3 Decluttering Non-Negotiables That Professional Organizers Urge You to Always Stick To

It's that time of year again. As summer draws to a slow close, we begin to pack away our light, airy linens and bright-colored decor and reach into our storage closets for the cozy throw blankets and autumnal tableware. But with the changing of seasons comes the unavoidable realization that over the course of a few months, we have accumulated a lot of stuff. It is time to declutter.

Decluttering your home is a necessary chore, but an intimidating one nonetheless. Knowing the right things to let go of when decluttering and choosing what to keep is the hardest part of the job, and we often become our own worst enemies by allowing ourselves to unreasonably justify holding onto stuff. The trick is to adopt a committed mindset that will help break your clutter habits at their core. When your home is mess-free it can better serve its purpose as a cozy haven for you and whoever you may share it with.

Decluttering professional and owner of Spatial Awareness, Tessa Hughes, shared on her Instagram that rather than following oversaturated "decluttering rules", she likes to instead prescribe to a list of philosophies or mindsets that help keep her home peaceful and easy to maintain. She calls them the decluttering "non-negotiables", and here are three you ought to know.

1. Trash is Trash

The meaning of "trash" seems obvious, does it or not? Well, you'd be surprised how many of us hold on to broken stuff just because we vow to fix it (although we never do). Tessa Hughes urges us to declutter ruthlessly by remembering the simple line that "trash is trash".

"If something is broken or used up, it's best to dispose of it right away rather than trying to rescue it or create a project out of it," she says. "I realized that it is not likely I will have an extra two hours to complete all these miscellaneous crafts any time soon. Once I came to grips with reality, I let go of the items and instantly felt better."

Deciding what items to throw away while decluttering can be tricky, but if it can be labeled as trash in any way, then it doesn't belong in your home. Taking a ruthless approach to trash might be tricky, especially when being sustainably conscious is on all of our minds, but keeping trash in the hopes of turning it into a craft project is detrimental to keeping a clutter-free home.

Professional organizer, Lucy Wahl, also encourages us to accept trash for what it is -something we just need to dispose of. "I don't decide whether or not to declutter something based on how I have to dispose of it," she says. "You can't hold onto things just because you do not want to add them to the landfill."

2. Your House Should Serve You (not the other way around)

Before you start decluttering, remember that our homes are built for us and our needs, so we shouldn't feel enslaved to them. "My house serves me, not the other way around," explains Tessa. "Your house should be the backdrop for memories, downtime, and possibly work. What it should not be is a part-time job that takes hours or days to manage and upkeep, robbing you of time for other more important things."

When you come home at the end of a long day, the last thing you want to feel is an anxious pressure coming from the pile of clutter in the corner nagging you to tidy up. Instead, your home should have a streamlined system to help you organize, with plenty of storage solutions that make it easy to stay on top of your stuff.

Being aware of how your home can best serve you will help guide positive shopping habits when it comes to the things you introduce into your home, too. "This is a philosophy I keep in the back of my mind that frames how I think about all my purchases, from what utensils I keep in my kitchen, to what furniture I buy for my home," she says.

3. Function first

Keeping in mind that function is first is probably the decluttering philosophy that I love the most. Putting function first looks like prioritizing what needs to be in a space based on what you use the most. As Tessa says: "If clutter is getting in the way of functionality, the clutter has to go!"

Before you buy into the latest decor fad or the latest organization brands, take a look at your existing set-up. "If you cannot access your blender because there are four other appliances jammed into the cupboard (making it difficult to access what it is I truly need), then it is time to declutter," explains Tessa. Try and differentiate what you always find yourself reaching for versus what is currently gathering dust.

This is not to say that continually cutting back is easy - sometimes organizing on a busy schedule seems impossible - but Lucy offers a solution to this conundrum. "I declutter anything that is not part of my current life," she says. "Keeping around things from past jobs, past hobbies, past clothing sizes, or habits, keep us stuck in the past and prevent us from growing into future versions of ourselves."

Adopting positive mindsets and productive philosophies is the best way to achieve a clutter-conscious home. Keeping these non-negotiables in mind as you welcome in fall is the perfect way to create a space you feel comfortable in, whether that means purchasing new, practical items or clearing out the old.

Inspiration to Get You Started