By Clutter can make your home look terrible, and it can cause you to feel depressed. The clutter can creep in rather quickly though. When you move in, you might not put everything away on the first couple of days. Which is understandable, your life keeps on as it was before. You have work, the kids have their soccer games, and before you know it the chaos is more than you can handle. The mess can get bigger and bigger. Maybe the mail pile on the table keeps on growing, or the number of shoes in the entryway starts to get out of hand. No matter the reason, it is high time that you de-cluttered your space. Here are some great tips to help you get started.
Create a Checklist
Create a list of the things that you want to declutter. Start in an area of your house where you spend your time the most (kitchen, bedroom, living room, etc…). It is easy to declutter if you follow a guide, this will also makes your decluttering more efficient and fast.
Have a Place for Everything
When you are creating the home of your dreams, the last thing that you imagine is an ugly cluttered mess. Get in the habit of putting everything away as soon as you finish using it. This could be anything from the lotion in the bathroom to the laptop, books, and more. Also, have a designated home for everything. Being organized will help you leaps and bounds. By doing this now, with everything that you have, you will find that clutter stops becoming a problem.
Ask Your Family
Ask the help of your kids and spouse on the things that they are not using and instruct them to put it in a box or trash bag. This way you can cover a lot of areas in your house faster and avoid throwing things that they might still be using.
Stop Buying
Another one of the reasons that people have clutter all over the house is that they keep buying things even when they don’t need them. Stop buying so many useless items that you don’t really need. If you need a replacement item, make sure that you throw out, recycle, sell, or give away the one that you are replacing. For example, let’s say you just purchased some new furniture for your home office. Instead of putting the old stuff into the garage or displaying it around the house where you can find room, just sell it via a garage sale or even give it to a friend. Only keep what you need, in the long run you’ll be glad you did.
Use Three-Box Method
Get three boxes and label it with “keep”, “donate” and “trash”. This will make your sorting much easier and faster. Why label a box with “trash”? Let’s admit it there are certain things that we think will not be useful to others, it is better to throw those things away rather than adding some clutter on other houses.
Take Care of the Mail
Even more than the items you buy, mail is one of the biggest culprits of clutter. It stacks up on the table or the counter, and the pile just continues to grow. Recycle the mail that needs it, such as unwanted flyers and circulars, as soon as you bring it into the house. Once you open mail recycle the envelopes. Only keep the pieces that are actually important. You can shred everything else. You can find paper shedders for low cost at your local stationary store.
Give it Away
Try to create a habit of giving away something that you need everyday to your friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers or even to just any random guy that you meet in the street. If you do these everyday you can clean your house with 365 items that you don’t need in a year. Think about it!
Donate Clothes You Are Not Wearing
Often times we tend to buy new clothes as new trends pops up. Without us knowing our closet is eventually full of clothes in no time. And there are instances that you don’t wear some of these clothes due to the fact that you don’t have time to scour on your closet and just pick the first clothes that you find. If you can donate those clothes that you are not wearing, you not only have more space in your closet you can certainly help others that are in dire need of those clothes. Here are some sites that can help you with your clothes donation:
- dressforsuccess.org
- gogreendrop.com
- goodwill.org
- planetaid.org
- onewarmcoat.org
Takeaway
Don’t let the clutter get the best of you. Now that you have these few tips on how to declutter your home, you should be able to get a much better handle on it. Take this advice, and you can be sure that it will pay off. Whether in the time you save around the house, or the money you make from selling your old stuff. Keep it simple. Make sure to buy what you want the first time. And make smart choices for items you plan on keeping. If they are useful you’re less likely to want new things. Remember to stay organized and diligent about tidying up and before you know it you may even have some spare time on your hands. Spend it wisely.
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