Whenever the seasons change or we go through a big transition, I love to do a big declutter.

Some great times to do this are:

– whenever the seasons affect clothing changes (fall and spring)
– after my kids’ birthdays
– during the time between Christmas and New Year

Or… whenever a certain area of my house causes my heart rate to rise whenever I see it.

What does decluttering have to do with frugality? There are so many reasons why learning how to declutter, and continuing to do so a few times a year, can help you save money and stay in a frugal mindset. First of all, when you declutter and are aware of what you have, you don’t buy things you don’t need. If you never look in your hall closet, you might forget you have a bunch of tubes of toothpaste that you bought on sale and have continued to buy toothpaste. When it comes to kids’ clothes, it’s very easy to forget over the course of a year about all the pants you bought on clearance for your daughter.

Another reason decluttering can help you save money is because when you know what you have and only have things you really love and use, you will be less likely to spontaneously purchase things. When you remember how you threw away a whole bin of trinkets to decorate for Christmas because you decided that you don’t actually like having trinkets all over your house, you’ll be way less likely to buy more trinkets! If you’re still not convinced, follow along with me as I go through my hall closet and declutter to save money.

How to Declutter to Save Money

I hope I’ve convinced you of the importance of addressing the clutter in your home. Now you need to know how to declutter! To show you, I thought I’d declutter my hall closet.

I use it to store linens, medicines and other extra toiletry items, cleaning supplies, extra toilet paper, and various household items like outlet covers. Because it holds so many things, it makes it easy to throw things in there when I don’t want to deal with them. It doesn’t look as bad as it has looked in the past, but things on the top shelf are constantly falling down, and while I do have little containers on the other shelves, I have had a hard time finding things lately which means things haven’t been getting put back where they belong. So let’s declutter to save money!

When I am beginning the decluttering process, here are the steps I follow:

1. Pick the area
2. Remove all items from the area
3. Sort into three piles
4. Throw away the trash and donate give away items
5. Organize remaining items

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