When your home is a cluttered wreck, it can be hard to summon the motivation to organise your scattered possessions. When you’re time poor it’s tough to get anything done around the house, no matter how hard you try.Sooner or later, you’ll hit your breaking point. When you’ve had enough, it’s time to do something about it. Here are a few tips to help you de-clutter your home.
1. Work Strategically
When you finally muster up the courage to get your home in order, avoid tackling the first project you can see. Instead, take a moment to map out a plan of action. Here’s a sample schedule for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home:
- Friday evening: living room, kitchen, hall closet (if applicable)
- Saturday: bedrooms No. 1 and No. 2 (including closets), guest bathroom
- Sunday: master bedroom (including closet), master bathroom
Once you’ve figured out which areas of the house you plan to work on each day, including actual objectives, or detailed notes of what needs to be done in each area. For example, if you plan to start in the kitchen, your list may look like this:
- Discard expired items from the pantry and neatly organize what remains on the shelves.
- Empty out the kitchen cabinets and only place the items of value back inside
- Clear off the countertops
- Sanitize the appliances (interior and exterior) and other surfaces in the kitchen
- Mop and shine the floors
2. Purge Away
I hate to break it to you, but you WILL need to throw some things away. It’s hard to do, even with items that have no sentimental value — no one wants to discard something they spent hard-earned money on. But you have to give the situation some thought. How serious are you about tidying things up, and how did your home get this way in the first place? The answer might be rather simple: There are too many items and not enough space.Wondering how to determine which items you get rid of? Ask yourself these questions to make the call:
- Have you used the item in the past year?
- If so, will you have a need for it in the near future?
- If not, will you ever use it?
Does it possess some sort of sentimental value? - Will you lose sleep at night once it’s gone?
If the answer is no, toss it, sell it, or donate it. If you purge enough stuff, you can have a garage sale on the weekend. The extra cash will ease the sting of tossing so much stuff.
3. Organisation
Done purging? Now it’s time for the fun part: organizing what remains. You don’t need to spend loads of cash on plastic storage containers and stylish space maker tools. Instead, working with what you have lying around the house. Here are a few options:
- Baskets: great for keys, phones, toiletries etc
- Drawer Dividers: perfect for those drawers full of miscellaneous items or kitchen utensils. If you don’t have any dividers on hand, you can easily make your own using pieces of a cardboard box.
- Shoeboxes: box cardboard and plastic work like a charm, especially for accessories and arts and craft supplies.
4. Consistency is Key
Now you have you finally crossed off all the items on your to-do list take a second to pat yourself on the back, and then think of all the ways you can keep things organised moving forward. Keep on top of the clutter and everyone will be happy!
