More and more people are realizing the benefits of decluttering and focusing on living a more minimalist lifestyle. Minimalism doesn’t mean you have to sell all of your belongings and own two t-shirts; it’s up to you how minimal you want your lifestyle to be. However, we can all agree that spending less money on new goods and getting rid of waste in our lives have many benefits, regardless of the extent we do it. One area decluttering benefits is helping you out financially, though this benefit might not be immediately apparent. Here are a few of the financial benefits you’ll get from decluttering your life.
Gain some money
One of the most obvious benefits of decluttering is that you can likely sell a fair number of items you’re getting rid of. Have a yard sale or find sites to sell things online, such as Craigslist or Facebook groups. If you have larger items, this method is even better, since you don’t have to worry about transporting them anywhere and can simply set them outside your home or wait for someone to come pick them up.
Lower your taxes
If you’d prefer to donate the items you’re decluttering or have things left over after a yard sale, it’s easy to find places to donate gently used goods, particularly clothes. You’ll be helping out a great cause and people in need while also lowering your taxes. If you itemize your tax return, you can list everything you’ve donated and write off that money.
Spend less money
When you commit to decluttering and living with less stuff, you’ll find that you’re spending less money on needless purchases. Instead of buying items you do not actually need, you’ll be more thoughtful with the money you’re spending. You realize that you do not actually need to keep gaining more useless goods and instead you’ll save and invest your money or use it to gain experiences and better yourself.
Greater productivity
If your life is too cluttered, it can be difficult to get a lot of work done and your productivity will suffer. You’ll often be distracted by the need to organize or clean instead of just tackling a task and getting it done. You’ll waste time searching through everything for the items you need in order to find one thing. Once you declutter, you’ll also save a lot of time cleaning because you’ll have less items to move and organize.
Avoid duplicate buying
It’s likely that there have been a few times you’ve bought something without realizing you already own it. You might look around for a specific type of clothing or item and not find it anywhere, so you go out and buy something new. Then, a few days or months later, you realize that you actually have duplicates of the item you do not really need. You might even sometimes intentionally purchase a duplicate item while your old one is perfectly good. Get away from this mindset and instead only keep items you’ll actually use.