An organised home can help you do more with your time and feel calmer day-to-day. Cleaning out and organising is a great first step to getting your life into balance (and we mean that in the nicest way). It’s not just about decluttering, but also important to make sure you are adding stuff back as well.
Decluttering is a great way to clear out mental clutter. It’s natural to want to keep everything in its place, but in reality this can lead to clutter in your home and office. You have a ton of work to do, and every day you’re dealing with the same problem: your home is messy. It’s all over the place, and it’s messing up your productivity and quality of life. There’s never enough time, and you want to get your house organised.
Here are seven tips to get you started on how to organise your whole house starting with the clutter on your surfaces and ending in your kitchen cupboards!
1. Sort your clutter into categories.
To begin, gather storage containers for items that do not belong in this room. Each container should be labeled with the category to which it belongs
The categories are:
- donations
- furniture
- recycling
- repair
- junk
Return or get rid of everything that doesn’t fit into one of these categories. The City of Melbourne has comprehensive information on how and where you can quickly and easily find disposal, recycling, and reuse options for your unwanted household items. Don’t forget to reward yourself with a treat when the sorting is done!
2. Place a “no junk mail” sign on your mailbox.
Paper-based junk mail is not only unnecessary, it’s an environmental nightmare. In addition to littering, junk mail creates a lot of waste. Around 240,000 tonnes of paper used each year to make all the unwanted advertisements could fill 8,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Therefore, let’s save paper and look for that takeout menu online. Making a digital choice is one of the excellent actions you can do for the environment – besides, it is easily more accessible.
3. Make your workplace paperless.
You can help the environment by doing a variety of small things. Go through your home office regularly and shred any outdated bills or statements that you no longer require. If you can, try to avoid printing, or if you must print, use recycled paper whenever possible.
4. Make the most of your wall space.
It’s a good idea to use your home’s walls for storage. To store toiletries, install a pot rack in the kitchen or a bathroom cabinet. Hang hats and bags on hooks in the hallway. Keep in mind that your walls should not be so cluttered that they appear cluttered. First, organise your belongings in boxes, as we suggested above.
5. Invest time in decluttering your bathroom.
A clutter-free bathroom is simple to keep clean. It only takes a few minutes every couple of months to get rid of any products you haven’t used in ages or ever—letting it serve as a reminder to you that you don’t need as many products or toiletries as you think.
6. Make the most of the storage areas in your kitchen.
Make your kitchen a more inviting space for you and your family by decluttering it. Install storage solutions such as bins, spice racks, and shelves inside your cabinets. Organise items by category and keep daily necessities in easily accessible locations.
7. Make storage out of the space under your stairs.
There are several options for creating storage space beneath your stairs. You can build shelves into the sides of the stairs or install drawers on the stairs themselves. Shelves take up less space, but both options allow you to store anything from sports equipment to shoes, hats, and cleaning supplies.
The main reason why our homes are always messy is because we don’t know where to put our stuff. When you have too many things, it’s hard to pick out which things you really need, or even want. That’s why keeping only the essential items in your home is important — everything else should be removed and reorganised elsewhere. While shopping can be fun, it’s also a responsibility because you have to make sure that everything that you buy is actually useful.
What’s Next?
Are you ready to get started and live a clutter-free life? Remember that the best way to declutter your home is to start small and take it one area at a time. You don’t have to do everything at once. This will make the process less overwhelming, and you’ll be able to see success much sooner.
Still too hard?
Join the next intake of our decluttering programs or reach out to Julie here.