How to Declutter Your Vacation Home and Reduce the Amount of Stress
You’ve been dreaming about escaping to your vacation home for months now and can’t wait to just unwind and forget about the rest of the world. You finally arrive only to realise that you’ll have to spend a half of your vacation cleaning and decluttering it. You can just skip this tedious task, but you won’t be able to truly relax because your cluttered environment will affect your state of mind. Therefore, you should roll up your sleeves and start decluttering. You might even find getting rid of all that clutter strangely satisfying. It might feel as if you were decluttering your mind at the same time.
Get into the “decluttering mode”
Decluttering doesn’t have to be exhausting and boring. You can actually make it more fun and enjoyable, which will motivate you to be more efficient. Since you’re on a vacation, you can take this opportunity to get to know the local culture. For example, if you’re vacationing in Malta, you can play Ghana, traditional Maltese music, in the background. If you have a vacation home in Portugal, you can play fado and so on.
Declutter room by room
Since you visit your vacation home once or twice a year, there’s probably a lot of work to be done, so it’s best to come up with an approach that will keep you organised and efficient. Decluttering room by room is usually the best and easiest option that will prevent you from losing your mind halfway through. Don’t try to do everything in a single day because you won’t be able to finish it and the next day you’ll be too exhausted to continue.
The kitchen is probably the most important area that needs cleaning and decluttering. This is where you’ll prepare meals, so it’s important that you eliminate the risk of food poisoning from expired products or mouldy sponges. After getting rid of all the expired products, you should take your time to clean all the surfaces, sink and the fridge and check whether your dishes are clean.
When it comes to your bathroom, apart from basic decluttering and cleaning, you should check it for mould or leaks.
Introduce additional storage units
You need to furnish your vacation home with plenty of storage units that will help you keep clutter under control. Not only will you create an organised and tidy atmosphere, but each item will have its own place which will help you keep your home clean and clutter-free.
Depending on the general style of your vacation home, you have a range of different options when it comes to storage. For example, if you have a beach home, you can introduce theme-specific storage solutions, such as beautiful wicker baskets. If your vacation home has a lovely vintage design, you can introduce antique cupboards, chests or shelves. No matter what you choose, it’s important that your storage solutions are functional in order to help you get rid of clutter.
However, what is probably the most important thing is knowing where everything is, especially if you introduce additional storage units. One thing that comes in handy is labelling. You can rely on good old sticky notes, but if you need something more durable you can easily make friends with label makers. The only thing to keep in mind is that your stash of durable Dymo labels is always full, so you don’t run out of supplies for your labelling. This way, you will always know where your things are, especially if you don’t visit your vacation home that often.
Be creative with clutter
Once you’ve decluttered your shelves, closets and different areas of your vacation home, you’ll have to deal with the clutter itself. While you should throw away all the broken items, expired products and the like, there might be items that are in a good condition but you don’t know what to do with them. Fortunately, there’s a lot of creative ideas that will help you put clutter to use. For example, you can reinvent old furniture into new pieces – you might have an old cupboard that you can turn into a bar or old chairs into an outdoor bench.
Another great idea is donating the items to someone you know there or ask them whether they know someone who might need them. You can even organise a yard sale – not only will you make extra money, but you might even make some friends there.
Create a relaxing ambiance
After decluttering your vacation home, the only thing left is to create a soothing and pleasant atmosphere where you can truly unwind. Since nobody’s been there for months, you should open the windows to let the fresh air in. If your vacation home feels really stuffy or stale, you can even get an air purifier.
You can also make your vacation home cosier and more enjoyable by introducing candles and intimate lighting. If you have someone checking your house regularly throughout the year, you can even add plants.
By decluttering your vacation home, you’ll create a relaxing and pleasant atmosphere that will help you unwind after a year of hard work.