No one wants to live in a clutter-filled home — and yet, this is the reality for most of us.
Many modern families in Australia have both parents working. Living such a fast-paced life and juggling multiple roles, most parents have little time to do house chores and lack the energy to keep the home organized. As a result, random clutter starts piling up around the house and before you know it, your once spacious home is overrun by stuff you seldom find purpose for.
Fortunately, rubbish removal companies exist; to help keep the household running even when the people living in it are busy meeting the everyday demands of life.
If you’re thinking of hiring trash removal services (and you should), there are a few things that you need to get in order to make sure that the entire process goes smoothly. Below, we’ve listed 7 things that you need to do before the rubbish removal guys stop by for a visit.
List All The Clutter-Prone Areas Of Your Home
Years of piled up clutter can easily overwhelm you. In fact, this is the reason why so many people find it so difficult to get their homes organised. When they look at the mumbo jumbo of things laying around the house, boxed up in the attic, or randomly stacked in the basement, they get so overwhelmed by everything that’s going on that they end up procrastinating and putting off the work. They fuss so much and care too much that they get confused on where to start.
In order to make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself thinking about all the things that need to be done, try organising your thoughts and laying everything out on paper. List all the areas inside the house that you need to declutter then further classify them by order of priority. Make sure that you place all the areas that are immediately visible to you at the top of the list so that you can clear them out first. Doing so will help you get rid of any immediate stressors and help you approach other areas with a more positive attitude.
If you divide the work in chunks and go about it area by area, you can pace yourself more efficiently and avoid overwhelm. It will also help you establish small wins that will then encourage you to do more. Decluttering may seem like such a daunting task if you just worry about all the work involved. However, once you dice it up into manageable chunks, it gets 10x times easier.
Create A Schedule To Deal With Each Area One By One
Next, don’t try to do everything at once. After writing down all the problem areas in your house and completing your list, the next step is to create a schedule. You have to make sure that you pace yourself right so that you don’t burn yourself out before you can complete your decluttering mission. Focusing on 1 to 2 areas a day is a good start.
To create an effective schedule, first consider how much free time you have in a week that you can allot to this decluttering project. Once you figure out what times and days work on that specific week, start assigning areas to declutter in your schedule. Bigger areas would need more time so make sure that you schedule it on a day when you have fewer commitments. In the same way, you can squeeze in smaller areas to shorter breaks that you may have throughout the week.
Declutter & Segregate
Once you’re satisfied with the schedule you’ve come up with, it’s time to do the decluttering. Again, work on it area by area, making sure to segregate what you can and can no longer use. The general rule of thumb is that if you haven’t searched for a particular item in the last 6-12 months (with the exception of seasonal stuff like Halloween or Christmas decorations), you’re likely never going to need it again. Thus, you should put them in the “good riddance” pile.
Keeping stuff inside your house just because you feel bad about throwing them out is common hoarding behaviour and it’s not going to do you any good. Houses have limited space so you should maximise the use of yours by making sure you are not keeping more than what you and your family need. Everything that you keep but don’t use is unnecessary clutter and will only disrupt your everyday peace.
Sell, Donate, or Throw Away?
After you’ve segregated everything that you can’t use or don’t plan on using anymore, you can further classify them into three categories: to sell, to donate, or to throw out.
Some items may still be of some value so you may as well sell them at a good bargain to make a few bucks on the side. Older gadgets, home appliances, and used furniture sell well on flea markets and garage sales. You can also post them on online marketplaces such as Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or eBay.
There are also items that may no longer be saleable but can still provide some value to those who need them. In this case, you can donate them to organisations that can make the best use of them. Some examples are clothing, shoes, bags, books, etc.
Lastly, there are items that really have no value anymore. This is the type of clutter that you really need to get rid of. Straight to the trash they go.
Search For A Sydney Rubbish Removal Service
Speaking of trash, once you have gone through everything and decided what their fate is going to be, it’s time to start searching for a company that can handle the disposal of your rubbish for you. Everything that you need to throw out still needs to be disposed of properly and there are no better guys to call than the folks from rubbish removal companies, like Ridly rubbish removal.
When choosing the right company to hire, make sure that you are looking for both reliability and good value. Search for a company with a high service success rate which you can easily determine by doing a quick search and reading honest reviews from previous customers.
Prepare For Rubbish Removal Day
Once you’ve settled with a company you want to hire, discussed the fees and rates, agreed on which services you want, and booked the date, it’s time to prepare for rubbish removal day. There really isn’t much to do apart from organising the stuff you need to throw out and making sure that you’ve covered every area in your house that you want to declutter. The rubbish disposal guys will take care of the rest.
Also, just make sure that you are present and that you have authorised someone to oversee things on the day the rubbish removal guys come to your residence. Having someone around to help facilitate the task would definitely help make the process easier, especially when it’s the first time you’ve hired professionals to do this for you.
BONUS: Set Up A Bimonthly Rubbish Removal Schedule
Now that the trash removal process is done, there’s one thing left to do: leave the house alone to start piling up clutter again – NOT!
Always keep in mind that rubbish removal is not a one-time thing. As long as you live in your residence, there will always be a trash to throw out. You will also need to keep reorganising every few months or so to maintain the tidiness of your home. This is why it’s important to set up a monthly or bi-monthly schedule for trash removal to ensure that your house doesn’t revert to how it was.
Having a schedule set up will help you commit to keeping your house clutter-free and your mind worry-free!