Did you know the average person has 300,000 items in their home? If you’ve lived in your home for a while, we imagine that could be much higher! You may encounter unique challenges when helping your elderly family or friends declutter their homes.
Here are our decluttering tips for seniors to help you make your home cleaner and safer:
Start with just one room.
Decluttering an entire home can be overwhelming and exhausting, regardless of age. We like to approach decluttering for seniors by doing it one room at a time (or one part of a room at a time). This approach is less overwhelming, and you can start to see a small difference right away.
Get rid of hazardous items.
If it’s been a while since you last did a deep declutter and clean, you likely have many items you can no longer use or that are hazardous to your safety. These items may include:
- Expired food or medications in cupboards
- Old rugs (which pose a tripping hazard)
- Broken furniture
- Unused electronics and cords
- Old power tools (if you don’t really use them anymore)
Get rid of duplicates.
Do you have 5 copies of The Beatles Second Album? Do you or your spouse really need 50 mugs, 20 purses, or 50 pairs of shoes? Get rid of anything with unneeded duplicates or excess.
If it’s something like purses and shoes, consider keeping one pair of shoes for every activity or season, such as casual wear, walking or exercise runners, warm winter boots, summer shoes, and fancy shoes.
Keep, throw, gift, donate.
As you go through each room, make piles of items:
- Keep: Anything you intend to keep. Try to put these items in the proper home right away.
- Throw: Items that have no second-hand value should be thrown away or recycled
- Gift: You could gift more precious items and family heirlooms to friends and family.
- Donate: Many organizations will accept household items you’re willing to donate. Some of our favourites include: KEEP IT GREEN, Salvation Army Thrift Stores, Church & Hospital Thrift Stores, and SPCA Thrift Stores.
Update storage options
As you declutter, consider if additional storage solutions are needed. An excellent example is the dreaded “Tupperware” drawer. Stop by the dollar store and get small bins and containers to help keep items like Tupperware lids organized and tidy. Clothes and closet organizers are also convenient and affordable from your local thrift or dollar store.
Top decluttering tip: Get decluttering help
Finally, sometimes it helps to have an objective third party to help you with decluttering and organizing. Where you may have an emotional attachment to your in their house, we don’t! We can often be more objective and practical when helping you sort and declutter.
Want more decluttering tips? ive Judie and her team a call today, and we’ll create a plan to declutter your home.