Mia and Dinah talk about their own decluttering journeys and give listeners their top tips.
Mia and Dinah share their family backgrounds and reflect how that often links to your approach to holding onto belongings. They talk about the process they have gone through for both:
- Reducing the inflow of stuff: being a better gatekeeper of what enters the house and buying less.
- Working on the outflow of stuff: a work in progress for both of them.
Dinah’s top 5 tips for decluttering are:
- Get some quick wins by starting with an area of the house that is not sentimental and where your decluttering can have an immediate impact.
- Get buy-in from the rest of your family.
- Remember that giving things away gives joy to others and yourself.
- Embrace the 'cost per use' mentality and choose quality and long term use.
- Someday never comes. If you haven't used it recently you probably never will.
Mia’s top 5 tips for decluttering are:
- Make handing on items easier by having a dedicated space to put donations and dedicated recipients to pass things on to.
- Embrace the '1 in 1 out' rule not just for clothes but for most things in your house.
- Declutter as you play by going through your kids’ toys, books, stationery, crafts and clothes regularly when playing, reading or hanging out with them.
- Let go of obscure ingredients in your pantry and fridge that are unlikely to be used again.
- Store non-season clothes and shoes away from your wardrobe and take the opportunity to cull when you retrieve them.
RESOURCES
- Places to donate items:
- Australian charity store listing - Opshop.org
- Toy Libraries Australia
- Reuse centres and trade & exchange programs - Planet Ark Recycling
- Places to sell preloved items:
- eBay
- Gumtree
- Facebook Marketplace
- Australian auction house listings for luxury, fine design pieces, collectibles and antiques - ABC Auction Room
- Straight and Curly podcast episode on decluttering
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