I decluttered my home after a break-up. My six low-effort tips for getting rid of stuff

We have all heard the rules about how to declutter: make a plan. Audit your space. Buy more storage bins (seriously?). One in, one out. Your home ceases to become your sanctuary and more a problem to be solved requiring spreadsheets. Trouble is, sometimes solving one problem simply creates another. Because once you recognise something no longer sparks joy and you need to release it into the universe, then what? Where does it all go? And how can you get it there? What many people seem to miss is that decluttering is a two-part process: the first part is deciding what to get rid of, the second part is actually getting rid of it. I’m a perimenopausal woman rebuilding my life post-separation with untreated ADHD: I don’t need someone to hold my hand (anymore) and help me through the emotional breakdown of letting go of a shirt I’ll never wear. I need someone to tell me where to send all this stuff so it doesn’t end up in a landfill – thus putting the burden of the entire planet’s collapse on my shoulders because I overconsumed the Waterstones three-for-two tables – and ideally, take it there. The harsh reality of thinking you’re finished and finding that no, there’s a cursed pile of discards sneering at you from across the room when you’re too exhausted to deal with it is enough to kill whatever drive you had to even start in the first place. Here’s how I’ve learnt to slay that beast…1. Give away unwanted items without leaving the house Let’s start with the basics. If you don’t want to try reselling and just want rid, but don’t have the energy to drive all over delivering bagged-up discards like a frazzled ADHD Santa after spending the day sorting and selecting, outsource this labour. We’re trying to declutter our homes, not turn them into a warehouse for a side hustle. Sometimes you have just the right perfect thing for someone who needs it right now, and Freecycle is a great way to offload your unwanted items for someone else’s benefit. Pick your neighbourhoods, post your images – furniture, curtains – and interested parties will message you to arrange a collection. There are other options, such as Facebook Marketplace, but the benefit of Freecycle is that you don’t have to waste your time finding someone else’s gaff to have them walk out with the item they advertised as “free” and then demand £80. Outsource your delivery needs 2. Pay someone else to take your clutter away People are unlikely to want old towels, so consider sending your textiles – old towels, sheets, blankets – to animal shelters and rescue charities for one more use before recycling. Many are volunteer-run on shoestring budgets, and every season is kitten season. They’re unlikely to collect, though, which means you can outsource the delivery using apps such as TippTapp. TippTapp will find you a helper to haul your haul to a recycling centre or charity shop, and like Freecycle, you can also offer unwanted items to make someone else’s problem. If you book them while you’re still in the midst of decluttering, by the time you’re done discarding, it is all well and truly gone. I managed to deliver about six bags of plus-sized clothes one afternoon directly to the BHF shop with a dedicated plus-sized rail in Walworth and five bags of plus-sized business attire to Smart Works – who help women into work – in Islington without stopping my other tasks. By the end of the day, the clothes were sorted AND out of my house. Snap an image of the job, upload to the site with a price, and wait for a helper to respond. They will collect from your home, deliver to your chosen address, and send confirmation of delivery before you release the funds. Well worth the spend. And anyone can be a helper, so it’s a potential income source if you have an afternoon free to just run odd jobs for people. 3. Get unwanted books collected from your door Another useful app is Sell Your Books, which will allow you to schedule a collection of your downsized library. Because books require specialist recycling and are often too heavy to schlep to the charity shop, this can be especially helpful. Simply scan the barcode in-app, box up, and book a collection. They examine the stock and pay out once checking everything is present, correct, and resellable. The titles they don’t take today go onto a “shelf” that you can access later once there’s demand, which can sometimes be only a few days later. Sell some of those used books you have lying around 4. Rid yourself of old toys without the guilt Are you a parent? Let’s talk about toys. Mattel’s PlayBack scheme will generate a label for you to ship their products back to them to repurpose and recycle. Unsure if that rogue hand is Mattel? No worries: Tesco participates in the Recycle to Read toy recycling campaign and has kiosks in its shops where you can drop all those little Barbie body parts without worrying about landfills. If some of those toys are collectables, you might want to try a resale platform. Buyers are absolutely interested in collectables – characters like Thomas the Tank Engine always have a new generation of interested young children keen to have adventures, so pop them on a resale site for tired, budget-conscious parents to pick up. And all those little Lego pieces you’re stepping on in the middle of the night have value, too – sell it on BrickLink. Lego enthusiasts are very serious and attach monetary value to every single stud caught in your hoover, and 2p a piece can add up really fast. 5. Trade old clothes Sometimes it is worth making a small amount of space for items if you know they could sell, especially if they’re a reputable, known brand. Some labels offer resale on their own platform (Snag Preloved), and others (such as Lucy & Yak) run Facebook groups that will allow you to buy/sell/trade. Reskinned has partnered with a number of high street brands, such as Marks and Spencer and Seasalt Cornwall, to offer vouchers for clothes as part of a takeback scheme – pack up your clothes, Reskinned sends you a label, post your package. Thrift+ runs a similar scheme in which they send you a prepaid bag to ship the clothes in, but you have to pay for it, and they may not always take the brands you offer. You can make money from things you don’t need or want anymore 6. Make money from the things you no longer want If you’re willing to put in a little more effort, there are also ways to make money from the things you’re getting rid of. Resale platforms such as eBay and Vinted can be great for clearing out all those little things that still have value, and do not charge you to list your items. Buyer pays for postage, and you receive a downloadable label to print at home or a code for you to take to the courier’s parcel drop-off centre. The downside of course is that listing items, packaging them up and distributing them to various courier drop-off points takes effort you might not have. While eBay allows you to schedule your uploads to hit prime scrolling hours, Vinted rewards frequent uploaders with visibility, so if you’re not uploading regularly, your listings can end up collecting dust unless you pay to boost them. The trade-off is, unlike a car boot sale, you don’t have to be up at 3am and sit in a field in the rain for hours. Still, be realistic about what you can face. If selling that old dress for a tenner means it’s going to spend another three months draped over the back of a chair, perhaps it’s time to let it go for nothing. The aim, after all, isn’t to become a successful second-hand retailer – it’s to see your bedroom floor again.