Maintaining your home does not have to be a daily struggle. And if you consider the unprecedented and somewhat stressful times we currently live in, you would agree that clutter shouldn’t be added to the mix.
Living clutter-free is being conscious of belongings you own and how you organize them. This may include the practice of dedicating time to sort through unused belongings and finding a permanent place for the frequently used ones.
Why bother about clutter? A clean and organized space helps you be at peace. When items are stored carefully, you can easily locate them later with ease.
Here is an essential guide to create a clutter-free space and keep it that way:
- Take stock of your belongings
Take time to go through each room of the house, especially closets, cabinets, and boxes stowed away. Doing this may seem difficult especially when deciding whether or not to keep items that were once important. But it’s a great start.
- Have a keep and trash bag
As you carefully go through each part of the house to find useful or valuable things, have a “keep and trash bag” for items you want to keep or trash. Make sure to revisit each bag to see if there are some items you had erroneously kept or trashed.
- Group your things
As you organize the remaining items around the house after keeping the necessary ones and trashing the ones you don’t need, try to group your items. This can be categorized by how frequently you use such items.
You may want to keep a cabinet in the bathroom or kitchen for all your cleaning supplies, sponges, brushes. Grouping items will help you locate them easily. If you have kids, make it a habit of sorting through toys to determine which to keep.
- Everything should have a place
An important guide in organizing your home is to ensure everything has a place of its own. You should create enough space for everything you own. If you run out of space, you can either create more or try getting rid of items that you deem unnecessary.
- Handle the closet
If you are not in the habit of organizing your stuff, closets are one of the easiest places to gather clutters. Try on clothes you haven’t worn in a while, get rid of, or gift the ones that don’t fit anymore.
- Arrange the extras linens
Assign a shelf or drawer for extra linens such as towels, blankets, bedsheets, and keep them neatly folded or you can use storage bins to keep them.
- Books shelves
Books shelves give a home to your books, trophies, picture frames, and many more. There are several creative ways to use shelves for storage and also as decoration.
- Storage bins
Storage bins and baskets are very important for storing extras items that don’t have a place as mentioned above. These storage bins come in all types and are effective in storing items such as linens, tools, shoes, even beauty items. Nothing should stay on the floor. If an item has been on the floor for a while, find a place for it or bin it.
- Dispose old stuff for every new item
If you are buying a new set of items, get rid of the old ones. It is easy to do this with clothes so you don’t have a pile of worn clothes at home. I know sometimes it is hard parting away with old items in the house, but doing this will help keep clutter in check.
- Avoid excessive buying
Buying things without planning is one of the behaviors that lead to clutter. When going shopping, try to be more intentional. Set rules against extraneous spending so you don’t end up buying what you would not use.
Finally
Living a clutter-free lifestyle takes daily commitment and practice. It takes weekly, monthly, and even yearly maintenance. But the benefit of living this way is enormous. It includes a more relaxed and focused state of mind, it also helps to reduce the presence of junks. Now, go and enjoy a clutter-free space.
