Now that spring has come, it’s the right time to do some cleaning at home. Today I spent some time cleaning my room and getting rid of old stuff that was only filling up space in my room.

I like to do this activity every once in a while, and every time I can find something some stuff that I no longer need and that I can safely throw away. It’s a very liberating experience, especially now that I work from home and I need to be concentrated.

One of the major obstacles while doing this activity is deciding wherever getting rid of something or not. Most times you have associated an intense emotion with your old stuff, and your brain keeps telling you shouldn’t give it away.

Whenever I feel like I’m running into one of these situations, I remind myself that keeping old stuff that I don’t need is effectively costing me money and mental focus. You may not realize it, but for everything you own your brain has to effectively keep track of it, even if you never use it. Thus you can safely get rid of it without feeling bad. You’ll feel better afterwards.

Once you get past those emotions, it’ll be time to take action. Below are some tips for cleaning and ordering your room and getting rid of old stuff that you no longer need.

  1. Don’t do it all at once. If you have never done this activity, chances are that you’ll end up with a lot of stuff you want to get rid of. This can easily translate into several hours or days of work, time that you probably don’t have. Instead of doing it all at once, spend one hour each week cleaning your room until you’re happy with it.
  2. Order your desk. Perhaps the first thing that’s worth doing is to clean and order your desk. Make sure you don’t have useless stuff on it. Also take the opportunity to clean the surface of your desk (this step will make sure that you’ll have removed all your stuff).
  3. Old magazines and documents. I don’t read many magazines but I still had a stack of paper in my bedside. If you’re not gonna read your old magazines, then there’s no need to keep them. The same is true for old documents and papers.
  4. Empty boxes and stuff hanging in your floor. Sometimes when I buy something new, I keep the box for a few days (which becomes months). Now is the time to trash them. Also look around for other stuff that don’t belong where it is.
  5. Your clothes. One place to always look in these situations is your closet. You can almost always find something that you no longer need and that you can give away. It’s better to remain with less clothes that you actually use, rather than with more clothes that you’ll never wear.
  6. Old books and cds. This is huge as you usually feel a more direct value with books and cds, but really, if you know that you’ll never read a book or listen to that cd again, you can probably get rid of it or give it away for free.

    7. When you have done all of this (congratulations), you can start to look inside your trays, bags, and look around for stuff that it’s not where it should be.

    This is a liberation project and it takes some courage, but it’s really worth doing it every once in a while. If you have any tips about cleaning up and fixing your room, I’d love to hear them in the comments.