When the last child leaves home, the change can be seismic. Suddenly, the house that has spent years revolving around school schedules, lunchboxes, sports equipment, family dinners, and the general melee of raising kids is quiet—and, very possibly, packed to the brim with stuff.
Alongside the emotions that come with becoming an empty nester is often the impulse to clear out your home. After all, becoming an empty nester isn’t simply about having fewer people under your roof: It marks the beginning of an entirely new phase of life, and your home may need to change right along with you.
So where to start? Spoiler: It’s not in your kid’s abandoned bedroom.
The Entryway
For years, your entryway has been the dumping ground for backpacks, purses, jackets, and kicked-off shoes. It has seen your kids come and go through all of the seasons of their childhood.
As your home transitions along with you, this is a perfect opportunity to clear your entryway. Unclaimed shoes, bags, and outerwear can go, along with the items you no longer use yourself. According to psychotherapist Lisa Chen, “The physical clearing is helpful not just for your mind, but allows for your body and nervous system to register the change.”
Your Own Clothes Closet
Carpool pick-up sweats and spirit wear may not call to you anymore, but a new wardrobe could. “The reality of most parents is that they really haven’t had a lot of time to edit and organize their clothes, shoes, and accessories in many years,” says professional organizer and decluttering expert Michele Vig.
“The starting of a new chapter is the perfect time to edit and consider what the future will bring and how your clothes play a role in that future.”
The Linen Closet
With the days of friend sleepovers firmly in the rearview mirror, your linen closet deserves a good shakedown. “Editing the linen closet is a great time to see what’s actually worth keeping,” says Vig. “It’s time to say goodbye to old yellow pillows and tattered towels.” (You might need space for that cashmere throw you’ve had your eye on, anyway.)
The Medicine Cabinet
If you’re like most parents, the baby thermometer might just still be hidden behind the enemy lines of Band-Aids, saline sprays, and pain relievers. With more time on your hands, an inventory of your medicine cabinet may be in order.
Updating your medicine cabinet will take care of any expired medications and reduce needless excess. Your cabinet shelves hold only what is relevant in your life now. (See ya, children’s cough syrups.)
Toiletry and Skincare Products
How long has it been since you have actually gone through your makeup, skin, and beauty products? More than likely, with kids around, you have tended to buy in bulk.
“Parents traditionally keep a lot of extra back-stock of beauty products like shampoos, soaps, tampons, and the like on-hand when kids are home,” says Vig. “The volume needed once the kids leave changes drastically, so it’s time to give that area a good edit and get down to what’s really needed.”
The Kitchen
As an empty-nester, your cooking and food-prep habits will likely change. “Editing the kitchen of the old donut hole maker or the Mickey Mouse waffle maker probably makes sense now,” says Vig. “It will give parents a clearer picture of what types of foods they will want to create moving forward without the kids.”
And with all of those extra cereal boxes and snacks out of the way, you can experience the new sensation of opening your cabinets to order rather than chaos.
Old Hobbies and Crafts
“So many arts and crafts are needed when the kids are younger and tend to accumulate over the years and get mixed in with the hobbies of the parents,” says Vig. “Editing all of the old craft supplies will help parents get clarity on what hobbies they really want to take with them into the future.” Trade in those old containers of Play-Doh to make room for a foray into ceramics.
The Garage
With your last child gone, you can now raise the garage door and let the sun shine in on all the accumulation. If you look at your maze of belongings through the lens of simplifying your life so that you have more freedom to try new things, maybe the boogie boards, training wheels, and disassembled crib aren’t really that necessary after all.
Holiday Bins
There’s no reason to stop decorating for the holidays just because your kids are gone. However, you might not be so inclined to make a big fuss over all of them.
Editing your storage bins of excessive Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and St. Patrick’s Day decorations is relatively easy and might just lighten up your space enough to make room for something new, notes Vig. And by donating these items, those green beaded necklaces can now hang around the necks of some other lucky children.
Study Areas
“Transform any study or homework areas into an area for yourself,” says Chen. Perhaps the sunny kitchen counter dotted with pen holders and paper clips is now due for a couple of new plants to cheer you as you cook.
“Your house has been organized to support raising your children and reinforcing your role as parents,” she says. With their absence comes an opportunity to explore how your home spaces can support you.
Entertainment Centers and Bookshelves
In time, you may begin to see clutter where before you did not. It may come in the form of stacks of forgotten board games or puzzles, or Blu-rays, DVDs, or even VHS tapes collecting dust. According to home organization and storage trends researcher Andrew Pope, “Books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, and video games should get the sorting treatment, too.”
Go through these storage spaces and family bookshelves with your kids in tow. “Parents’ and kids’ books often get mixed and jumbled together,” adds Vig. “Editing them will bring a lot of clarity to what’s important to everyone and take a lot of bulk out of the home quickly.”
Unused Electronics
Pope extols the virtues of clearing your house of all useless electronics. “Broken phones, phone cases, defective headphones—if they haven’t been fixed yet, they’re off to the electronic recycling bin,” he says.
Round up outdated chargers and ill-fitting cords from junk drawers, beneath desks, and wherever else they’ve been hiding. You’ll likely find plenty for devices that are no longer even a part of your home.
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