Did you know that decluttering your home would get rid of 40% of the housework you do? Clutter is such a bad problem that you’ll spend about a year of your life looking for things you’ve lost.
About 23% of people pay late bills because they’ve misplaced the paperwork. 25% of people with garages aren’t able to put their car away because they have so many things stored there.
Clutter can even affect your work, 91% of people who have clutter around their workspace say they’d be more productive with an organized workspace.
Having a clutter-free home is possible. Keep reading to learn how.
Table of Contents
1. Create a Plan
The first step in decluttering your home and keeping it that way is to create a strict plan. Having a plan in place will make the process less overwhelming by helping you stay on track.
A plan will help you know what areas to tackle and in what order. Your plan should include a deadline because while you want to give yourself time, you don’t want to delay the decluttering process.
Giving yourself a couple of hours or a day to focus on decluttering one area will make the process more manageable.
2. Get Rid of the Junk
The secret to a mess-free home is really simple, all you have to do is get rid of the junk you have stuffed in your closets or garage. You know that something is junk when it takes up too much space and you don’t use it.
A process you can follow to make getting rid of stuff easier is to keep separate boxes. One will be for seasonal items to keep stored, the other for donations, and one for trash items. Checking if items that are stored away, especially electronics, still work is one way to declutter your home.
If it’s been a while since you’ve used an item and you aren’t absolutely in love with it then getting rid of it is the right thing to do.
Once you’ve finished the decluttering process it’s a good idea to keep a bin around in case more items you don’t want crop up throughout the year. This will help you declutter along the way instead of having to do it all at once.
3. Pay Attention to Your Purchases
One of the best ways to keep your house organized once it’s been decluttered is to pay closer attention to what you buy. This will help ensure you don’t make unnecessary purchases and fill your house with junk once again.
When thinking about buying something new you have to ask yourself whether you love the item and if it’ll be of any use to you before deciding to purchase it. A simple way to put this into practice is to always go to the store with a list of only the essentials.
4. Keep Your Cables Organized
Since more people are working from home these days, having a home office set up is becoming more common. Home offices typically have multiple electronics like computers, tablets, other monitors, as well as printers.
With all these gadgets come a variety of cables that can start to clutter your home office or workspace. While you need to keep these cables to do your work, there are ways to keep them untangled and organized to avoid clutter.
There are cable management solutions to help keep your cables organized while keeping them out of sight. You can purchase one of these systems within your budget and even get one to blend in with the decorations in your home.
5. Start Small
Decluttering your entire home including your garage and tool shed can get overwhelming and might discourage you from finishing the job. One way to prevent this fatigue is by starting with smaller goals.
Instead of aiming for an entire section or room in a day, try to focus on one drawer or corner of your bedroom to start with. Working on decluttering smaller sections of your house and completing those tasks will give you the motivation to move on to the harder work.
6. Create Healthy Habits
The most important way to maintain a tidy house is by creating habits that will help to minimize or eliminate clutter daily. This will help you avoid that entire home decluttering that can become so overwhelming.
Make sure that you place your everyday items back in their place after you’re done with them for the day. This means putting children’s toys back in their toy chest, putting clothes in the hamper, and shoes back on their rack.
Having routines you follow each day is crucial. Make sure you clean your kitchen immediately after cooking and clear the countertops, this will prevent the pileup of dishes that tends to happen.
7. Know-How to Organize Documents
It’s easy to keep things digital these days but there are still some items you need to have paper copies of. When papers start to pile up you’ll start seeing the clutter you’ve wanted to avoid. Keeping these documents organized is crucial to maintaining a clutter-free home.
Having a filing system for the documents you do have on paper is one way to keep things organized. Using dividers to organize important financial documents will keep them stored without a mess.
The Best Ways to Stay Clutter-Free
Maintaining a clutter-free home isn’t difficult if you follow the steps listed in the guide above. Creating a plan before the decluttering process and maintaining good habits to avoid things from piling up again is a crucial part of living clutter-free.
Did you find the tips listed in this article useful? Make sure to check out some of the other home improvement blogs on our site too.