How to get rid of unwanted items in your home

A guide to clearing the clutter from your home  

As leading providers of skip hire and waste disposal services, we’ve put together a guide on how to get rid of unwanted items in your home.

The benefits of clearing clutter 

There are multiple advantages to getting rid of unwanted household items.

Here are the main benefits of clearing clutter out of your home:

1. It is easier to keep your home clean and tidy.
2. You might discover lost treasures and will enjoy the things you keep more.
3. Decluttering reduces stress – it has been associated with a decrease in the stress hormone, cortisol. 
4. It is satisfying to achieve a goal. 
5. Too much clutter can be visually overwhelming – decluttering your space can help to boost productivity and creativity.

Top clutter clearing tips

Here are our tips on where to begin, when clearing the clutter from your home: 

1. Start small 

If you start somewhere small and manageable – maybe just a junk drawer, kitchen cupboard or bathroom cabinet – you will feel a sense of satisfaction. This will help motivate you to continue onto larger tasks, such as clutter clearing a spare room, loft or garage.

2. Make it sustainable

Set a timer and then be methodical: tackle one area or one room at a time.

3. Stick to the ‘one in, one out’ rule

Try to avoid buying anything new that is a duplicate of something you already have.

Whether it’s your wardrobe, children’s toys or medical cabinet, if you are certain that you need something new then you should see it as a replacement and responsibly ditch the original item. 

4. Be decisive

Assess each item of potential clutter. Is it something you regularly use or wear? Does it work or is it broken? Is it useful? If you are hanging onto something unnecessarily then now is the time to get rid of it. 

Marie Kondo, author of ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying’, writes about the merits of living a clutter-free life. She asks readers to consider whether something “sparks joy”. It’s OK to hang onto something that has sentimental value, but there should be a healthy limit to what you keep, otherwise this is closer to hoarding. 

Organise the things you keep and once you have a sense of order, it will be easier to commit to keeping it that way.

5. Work out the best way to dispose of the item

One of the most important parts of clearing the clutter from your home is considering the best way to dispose of it. 

Give unwanted items to charity

Here at One Waste, we advocate for recycling and aim to limit the amount of waste that is sent to landfill. 

If you are wondering how to get rid of unwanted items in your home, it is worth considering whether they could be passed on to someone else who will benefit from them.

For items that still have some mileage left in them – clothes, kid’s toys or decorative items – we would recommend donating to charity. Clearing the clutter from your home becomes even more positive if you give things to a good cause. 

Most towns will have a charity shop or collection point. If clothes are damaged then many supermarkets and car parks have a collection bank so that textiles may be recycled.

Alternatively, you might wish to sell your unwanted clutter on a platform such as Facebook Marketplace, eBay or Vinted. 

Skip hire for house clearance and major decluttering 

Thinking about how to get rid of unwanted items in your home, garage or shed? If you have a lot of unwanted clutter to dispose of then skip hire could be the solution.

Skip hire is ideal if your clutter is predominantly these types of material and cannot be repurposed by anyone else:

• Paper
• Metals
• Plastics 
• Glass
• Fabric
• Tiles 

We are proud to provide environmentally conscious skip hire services. With our own waste transfer station, we separate and recycle 98% of the waste we collect. 

As well as providing peace of mind with our recycling rates, we can also take care of your skip licence paperwork. Regardless of your circumstances, you can rely on us to manage each stage of your skip hire. 

Click, for a comprehensive list of accepted waste that can be disposed of in a skip.

Disposing of larger unwanted items during clutter clearing

If you’ve decided to declutter a garage or shed then you might find yourself with some unwanted materials or larger items. 

As well as providing skip hire services, we can also collect certain sundry waste items at a convenient time, including: 

• Unwanted plasterboard or carpet
• Unwanted mattresses 
• Unwanted fridge/freezers

Please get in touch to find out more about our sundry waste collection on 020 3974 2630 or email info@onewasteclearance.co.uk

Skip hire for house clearance and clutter disposal

We hope our clutter clearing guide has helped you figure out how to get rid of unwanted items in your home.  Please contact us, if you have any questions or need clarification on our waste management services. 

To book our waste management or skip hire services, please call us on 020 8685 9393 and speak to a member of our friendly team. Alternatively, click to book a skip online.