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15 Little Changes You Can Make in Your Home to Help It Serve You Better
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15 Little Changes You Can Make in Your Home to Help It Serve You Better

Does Your Home Serve You?

Overview: This section discusses the importance of making sure that our homes serve us, rather than us serving our homes. It provides 15 tips for making small changes to ensure that our homes are a safe harbor and a launching pad.

Remove Decorations That No Longer Inspire You

  • Remove knickknacks and pictures that no longer inspire you or decorations that were bought on clearance.
  • Keep only the items that mean the most to you.

Donate Clothes You Don't Love

  • Declutter your closet to find more calm and peace every morning.
  • Donating unused clothing to a local charity is a simple but meaningful way to help out others.

Reject the Convenience Fallacy

  • Don't leave out tools, appliances, and toiletries for convenience.
  • Create space for your home to serve you and keep those items in a cabinet or drawer.

Take Down Signs That Don't Inspire a Noble Life

  • Replace signs that don't inspire with positive messages that call you higher.

Free Up Closet Space

  • Remove unused items from your closets to make them feel bigger.

Distinguish Between Minimizing and Tidying Up

  • Just because a room is tidy doesn't mean it's uncluttered.

Clear Off Your Dining Room Table

  • Make your tabletop a clean open space that says "I'm ready for our next meal".

Pare Down Your Beauty and Grooming Supplies

  • Empty out cabinets and drawers, eliminate duplicates, and throw out anything that's broken or old.

Declutter Duplicates Around Your Home

  • Start with your linen closet and get rid of any duplicates.

Create a Calm Space

Overview: This section provides tips on how to create a calm space in your home.

Declutter Your Space

  • Choose a favorite chair and declutter everything around it.
  • Clear off the surface of the side table or coffee table by removing anything that's on it.

Clear Space for Your Car in the Garage

  • Get rid of all the obvious candidates for decluttering, such as odds and ends, kids' unused play things, sporting equipment, duplicate tools, etc.

Tackle a Junk Drawer

  • Most of us have one - it's the default resting place for small items that have no better place to be or for things we think we might have some use for but can no longer remember what it is. Chances are good you can toss most of what's in there and never miss it.

Set Physical Boundaries for Your Kids

  • Give your kids a certain amount of space and allow them to manage it however they want.

Count the Clutter Cost

  • Every object carries a burden as well as a benefit. The burden of clutter costs is the money, time, energy, and space an object demands from you. Consider the benefit to burden ratio when deciding what to keep.

Conclusion

  • Don't wait any longer to have a home that gives more than it takes. You can do it!
Video description

Does managing and maintaining your home cause you stress? If so, here are 15 easy ways to make caring for your your home less stressful. --- Recent videos: 29 Days to a Better You https://youtu.be/NrgnbFmVm_E The Burdens We Already Carry https://youtu.be/gxHTNEM2nKs. --- Most popular videos: 3 Things to Buy to be Happier, According to Science https://youtu.be/5p_sqQHdvcE Top 10 Things to Declutter Right Now https://youtu.be/mNF6KQR_NGg --- You can read more tips in my newest book, Things That Matter: Overcoming Distraction to Pursue a More Meaningful Life: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/books/ Read hundreds of articles on decluttering and owning less on the Becoming Minimalist blog. --- Timestamps: 0:00 - Foundation. 1:38 - 1. Remove decorations that no longer inspire you. 2:13 - 2. Donate clothes you don’t love. 2:33 - 3. Reject the convenience fallacy. 3:15 - 4. Take down signs that don’t inspire a noble life. 3:47 - 5. Free up closet space. 4:09 - 6. Clear your dining room table. 4:39 - 7. Clean out your entertainment center. 5:05 - 8. Distinguish between minimizing and tidying up. 5:23 - 9. Pare down your beauty and grooming supplies. 6:00 - 10. Declutter duplicates. 6:34 - 11. Calm a space for reading. 7:06 - 12. Clear space for your car in the garage. 7:41 - 13. Tackle a junk drawer. 8:01 - 14. Set physical boundaries for your kids. 8:36 - 15. Count the “clutter cost.”