6 Things To Declutter Around Your Home In July

As the weather warms up and days become longer, we naturally want to spend more of our time outdoors. Between hosting backyard gatherings, planning vacations, and the kids being out of school, clutter has a way of building up throughout the home in the summer. Although you may associate deep cleaning and decluttering with spring, it's smart to have a list of seasonal cleaning tasks to complete throughout the year. It's a lot less overwhelming than doing everything at once, and by staying on top of it, you can help prevent things from piling up. Because July falls right in the middle of the year, it's a great time to clear out some space. As a bonus, summer is garage sale season, so you may be able to make a few extra dollars by selling what you no longer use.

Getting rid of what you don't need and clearing up space is one of the best home changes proven to boost your motivation. Reducing clutter throughout the home can also help decrease stress; a 2009 study published in Society for Personality and Social Psychology found that there may be an association with home clutter and cortisol levels linked to chronic stress. Even if you know this already, it can be easy to put off decluttering. Luckily, you don't have to declutter and reorganize every area of your house to reap the benefits. For your July cleaning tasks, focus on purging things and organizing spaces that help make your summer flow more smoothly. We'll help you get started with the list below.

After a long day of summer hosting duties, the last thing you want is to sift through a cluttered cabinet to find containers for your leftovers. Start by removing any lids or containers that don't have a matching counterpart. It's also a good idea to part with any duplicate containers, especially in sizes you probably won't need to use all at once. Look closely for cracks or damage. If a container isn't airtight, it's less effective at keeping bacteria out. Additionally, toss out any single-use plastic containers, as they can quickly degrade with each use. 

If you don't organize your closet, it can quickly become overflowing with clothes that will never make it off the hanger. By decluttering your summer wardrobe, you'll be able to easily find what you're looking for and put together outfits you love. Remove anything that doesn't fit properly, is worn out, or is no longer your style. If there's something you've never worn, you probably won't reach for it this summer either. You can donate good-quality clothing to a local thrift store or charity and drop off unwearable items at a recycling center.

Between camping, BBQs, and beach vacations, we spend a lot of our summer days in nature. So, it's important to make sure last year's supplies are still safe to use. Chemicals in things like bug spray, sunscreen, and SPF lip balms break down and become less effective over time. Locate the expiration dates and toss anything past their prime. Aloe vera products can become contaminated with bacteria and spoil quickly once they're opened. Look for visible mold, strange odors, or changes in color or texture. Throw away anything that seems off, even if it's not expired.

Most of the time, what sits behind the medicine cabinet door is out of sight, out of mind. When you do need to grab something, you're probably more focused on pain relief than decluttering. Over-the-counter medications, eye drops, topical antibiotics, and even bandages eventually go bad and become less effective or even unsafe to use. Get rid of expired products in your medicine cabinet, travel kits, and other first-aid supply stashes. Many medications degrade faster with heat exposure, so toss anything that was left in the car or outside for an extended period of time.

If you spend a lot of time near the water in the summer, you may have more items taking up precious storage space than you even realize. Sort through your pool inflatables, beach toys, goggles, snorkels, beach bags, towels, and similar items to determine what you want to keep, toss, or donate. Inspect and test safety gear, like life jackets, to make sure they're still in good condition. By decluttering now, you can easily grab what you need and avoid packing something that won't work properly once you're already at the pool, beach, or lake.

If you're someone who joyfully puts up decorations for every season and holiday, then you know how quickly all of these items can add up each year. July is the perfect time to thin out some of the holiday clutter — especially the leftovers from outdated holiday home decor trends. Because you already know which spring and summer decorations didn't make it into this year's display, you can confidently toss or donate what you didn't use. With fall and winter holidays around the corner, you can get ahead by sorting through Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor before it's time to start decorating again.