and decor. For the bathroom, it will probably be the place where you store all your hair, skincare, make-up and so on. The pantry can be a room aka project in itself. Either way, I am sure you can definitely find something to tidy and declutter in every room of your home.
3. Step 3 is to add the decluttering process in your daily schedule, by scheduling one room at a time. So let’s say you realize you have a free hour on Tuesday, and a Thursday evening off. Plan to do the bathroom cabinet on Tuesday, and the pantry on Thursday night. That way, you won’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of things you need to get through and clear out. You might need more time and that’s totally fine. If you can’t finish the bathroom clear out on Tuesday, continue it on Thursday. And then go down the rest of the list. 
4. Clear mindset and no distractions. Go into the process with a clear objective in mind and give yourself deadlines and rewards. Treat it seriously and make sure you are not distracted from the task in hand. Put your phone on silent, make sure the kids are busy or not home, and get to work. 

How to declutter your home: The actual process of decluttering your house

Let’s say the first room on your list is your bedroom. 

1. Before actually starting, tidy the room so you have enough space to move around and organize. 
2. Choose a small area or corner and start getting things out. If you’re going for the nightstand, pull out one item at a time, and ask yourself if you still need it. If the answer is NO or you’re unsure put them in a separate pile (on the floor or on the bed). Continue the process until there is nothing left in the drawers. 
3. After the area is cleared, wipe the surface down and put back in the things you are keeping. Not only did you declutter, but you also now have a clean and organized space. 
4. Then go through the separate pile and put away the things you don’t want anymore in bags. They need to be cleared out and they need to be out of sight. Don’t know where to throw them or what to do with them? More on that later, keep reading. 
5. Don’t start another corner or area of the room before clearing out the current pile. If you leave them there, it will get messy, you will get overwhelmed and you will quit. Be organized and tidy up after yourself before starting a new task. 
6. Next area! Continue cleaning the room until you feel everything in it is needed, frequently used or has a very important sentimental value. 

And that’s about it! It really isn’t that complicated. Most people dread it and don’t do it or postpone it indefinitely because

• They don’t really want to get rid of their stuff;
• Most people are too lazy / They don’t work that hard to get it done;
• Some prioritize other tasks; 
• Most are easily distracted by other things and don’t finish the process. 
• People actually don’t know what to get rid of. 

If that last point hit home, I’m here to help.

So how to know WHAT TO THROW AND WHAT TO KEEP?

If you want to know how to declutter your home in order to clear up space, you might not like the answer. You need to be ruthless when it comes to getting rid of things. 

So when you’re in the process of decluttering your house, take one item at a time and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I frequently use it? If YES, keep it, if NOT, consider the following questions.
• Do I use it rarely, but I need it for specific moments? (like glue, or matches, hammer) 
• Do I need it? This might be the hardest question to ask yourself. Do you actually need the thing? Is the 1 year old magazine in the living room cabinet still useful to you? Do you still wear or even fit in that denim skirt you had in highschool? The answer to most questions, actually to most things you are unsure about is probably NO, you don’t need it, so YES, you can throw it out. 
• Is it functional?  If the answer to this is NO, definitely declutter it, you shouldn’t keep broken things that you cannot use. 
• Do I still want it? You might encounter things that were useful to you in the past, but that you don’t need anymore. Like books you don’t want to re-read or keep. Or clothes that don’t match your style anymore. Same with decor items, maybe you’re out of the farmstyle phase. If you are, and don’t need the items anymore, get rid of them. 

I’m sure there are more questions you can ask yourself, but when it comes to how to declutter your home, these are the essential ones. 

To help you out, here are some items you can definitely declutter:

• Empty bottles / packages. (empty bottles of shampoo or perfume)
• Non-functional electronics. (broken phone, earphones that don’t work anymore)
• Expired products (make up, medicine, food, etc)
• Clothes that don’t fit you anymore.
• Old magazines and notebooks you don’t need or want to keep (for sentimental value)
• Clothes you haven’t worn in over two years and probably won’t ever again.
• Home decor you haven’t used in a while and don’t plan to in the future.
• Random small items you keep in your drawers, bag, car, nightstand, etc, and don’t regularly use (like old receipts, expired lip balm and so on)

What to do with things you are throwing out?

If you’ve reached this point, congratulations, that’s a big deal. 

If you find yourself with bags and bags of stuff, here are your options of actually decluttering them:

• Donate them to charity. Please donate only things you would use yourself, but don’t like anymore. Do not donate broken, ripped, filthy items. 
• Give them to family and friends. The rule above applies here, as well. 
• Throw away in the garbage. It’s time to get rid of them for good.
• Recycle. Paper, aluminum, glass, even electronics can be recycled. 
• Sell on Facebook Marketplace or in Yard Sales. Might make some nice money out of it. 

So here we are. This is how to declutter your home to clear up space. I hope you got some valuable tips out of it and I can’t for you to declutter your house in the next few weeks. You’re going to feel so much better after it! 

Good luck!

P.S. If you want to know How I Declutter My Closet Twice a Year, check it out!

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Well, if your house is a mess and the books on your coffee table, kitchen counter, bedroom nightstand, and so on, are becoming a hassle to dust and maneuver, well, I think it’s time to say goodbye to some of them. It’s for the best, I promise!

So, how to declutter your books, when you are so attached to them and you love reading? 

