How to start decluttering and organising your home – Part 4

Getting rid of your unwanted items

So you’ve opened forgotten cupboards, discovered hidden treasures and finally organised your space and precious possessions anew.

Congratulations! You’ve completed three crucial decluttering stages. It hasn’t been an easy mission: from getting to know your home again to making a mess (yes!) and finding clever storage solutions for your belongings. All this hard work deserves a glass of your favourite tipple.

But wait! Before kicking your feet up, there’s one more step in the home organising process.

(Come to think of it, maybe I should have made this part number 1. Because it certainly helps to begin a job by knowing how it needs to end.)

You see, sometimes, this last step tends to overwhelm my clients and be the reason why they don’t start in the first place. So, to ensure you get to the decluttering finish line, we need to address the elephant in the room:

How on Earth do I dispose of all those items I no longer need or wish to keep?  

Yes, you could “temporarily” put your children’s old clothes under the stairs. After all, you’ve already promised them to your friend with twin toddlers when she visits next time.

It surely won’t bother anyone if you place the books you don’t want on the table by the entrance door. They’ll be there just for a few days before you get around to making that trip to the neighbouring town. Once there, you’ll put them in the red phone booth – aka the village’s makeshift library.

And don’t forget to drop off that extra box of Christmas decorations at your mother’s place. You put it in your car last month, remember?

They say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And so is the last stage of the home organising journey, in my opinion.

I’m fairly certain you’ll forget about all those items the minute you leave them in their newly assigned “waiting rooms.” And all that decluttering progress you’ve made will unnecessarily… go to waste (see what I did there?).

Not everyone finds it enjoyable to dispose of things – it takes time and planning. That guilty feeling associated with having too much stuff happens to all of us. Not knowing how to get rid of it in an environmentally-friendly way or items you know could help someone but you don’t know how to get it to people in need can be even more overwhelming.

So you’ll be pleased to know that I’m a pro at finding a new home for the things you no longer want or need. Here, I will give you a few practical ideas of what to do with them efficiently and sustainably.

1. Family

You’ve just accidentally discovered a completely unused cutlery set in the depths of your living room cupboard.

That’s right – you bought it at your local IKEA last year for your hubby’s BIG Birthday. But the weather was so good that you set up a casual BBQ in the garden instead. And since burgers are best devoured with bare hands, you didn’t use them.

But oops!… You did it again! It slipped your mind completely, and you didn’t return them. You shoved them where you thought you’d remember it, but didn’t. Typical you!

But every cloud has a silver lining. You’ve also just remembered your sister’s been talking about getting a new set of cutlery. That’s her Christmas present sorted!

If I can give you a piece of advice before she finds it under the tree – please check in advance that it’s her style, and it matches her home’s vibe. And – above anything else – do make sure she still needs it.

Because there’s nothing worse than decluttering your own home by… unintentionally cluttering somebody else’s.

2. Charitable causes

They come in different forms: high street charity shops, church and community drop-offs, organisations that work with vulnerable people, housing associations, etc. All of them are grateful for our unwanted items.

Over the years, I have donated to many charity shops. And in recent months, I have also made contact with some fantastic organisations to work with them directly. Here is some practical information on both.

• Charity shops

The wonderful high street charity shops hold a special place in the community. But you need to understand how they operate, though. For example: When are they open? What items do they and don’t they sell? What are their policies? And so on.

To illustrate better why it is important, here is a quick story that happened to me.

When I first started EC Home Organiser, I found myself in a peculiar scene at a local charity shop. I turned up with a few bags of a client’s unwanted items only to be respectfully declined: “We’re sorry, we’re not taking any more donations at this time. Our area is already full.”

And you know what? It hasn’t been the only time I’ve experienced it.

We’re all under the impression that charity shops are happy to receive anything and everything as a donation. But that’s not always the case.

Many are overwhelmed with unsellable items in bad condition, unnecessarily taking up valuable space. And the time it takes to sort through them all could be used to do something more beneficial to the community. As a result, our best intentions might accidentally stop the shops from accepting further donations.

So please, please, make sure that what you’re taking there is in a condition you’d want to buy it yourself.

• Local organisations  

I’m proud to say I’m at the beginning of a lovely professional friendship with two organisations in my local area.

One of them is Gatehouse – an independent charity that works with the vulnerable throughout East Anglia. And Suffolk Baby Bank  provides all things bump, baby, child and beyond to those in need. If your unwanted items are suitable, they both will be glad of the donations.

It’s also worth looking into the needs of women’s shelters. They are refuge places for females fleeing from domestic abuse or those who have come out of prison with no means to buy stuff for their new homes.

Helping them is another lovely way to put the things you don’t need straight into the hands of people who do.

3. Textile banks

You’ve surely driven past them on numerous occasions without realising what they are.

Those big containers in supermarket car parks, school playgrounds and outside local shopping centres are textile banks run mostly by charity organisations.

As the name suggests, they’re primarily meant for clothing and shoes (no duvets and pillows, please!). And in this case, your damaged garments can be bagged up and thrown in, too. They’ll get recycled and used for rags or other handy items.

But most importantly, all pieces in good condition are not sold. They are directly distributed within the community or sent to those in need overseas.

4. Selling

Sometimes, the belongings you don’t want anymore might still be of significant value. So there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get back some of the money you invested in them.

A few online platforms and apps are dedicated to selling second-hand items, like clothes, accessories, books, etc. eBay is probably the oldest. But Facebook has its own Marketplace, too. And recently, Vinted has stirred things up in the fashion world.

Bear in mind, however, that selling things virtually might sound more glamorous than it is presented in those shiny TV ads. It takes time and effort to photograph the items, describe them, put them up on the website of your choice, manage them there, and ship them after the sale is complete.

My advice to you is this: carefully calculate your ROI (return on investment).

Compare how much you’re advertising an item for to the actual time it takes to find the buyer. Consider whether it’s worth your effort. Let alone the stress associated with answering (sometimes) cheeky questions, conducting price negotiations and organising pick-up or delivery.

5. Recycling centres  

Here’s the thing. Recycling centres are like little cities, with streets, alleys and even entire districts. So it’s vital to understand how they are organised.

Most have various “stations” with containers dedicated to different types of rubbish, resembling the bins we have at home, but on a larger scale. There’s a place to get rid of recyclable and non-recyclable items, for example. That first category is divided further into glass, cardboard, wood, small appliances, etc. You get the picture?

I strongly recommend researching the centres first before going there. Sometimes, if you’re taking a hazardous or particularly big item, you might need to make an appointment. Or you might be redirected to a place further away to dispose of unusual belongings.

It might sound odd, but I find visiting those centres fun and liberating. There’s something very satisfying about emptying the contents of my car into the different stations.

You’ll see it for yourself when you make recycling centres your new favourite place, too.

And now comes the good news, finally. We’ve reached the end of the decluttering journey! Ta-daaaaam!

How does that important milestone feel? Is your home suddenly brighter, more spacious, more homely? Are you feeling lighter, calmer and more relaxed mentally?

Even if it’s not my space that I help declutter, and they’re not my possessions to dispose of, I just love doing it with my clients. Because home organising resembles freeing yourself of all that litter in your life, literally and metaphorically speaking.

So I sincerely hope you’ve found all my tips so far helpful. And if you need any more decluttering advice, you know where to find me.