The secret to creating a cozy home for Fall starts with decluttering. So, let’s take our cue from the falling leaves to let go of what is no longer serving us and prepare for the season ahead. My simple fall decluttering tips will help you get started.
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Practical Fall Decluttering Tips
Decluttering your home for the Fall is a great way to make room for family traditions and holiday celebrations. But how do you start decluttering?
Grab some bins, bags, or baskets to collect items as you sort them. I recommend boxes for donations, trash bags for trash, a laundry basket for return items, and another bin for anything you want to recycle. But feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
The good news is we’re not decluttering the whole house. We’ll be going through the areas of our homes that get the most use during the fall.
12 Things to Declutter in the Fall
The hardest part about decluttering is deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. I’m going to walk you through each space and help you make those decisions.
Closets
The change of seasons is the perfect time for decluttering clothes. Focusing on a few key items will go a long ready in getting your closet ready for the cooler months ahead.
- Coats – Keep coats that you regularly wear and that fit well. If they need repair, put them aside for alterations. Be sure to schedule a day to alter them yourself or drop them off. If you’re donating any coats, Burlington Coat Factory does a coat drive every year, and Salvation Army has one for kid coats. There’s also an organization called One Warm Coat. Enter your zip code to find a donation location near you. Homeless shelters may be another option.
- Seasonal clothes – Before putting summer clothes away, check for clothes that don’t fit or that you didn’t wear. If they’re in good condition, add them to the donate bin. If not, you can repurpose old t shirts or socks as cleaning cloths. Otherwise, you can put them in the return bin and take them to Goodwill or The Salvation Army to be recycled. There are also some retailers that have clothing collection bins for recycling and reusing.
- Shoes – Throw away shoes that are beyond repair. Donate shoes that are still in good shape, you never wear, or dont fit.
Pantry
Preparing your pantry for cooking holiday meals and fall baking will help reduce stress and overwhelm during an already hectic season.
- Old Spices – A lot of people ask, me included, if you should throw out old spices. They don’t necessarily go bad, but they do lose their potency and flavor. So, I recommend throwing them away. Be sure to keep a note of the spices you toss so you can replace them.
- Expired Canned Goods and other pantry items. So often we don’t realize how long something has been sitting in our pantry until we check the date. As you check for expiration dates, trash expired food. Write it down so you can replace what you need. Save food that is still good, but that your family doesn’t want for a Fall donation drive or local food pantry.
Garage
When you declutter the garage, just focus on a quick tidy up of Summer garden tools and toy clutter.
- Garden Tools – Clean up and put away garden tools and supplies you won’t be using this Fall. Go ahead and throw away and replace any tools that are broken.
- Summer Toys – Throw away toys that are broken. (You may need to arrange a bulk pick up with your trash service.) If any of these toys have served their last Summer, go ahead and donate them. You can sell popular and high demand toys on Facebook Marketplace. Clean and/or deflate any toys your kids will play with next Summer and put them away.
Bathroom
I like to take advantage of this time of year to declutter my makeup. Doing this well help you take inventory of what products you need for cooler weather.
Declutter & Minimize Your Makeup Collection – The best way to declutter makeup is to throw away anything that has expired or that you no longer wear. Then, sort through your makeup to pick out the products you use every day. Choose the products you actually wear and go for multipurpose products over single use ones. Keep those together in a drawer or bin. Store seasonal or special occasion makeup separately.
Craft Room
It’s very common for craft rooms to be overrun with too many craft supplies and home decor items. (I see it all the time.)
I recommend setting a timer and purging craft supplies down to the hobbies you currently enjoy and the supplies you need for them. Do this every day for a week, or however long you need, to prepare your home for the Fall and holiday season ahead.
- Declutter Seasonal Home Decor – As you set out Fall decor, notice anything that you didn’t use, that is broken or that you just don’t really enjoy anymore and set those things aside to donate. This is also good time to declutter Christmas decorations a well.
- Purge Craft supplies – Make space for the holiday season and prepare your craft room for fall crafts, handmade gifts and cards and gift wrapping.
Home Office/Library
There’s something about Fall that makes me want to curl up with a good book. Not to mention the start of a new school year means new school and office supplies. So as we declutter the home office for Fall, we’ll focus on how to cull books and office supplies.
- Books – How many books you have is entirely up to you. When downsizing our book collection, I asked myself a couple of questions that helped me decide what books to keep:
- Does the book hold sentimental value? It’s okay to hold on to books that have significant memories attached to them. Especially if you need those books to relive the memory. I still have a handful of books from my childhood because they inspired me to be a writer.
- Will I reread these books or refer to them again? You might want to keep books that had a big impact on you. I personally keep those books around to refresh my memory and to look up quotes.
You can sell the books you’re not keeping on Amazon or to a half price book store. Another option is to donate them to your local library.
- Declutter School and Office supplies – donate supplies from past grades that can no longer be used as well as any excess supplies you don’t need or use. Toss dried out markers, empty pens, and anything broken.
Where to Take Your Donations and Return Items
I have just a few more Fall decluttering tips to share to help you finish decluttering your home.
Once you’ve thrown out the trash, returned items to the people and places where they belong, and put away what you’re keeping, the last task is to get rid of the unwanted items in your home.
You can either take them to your favorite donation center or schedule a pick up with Salvation Army, Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity. You can also try pickupmydonation.com or collegehunkshaulingjunk.com to get your donations picked up and delivered to local nonprofits of your choosing.
What I know for sure is that when you start to declutter – whether it’s in your home, your head, or your heart – it is astounding what will flow into that space that will enrich you, your life + your family.”
Peter Walsh
I hope you are astounded by what Fall brings!
For more Fall decluttering tips read:
D' Ana Holland says
I enjoyed your article, always informative..