Let me help you out! I’ve gone through this process recently, when I moved in with my boyfriend and I had to start sharing shelf space with him. 

It took a couple of hours to sort through them and decide what to keep, but the surprise was it actually took me longer to get rid of those I didn’t want anymore. 

But let’s start from the beginning.

How To Declutter Your Books – Step 0: Go in it understanding that you have to get rid of some. There will be casualties. And you will have to be ruthless. But it has to be done, especially if you need more space…..for other stuff, or FOR OTHER BOOKS. (Yes, I recommend going through this process in order to free up space for more books).

Ok, now that you are in the right mindset, let’s begin! How to declutter your books:

Step 1: Clear up the space around you!

You might think this is not important, but this part is crucial, because you will have to make piles of books, and they will need a spot. So I suggest doing that on the floor space around you, or on the couch, or wherever else you want. 

Just make sure the coast is clear of objects, and most importantly, of any liquids (maybe even pets or kids?).

Step 2: Start sorting

This is the most time consuming part if you decide to declutter your books. You have to go through absolutely each one and see how you feel about it and in which categories it fits it. 

I suggest KEEPING the books that fall in the following categories:

• RESOURCE. Keep books that have provided and will provide value & knowledge in the future, like dictionaries, technical books, encyclopedias, even biographies and history books, if you have any. Whatever you feel you will need to revisit for their information.

• SENTIMENTAL. This is cheating, but it’s completely understandable. I don’t want you to give up on things that bring you joy. So yes, you can keep the Twilight and the 50 shades of grey books, and you can keep the really old children’s book from your childhood. Whatever you cherish. 

• TO BE READ. If you haven’ gotten to it, but you desperately want to, and definitely will read, then keep it. But be honest with yourself. Will you actually read ALL the books you have? There must be some bad decisions in your bookshelves. Just keep the ones you are sure of.

• LEGACY. This might be an interesting concept for you, but think about the books you want to leave your children, or your sisters, or to your family. These are books you have already read, but think they might be of service in the future for someone else. Like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince, or your old copies of Count of Monte Christo that might be of value some days. 

Oh dear, the piles of books you will keep are going to be huge, I’m sure. I’ve created a monster. But this is the way of the bookworm 🙂 It’s ok!

Now let’s get to the ugly part! If you want to know how to declutter your books, you need to know what BOOKS YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY DECLUTTER:

• NOT OF INTEREST TO YOU OR YOUR FAMILY. That means books that you or your family haven’t read or don’t plan to read. It could be books about IT hardware, or about topics you have absolutely no interest in, or biographies of people you haven’t heard of, for example. 

• RANDOM BOOKS YOU HAD NO IDEA YOU HAD. I’m talking about books for which you immediately say WTF and discard immediately. Books that are so random, you don’t even know how they got there.

• TBR THAT YOU WILL LIKELY WON’T READ. This might make you stumble, because you can’t really know if you’re really going to read the book or not. BUT, if you pick up a book you haven’t gotten to, and you already know you don’t want to read it or you have a suspicion you won’t, it’s definitely time to say goodbye.

• TITLES YOU DIDN’T ENJOY READING. If you read something and you hated it, then there’s no point in keeping it, right? Easy declutter.  

• BOOKS YOU OR YOUR FAMILY HAVE OUTGROWN. Think children’s books, if your kids are already teenagers (and you don’t plan on having another one…ever). Or highschool textbooks, if your kids are already adults. 

Step 3: Reorganize & Get rid of the unwanted books

Congratulations! The job is done! You’ve finished sorting through the books!

Now it’s time to reorganize your library. You probably have more space to play with, so think about how you want to organize your books. By color? Or author name? Maybe by category? I won’t get into details here, because that’s a topic for another blog post, but there are so many options, you just have to choose the one you vibe with the most.

So now we get to the last part and the one that’s going to actually declutter your home space: figuring out what to do with the decluttered books. I recommend the following :

• Donate to charity shops / Goodwill. I always do this. I find the nearest charity shop that accepts books and I take them there. They are always so happy to receive them. Plus, you’ll feel better knowing it’s for a great cause.

• Donate to the local library – town library or school library. This is also one of my favorite ways to get rid of books. Take it to the local library or school. This is a wonderful option because you’re taking them to a better place where it’s a safe bet people will actually read them….or at least keep them safe and in good use. 

• Friends / Families. Sometimes, if I know I have some great titles in my declutter pile, I take a photo and send it to my Family and Friends Whatsapp chats. Many times before, people have requested a specific book they’ve been meaning to read. It’s lovely to pair a book with someone who actually wants it. 

• Facebook Groups / Marketplace. If you want to make money out of it, definitely try to sell them on Facebook. People search for the most random things on there, so you might find buyers for books you didn’t even imagine are valuable or interesting. 

• Used Books Shops. You can also sell your books to shops that sell used books. You can even do it on Amazon. Here are 6 online places where you can sell them. 

• Yard Sale. If you get the chance, you can definitely try selling them in a yard sale. This way, you only have to take them outside the house, so no need to transport them somewhere else. 

So this is it! This is how to declutter your books! I hope you actually got rid of books, and that you cleared enough space for it to be cleaner and lighter (and to hold the next books you’re probably going to buy!

P.S. If you’re in a decluttering mood, here is how to declutter your wardrobe!

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