Four Ways to Make Decluttering Fun and Easy – with letgo

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of letgo for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Anyone Spring cleaning right now?

We did the bulk of ours last year when we moved into our house…which, moving is an a-mazing time to declutter! Right? I credit our relatively tame collection of garage clutter to four moves in two and half years, but we have already accumulated enough stuff to need more decluttering again. Ugh.  Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can accumulate all the things? And I’m actually pretty good about doing weekly purges.

In fact, that’s part of my secret to making decluttering easy. Because sustainable decluttering is not really a one and done kind of thing. I realize that can sound depressing, but I’ve got some tried and true tips that are sure to make it easy and manageable. Plus, I’ve teamed up with letgo, a new buy and sell app, that actually makes purging your stuff super fun!

ONE: Start small.

As a whole, decluttering can be overwhelming. It’s so easy to put it off because it feels like too big a job. To combat that, I like to break it up into bite sized areas, like a bookcase, a closet, or even as small as a single drawer, depending on my time constraints. If I need further motivation, I put one of those areas on my housework list in lieu of another job. I feel excited to tackle my little organization project because I feel like I’m getting a free pass on a job I’m sick of doing anyway, and I’ve found that most house chores can wait an extra week or day every now and then.

The benefits are three fold. I’m focusing on a more manageable area, so I am more likely to get it done in one sitting. I feel like a rock star for checking it off my list so I feel more motivated to do more on my list and/or more satisfied with what I accomplished that day, even if nothing else gets done. This system has also proven to be much more sustainable. If I remember anything from my college physical science class (not much! ha!) it’s the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The universe is constantly growing more disorderly, so you’re going to tackle that spot again later either way…because…science. 😉 If you keep projects small and keep them in your regular housework rotation, you’re more likely to reduce the clutter.

TWO: Remove EVERYTHING.

Wait, what? Let me explain.

Don’t actually get rid of anything…yet, but remove everything from the space you are tidying up. This is key. Remove ALL of it. You need a blank canvas for this to really work.

Kids, in particular, seem to be “stuff” magnets, so I thought tackling my daughter’s room would be a great place to do some spring cleaning and to show you what I mean. Obviously, it really needs to be cleaned, but it’s this messy so often because she a. has too much stuff and b. keeps pulling out the stuff she doesn’t use to get to the stuff she does. It’s also in the process of being decorated, so this is kind of a sneak peek of it partially done. 🙂

Okay…So take away everything.

Go through all the stuff you removed and throw away or put in the donate pile the obvious pieces of trash and unused items that you don’t have to think twice about.

Now, only put back what you use, and what fits in the space with room to grow. That’s also key. As kids grow, and really, even as adults “grow,” we collect more stuff. Make room for that growth. This also buys you some time before you need to purge again.

THREE: Create a dontation limbo. Don’t donate or sell anything…

Sheesh. I sound crazy, don’t I? I mean, don’t donate or sell anything yet.

Whatever you didn’t put back into your space, put into a bag. Cinch it up and put it away in a closet, a garage or somewhere you can store it for about a month or so (I actually prefer to do two months). I have a donation laundry basket, instead of a bag, but if you tend to have a hard time giving things up, a bag might be a better tool for this, so it’s out of sight.

How many times have you purged your stuff and then regretted getting rid of a certain item? Or not gotten rid of something for fear that you will need it later? I have found that when I put my purge pile in “donation limbo” for a while, I do a more thorough job of decluttering because I know I can always reclaim items if I decide I actually do want to keep them.

More often than not, I find that we get along better with less, but I’ve been known to dip back into the purge pile from time to time.  Especially since I clean out small areas at a time and since we’re still decorating the house, I find that what didn’t work in one space, is sometimes needed in another. Instead of running to the store to accumulate more stuff, you can save so much money by “shopping” your own purge pile first. If you don’t miss those items for 1-2 months, chances are you never will. You can then go ahead and get rid of it. You’ll also probably be sick of that bag taking up precious storage space, so you’ll be glad to see it go!

Of course, if you’re sure you want to get rid of certain items, by all means don’t wait!

FOUR: Sell valuables.

Sometimes you don’t want to get rid of stuff because while it doesn’t fit in your life anymore, it’s still valuable to you.

A great way to motivate you to purge it, is to sell it! The most typical solution is to have a yard sale or sell it online. Let’s be real though…that takes more time and it’s an annoying process.

That’s where letgo comes in. “letgo” is a new app that streamlines the buy and sell process and even makes it FUN!

You download the app for free, create a username, password, and your general location and bada bing, you’re ready to buy and sell!

Press the home button to browse listings close to you. Click on the camera button to sell. Simply snap a picture, type in a price and you’re done! It took me literally ten seconds. You can add more details in the description, but that’s up to you.

If you have an item that you think deserves some extra special attention, add a commercial to your for sale ad, using the letgo Commercializer.

Say whaaat? Yes, a commercial.

Click on the “create commercial” button in the the listing or in your settings, and use one of the four preset professionally produced commercials to help sell your item. They are  H I L A R I O U S.

You can preview them in the app but Adweek also featured them in an article here. If you only have time to watch one, please watch the shopping network one. L O L (and I don’t dole out my LOL’s lightly). Or better yet…watch mine:

It never gets old watching this too… it’s just TOO good! ha!

You don’t have to do any heavy lifting either! Just choose a preset, and the app does the rest for you.

If you’re wondering if there are enough users on letgo to make listing it there worth it, I totally wondered the same thing. But then, I signed up and bam…found out that there are a bunch of people already using the app. Many of them are younger, hence all the prom dresses 😉 but there are people on there! PLUS, you can share your listing and your commercial on other social media outlets. So, you aren’t just limited to the reach of the letgo network.

That wasn’t too scary right? Keep it small, start with a blank slate, create a donation limbo, and sell valuable items to motivate you to purge. These are my tried and true tips, but really the best tips are always going to be the ones that work for YOU! Good luck finding your Spring cleaning groove!