Clutter. It happens to the best of us. But there is hope. Through a few new habits and a different mindset, anyone can make their home look clutter-free, even if there may be some clutter that has yet to be vanquished.
This article will reveal to you seven tips on how to accomplish this stress-free and clean home environment.
Ready to get started?
1. Identify Your Clutter Habits
In order to stop clutter in its tracks, you need to first identify how it begins.
Look around your house and find potential or proven danger zones. These often include flat surfaces like tables and countertops.
In the bedroom, danger zones can be at the foot of the bed, the tops of dressers and night tables, and corners.
Along with areas of the home that are the easiest to clutter up, there are certain clutter-causing items.
These items include mail, dishes, dirty clothes, items needing mending, old books, and sentimental items that serve no real purpose.
Being honest with yourself and your “little clutter problem” is the first step to fixing it.
2. Don’t Put It Down
Let’s be real. Sometimes our house gets cluttered simply because we are busy and don’t follow through.
Throughout your day, you may handle different items. To cut down on how much time a task might take, you can be tempted to leave items where you are, even if they don’t belong.
Don’t put an item down, put it away. Follow the popular tidying mantra: “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
3. Create Systems
When you have a system for your daily habits of putting things in a logical order, you are more likely to follow through.
Just as a company creates a protocol for every process in their business tasks, you can create a protocol for every task in your home.
A good example of this is to rinse every dirty dish you use and place it in the dishwasher immediately. When you place the last dish to fill the dishwasher, you add detergent and start the cleaning cycle.
You can teach this system to every household member. With the whole house following this orderly system, your home will easily stay clean and clutter-free.
4. Don’t Leave a Room Empty Handed
If you are leaving a room, look around to see if there is something that doesn’t belong.
When you find it, take it with you out of the room and put it where it belongs.
If you do this all day long, all displaced items will be returned to their rightful place without setting aside a large chunk of time to organize your home.
5. Organize, Organize, Organize!
The need for organizational assistance has created a huge inventory of ingenious tools at the disposal of the homemaker.
You can buy bins, baskets, shelves, and containers that will hold items that you might have a hard time finding a place for.
6. Clean As You Go
Similar to point #2 but even more in-depth, if you clean your home throughout your day, you won’t ever see it overrun with clutter.
For example, as you are cooking in the kitchen, clean up behind you instead of waiting until you are done eating to clean both the kitchen and the dining room.
This would be a much larger cleaning job and you’ll be tempted to put it off.
The entrance is often a dirty part of the home because we walk in and drop everything. Instead, take a couple more minutes to put all the things you brought into your home where it belongs.
In the morning, we are often in a hurry. This can cause the bathroom vanity to get cluttered with toothbrushes, hairbrushes, cotton swabs, and other toiletry items.
Take the time to put each individual item back immediately after you use it.
7. Limit Your Intake
It is much easier to keep a clutter-free home when you don’t have much to clutter up.
Some of us have a habit of purchasing items we don’t need. Before you buy anything, stop and assess the purchase.
If you aren’t a minimalist, try the three-question approach, “Will I use it? Do I need it? Do I love it?”
If you can’t answer yes to one or more of these questions, don’t take it home.
Conclusion
After you’ve taken the advice and made some of the above changes, it won’t take long for you to notice a difference.
You’ll see that you won’t have to clean up as often, you’ll lose fewer things, and you’ll feel more at peace in your own home.
Then you can make even more upgrades to your home, like buying new furniture or a beautiful rug from Lawrence of LaBrea.
Don’t set yourself up and expect perfection. Look for your progress. As time goes by, you’ll see yourself transform from a beginner to a decluttering pro.
Isn’t decluttering great?!
