The Exit Strategy, the missing step in decluttering your home

Exit Strategy, the missing step in decluttering your home

I talk about the Exit Strategy a lot on my stories and content on Instagram. I recently undertook a challenge for the month of March looking at decluttering items everyday from my home. So on day 1 I removed 1 item, day 2 I removed 2 items and so on until March 31^st. In total we removed 496 items from our home.

I loved the challenge but still found some days, some areas of my home more difficult and some of the reason for that was Exit Strategy.

What is the Exit Strategy

An exit strategy is the plan for how items will actually leave your home.

Decluttering is not finished when the items are in the bag, its only finished when the items are actually gone from your home.

 I always tell my clients to consider the exit strategy before they start the decluttering process. If you know you are going to look at decluttering your wardrobes then you know it will be clothes, shoes and accessories that will be leaving your home by the end of the day. So, before anything goes into a charity bag I would be thinking where is it going? Which charity shop is the closest, is open and will accept my donation today.

Call the shop double check closing time and ask if they can accept your donation. That way you have already sorted the exit strategy and set yourself a time limit by which time you need to have those bags or boxes on their way to the shop.

Without a plan, those “to donate” or “to sell” piles become:

·       Visual clutter

·       Mental clutter a constant reminder of unfinished tasks

The reasons why we can struggle to finish the task is down to:

·       Time, we are all time poor

·       Knowledge of where items can go

·       Indecision on whether to sell, donate or pass to a friend

By setting aside sufficient time for the task and arming yourself with the full knowledge of where items can go then you are tackling at least 2 of those blockers!

Set out 4 boxes or areas in the space to pile up the items according to whether they are to be donated, sold, recycled, given to a friend*

*On the ‘give to a friend’ pile check with them beforehand if they actually want your donation otherwise you are just making your clutter someone else’s problem.

I would also recommend for the sell piece to make sure you have enough time to photograph and list the items. This can of course be done at another time but again setting out a timeframe and deadline for this is important. I would also recommend implementing a timeframe that by which if the item hasn’t sold that you move it to another category whether donate or to a friend to ensure that you are working on removing the items as timely as possible.

I still have items from my March declutter that I plan on listing with Vinted so I’ll let you know how I get on. Lots of clients and friends use it and while it is very simple to use, I know the downsides can be storing the items until they sell and the prices people are willing to pay even for brand new items are fairly low so I think its important to be selective about what you decide to list for sale. I know from speaking with charities there has been a reduction in the quality and quantity of items they are receiving as more people turn to the online selling sites.

I love this quote ‘Decluttering without an exit strategy is like packing for a trip but never leaving the house.’ It is so true at this point you have done the decision-making and created the momentum, so it is critical to keep going and now fall at the final hurdle. Put a simple plan in place and follow through quickly. The reset doesn’t happen when the bag is filled, It happens when it’s gone.