Steps To Declutter And Organize Your Home
So, are you ready for the new year’s resolution to clean, declutter and organize your house?
Clutter’s literal meaning is “crowd (something) untidily”. In my opinion, clutter is a giant who eats all the good moments in life. I learned that over the year. I am not a hoarder at all but love decorating my house, and sometimes that love goes beyond the limits. Checks and orders are very important in life, as well as decluttering and organizing your home. We are going to cover several aspects of this topic along with their solutions. So stick with me and bookmark this page, as it’s going to be a long talk and will take several weeks to declutter and organize your entire home. Let’s take a look at the steps we are going to follow…
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1- Get Motivated
In life, no matter what you do, if you don’t have the motivation, then you are not going to get anywhere. Trust me, you need the most possible motivation to start with decluttering and organizing as these two tasks are going to change your life forever. Well, let’s do that together as I was pretty lazy for the last few months as well. We moved twice in 2018, and we sold our old house and the purchased a new one as well.
2 – Do’s And Don’ts To Declutter and Organize
Do’s
Own the moment: The moment you decide to get rid of the old clothes or any decor, own it. Do it right at that moment and put it in your car to donate it or schedule a pickup
Focus: Focus and prioritize before you start.
Think of your liberty. Establish a routine and stick to it, and keep thinking that soon you are going to get a ton of free time on earth. That freedom will become a big motivation for you. On no weekends are you going to spend cleaning your garage or closet.
Less is More: Hang this phrase with a beautifully written font and look at it every morning and before you go to bed. Think of the purpose behind it, which is to put yourself at ease with a decluttered and organized home.
Don’t
No purchase: Don’t go buy more stuff such as bins or baskets just because you have to declutter and organize. It’s doesn’t make sense rather add more clutter to space.
Don’t get kids involved: Go through the kids’ toys while they are at school or after they go to bed.
Don’t be emotional: You can’t hold emotions or sentiments for everything. It will just make life difficult.
Always plan: Don’t go for unplanned shopping or for window shopping. Keep a little card in your purse with “Do you really need it?” written on the card and look at it quite often. Perhaps you will sometimes go with a friend and get excited for a beautiful shirt or pair of jeans, and I know it’s hard, but again, “Every ease comes with difficulty” – Al-Quran
3- Goals To Declutter And Organize
In regardless of what you plan to do in life if you are not a goal oriented person the chances are less of accomplishing anything. The game of life is full of it. Set your realistic goals and start working on them.
4- Know The High Traffic Areas
The most important step in decluttering is to start with your high traffic areas and organize them first. For instance, your closets, garage, basements and your family room. These four areas are your high traffic areas in the house. Family or living room people always ignore to count when it comes to considering high traffic areas, but think of like this, where do you spent the most of your time with the family when you are home? The answer is the family room. Therefore, it gets cluttered and messy fast.
5- Time Consuming
Decluttering could be very time consuming, but on the other hand, the end result saves you tons of time by making your life organized. Think twice before you start any area to tackle for decluttering. Estimate your time. And with little children around, double that amount of time. For instance, you are going to clean your closet and you think it might be done in a day. I would start that at the weekend with more time on hand.
6- Clear The Area
The first thing you do is to get everything out of the space. Once you make it an empty slate it will give you a better idea of how to declutter and organize. It will help you to know what’s actually you own and what you really need. It helps to determine what you want to keep and how you actually want to organize it. Once everything is out, go ahead and give it a good and thorough cleaning. Dust, vacuum, sweep, mop, whatever it takes to clean do it.
Pro Tip: Divide big areas into sections so you can avoid making a bigger mess in order to save time.
7- Time To Let Go
Since you have everything out now, ask yourself these three questions:
1- When did you use it last?
2- When would you use it again?
3- Is it worth keeping?
If the Answer is no, then let the unnecessary clutter go. Donate, sell, recycle, trash, whatever you think is most appropriate to get rid of it. Be honest with yourself. Keep a few trash bags handy while you’re cleaning for recycling, donating and putting up for storage (storage should be the last option for you). That is the only way to truly declutter and organize. Tossing all the same things back is not going to be a solution to any of your problems. It’s just wasting time without knowing the value.
Decluttering truly means to create a better life for you. This decluttering and organizing process comes with a lot of goodies and beautiful perks of saving time. The liberty you get against the hard work you put into it is incomparable.
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Need more tips on decluttering? Check out Sarah’s blog
8 – Move On To Organizing With Zoning
After going over the above steps and getting the hard part done, It’s now time to organize the rest of your belongings. It’s the easiest part, and the results are so peaceful. If you are planning to start a large place to handle first, divide them into zones. Zoning is an amazing technique to work with. It doesn’t make you tired or overwhelming.
For instance, if you want to organize your office space, break down the whole room into a minimum of 3 zones: A- Paperwork area, B- Computer area and C table drawers and small items to handle. It will help to eliminate the stress on you, and once you get done with your first zone it will give you the motivation to start your second zone, and then the third.
9- Keep It In Your Reach
When you reorganize your space, think twice. Keep all the more frequently used items where you can easily access them. Store away any bulky items, or items that are being used less frequently. It’s a great tip to remember. Use three-tier shelving or if it’s the kitchen, lazy susans are an amazing storage tool to have. I love lazy susan in our fridge, for instance.
10- Think Outside The Box
Use storage which can maximize your space as well as decorate it. For small spaces, verticle storage units are the way to go. For the bathroom, under the sink is a great place to store your toilet papers and toiletries. Try to use every corner or nook you can use for hidden storage. The less mess on the visible surface, the more attractive and appealing your place is going to look.
Don’t just store things but also put labels on them if they are not in the clear bins. I personally don’t like labels on clear bins as it’s a no brainer and looks more cluttery to the eyes. Picture labels are the best way to teach children organizing, as they can get an idea where things go and where you store them. I have learned this system since childhood as my mother always had room for everything in the house.
11- Stick To A Routine
Hurray, congratulations, you did it! Okay, so now you have come far along and created a system for your life after all the decluttering and organizing. It should be fairly easy for you to keep up with the place. Stick to a weekly routine where you can tweak a few things here and there and clean them. If you need to add something to the place, carefully look around if you can get rid of something and make a room for new needs. It should be the best rule in life, although it can sometimes be daunting. The rule of thumb is that once in a blue moon you should re-evaluate your place to keep it in shape. Always put stuff where it belongs. It’s a hard habit to get into, but once you start practicing it, it will be second nature to you.
