Decluttering Storage in Your Home

 

Storage space in your home takes up valuable space and there's no reason to avoid simplifying and decluttering that part of your home.  To make it easier, I put together a list of things to declutter and some tips on the process.  What spaces need decluttered?

While I have covered specific areas like linen closets and holiday decor and even garages, the storage I'm talking about is basically anywhere you store things you barely ever use.  So it may be old paperwork that you need to keep, mementos from childhood, your kids toys and school work, and excess decor items or furniture that you keep somewhere like the basement and plan to do something with in the future. 

 

How do you even tackle a storage space? 

Easy - You evaluate everything you are storing.  If you want to keep it - great.  If not - get rid of it. 

 

Your goal is to reduce the amount of things you're storing.  If it's backstock, consider how many months of storage you need or how many backups you need of certain products.  For my backstock of consumable things I only keep 1 extra on hand.  

I don't buy bulk because I don't have the space so as tempting as deals for bulk buying can be, I walk away when I feel tempted. 

One of my storage area is the basement where I keep things from my childhood.  I had a plastic tub of paper items that included artwork of my own and from other kids in my life over the decades.  The box was SOOOOOO heavy and while there are things I definitely want to keep in their physical form, a lot of things would be fine if I digitalized them. So I took photos of the artwork and saved it to my computer.  This allowed me to physically discard a lot of papers and it really helped free up space in the bin.  Plus, it's much easier for me to actually pick up and carry the plastic tub. 

Another storage area is my office and I have paperwork that's important and needs kept for a couple years.  The easy solution was to scan it all and save it on my hard drive which gets backed up daily automatically.  That freed up SO much drawer storage space to the point where all of the paperwork for my entire life and home that I need to keep physically or preferred to keep physically now fits in one drawer among 5 different folders.  

I also have excess furniture items in the basement like plant stands, side tables, extra dining chairs, etc.  I went through those and while I had planned to keep some so I could paint them and maybe reuse them in the future, the hassle of doing that wasn't worth it to me so I got rid of them for a few bucks on Facebook Marketplace.  I got rid of so much that all of my spare furniture fits on top of one coffee table in the basement.  That's really good news for me because if we get water in the basement or are doing projects down there and need stuff out of the way and up off the floor, it's already done and I can just toss a drop cloth over everything at once.  

I also went through my childhood toys. I had several bins of sentimental stuffed animals. I was able to donate so many that everything fits in two bins. I can get it down to one bin but even I'm human and struggle with letting toys go - all thanks to those movies that convinced me my toys are alive and will be sad if I let them go. The reality is - there are kids out there that will love and value those toys and stuffed animals more than a plastic storage tote will.  

I also took all of my excess home decor items like vases, decorative accents, and other random things like faux plants and let so many things go I just have one storage tub of them.   

 

I got rid of all of my DVDs considering the fact that I digitally access and stream things now and have done so for the last decade.  Okay - confession - I did keep 1 thing - the DVD set of Breaking Bad because it's my all time favorite show.  And it fits easily in my memento storage tub.  

 

Another thing I really needed to declutter was the actual storage items like all of the excess bins, tubs, baskets, organizers, and plastic shoe bins.  I went through and got rid of the cheapest ones because with so many options those are the last I'd use.  Then I went through and gathered like items together. The possibility of me needing so many of the same thing is very unlikely so I was able to eliminate enough so that I have maybe 5-6 of each kind.  I also had several sets of plastic storage drawers and while I had kept them thinking I'd need them someday, the fact of the matter is that since I've been living more minimally and simplifying my life and home, the chances of me ever needing them again is basically non-existent. 

 

So when you go to declutter your storage areas - make sure you not only declutter the items you store but also the things you use as storage.  And moving forward - be extra conscious of how much you buy and bring into your home.

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