Precious few homes in the world are completely free of clutter, especially for those who have lived in their home for several years. If you have found yourself looking around at items decades old that you have not used since you acquired them, it could be a sign that you need to de-clutter your house. The next question invariably is, how? Many paths can lead to a clutter free home, this is but one possibility.
- Determine the extent of your clutter. This means you are going to have to ask some hard questions. Is your home a reflection of something deeper? Hoarding is a serious problem for some people, and if that is the source of your clutter, you may need some help. There are specialists who can help you work through the personal issues, which trigger the hoarding behavior, and then you can get busy cleaning out the clutter!
- If you are looking around the living room and there seems to be clutter everywhere, you are probably having a hard time getting started. One way to break through your paralysis is to make a huge pile in the middle of the dining table or your living room floor when necessary. Once every shelf, corner and surface has been cleared you get a sense of what the room could look like which is motivation. You can repeat this process through each room of your house.
- The second phase of the piling action is sorting, when clutter has built up over weeks, months or years you invariably have junk and treasure all rolled into one. In order to get through the piles in an orderly and systematic fashion it is a good idea to have four boxes, bins or bags at your disposal. Set up a keep, throw away, recycle and donate bin, bag or box. Now sort each item into these receptacles accordingly.
- Do you live in a large household? Chances are not everything in a particular room belongs to you. Set up a super cleaning day with each member of your household. Explain what you are going to do and let each person know that participation is mandatory! Unless of course they do not care which items, you toss or donate!
- After you have gotten through the bulk of your clutter, it is a good idea to set up an organization system. This can include but is not limited to installing closet, laundry room or shelf dividers. Keep in mind your grandma’s favorite saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place!” Items you might want to consider include extra shelves in the laundry room, shoe organizer for closets, toy boxes or bins, storage tubs for seasonal items, spice racks and filing cabinets. Each household will have its own areas that are more clutter prone, target these areas with storage and organizational tools.
- At the end of your clutter relocation program, you will want to ensure that this massive job never needs to be done again! This requires a strategic maintenance plan to deal with everyday cleaning and clutter prevention. What areas or things are the worst when it comes to clutter? Focus on trouble spots first, you could make it a new rule that all mail must be read and properly dealt with as soon as it comes in the house. Set up an area for reading mail that includes a letter organizer, shredder and wastebasket to encourage this very thing. For multiple individual households create a cleaning schedule where everyone is responsible for an area, chore or room.
