Clutter in the home is a no-no. Not only does it get in the way of your daily movements, but it can also be a tripping hazard and make you feel stressed out whenever you see it.
How is clutter proven to make you feel stressed? Clutter gives you too many stimuli in your surroundings, causing your senses to work hard on stimuli that you don’t need to waste energy on. This is what makes it stressful.
If you have clutter in your home, you might feel overwhelmed at the thought of getting rid of it. But don’t worry – here’s your simple guide to decluttering your home.
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Benefits Of Decluttering Your Home
Need a bit more inspiration to get rid of that mess in your home? Here are some benefits linked to decluttering your living space.
Decluttering Makes You More Productive
If you’re spending a lot of time decluttering your home, that’s a lot of energy that could be going to something more productive. So, by removing your clutter, you’ll have much more time and energy to devote to things that mean something to you and don’t stress you out.
Decluttering Makes You Proud Of Your Home
Do you ever worry about inviting guests over because your home is in shambles? By clearing away the clutter, you’ll be able to feel more confident about showing your home to others.
Decluttering Makes You More Organized
If everything in your living space is in its own place and you don’t have to deal with clutter, you’ll be able to spend less time finding items you need. They’ll be available whenever you want them, which will decrease your stress levels.
Decluttering Makes It Easier To Clean Your Home
When you’re vacuuming or mopping your floors, how often do you have to work around clutter or move it out of the way so that you clean properly? It’s a waste of time and might make you feel overwhelmed about cleaning your house because it feels like too much work.
Decluttering Creates More Space In The Home
When you’ve eliminated all the clutter from your home, you’ll have much more living space to move around in with ease and you’ll also fill your home with items that are meaningful to you.
How To Declutter Your Home: The “5 Containers” Rule
You shouldn’t approach decluttering in a wishy-washy fashion. You’ll get more done if you’re organized about the process.
To get started, you need to get five bins, bags, or baskets as these will be used to sort through your items. Here’s what the five containers are for:
Ontainer For ‘Out Of Place’ Items
This is the container in which you’ll put all the items that are hanging around the house and need to be returned to their rightful place. For example, children’s toys that are on the stairs need to go back into their storage bin; similarly, clothes that you’ve draped over a chair in the bedroom need to be hung in the closet.
CContainer For Recycling
This container is for all the items that you want to recycle, such as plastic or paper items.
Container For Items To Fix
In this container, you’ll put any items that you want to keep but that need to be repaired, such as a top that you need to sew, or running shoes you want to clean before putting them back into storage.
Container For Trash
This is a container in which you’re going to put items you want to throw away.
Container For Donating
If you have some items that are in good condition but which you don’t use anymore, you can put them in this container to later donate to a charity or hospice.
Rules To Follow When Decluttering Your Home
To make the decluttering process easier, you should follow some creative tips. These will also help to make your decluttering task feel more doable.
Give Yourself Five Minutes
It can be overwhelming to dedicate a big chunk of time to declutter your home, and this can put you off even starting it. Give yourself just five minutes at a time. You’ll be surprised by how much you can achieve in such a short time.
Consider The 12-12-12 Rule
This can help you to move through your cluttering items easier. It requires you to throw away 12 items, donate 12 items, recycle 12 items, and so on.
Look At Your Home With New Eyes
It’s easy to get used to what your home looks like, even when it’s cluttered. It can be useful to try to see your home objectively when you walk through the front door as what’s wrong with it will become clearer to you. You could even ask your friend to do this with you as getting an objective opinion will help.
Take Pictures
It’s really helpful to take before and after pictures of areas of your home that you declutter. When you see the way you can improve even a chest of drawers or cupboard, it will keep you motivated to continue decluttering your home.
Follow The 80/20 Rule
This rule is very helpful when you’re decluttering your home. It basically states that you should focus on keeping the items that you use 80 percent or more of the time, and throw out or donate the items you only use 20 percent or less of the time.
Monitor The Items That You Use
It’s easy to forget when you last used that video game, wore that t-shirt, or used that spice when cooking. A good way to start monitoring what items you’re using and not using is to put a sticker on them whenever you use them. Any items that you haven’t used or worn within the last six months should be removed from the house.
Clean Your Surfaces
It’s easy for surfaces in the home such as shelves and countertops to become cluttered. Get into the habit of cleaning them regularly and placing items that are on them into other places, such as storage boxes or bins.
Room-By-Room Decluttering Tips
A few tips per for room by room declutering
Living Room
Your living room can become cluttered quickly. It’s the room in the house where all members of the household spend time doing different activities, so it’s essential to prevent it from becoming messy. Here’s how.
ThiThink About The Function And Practicality Of Your Living Room
Consider how much time is spent in this area of the home and what it’s used for, such as reading, watching TV, chatting, and sometimes eating dinner. This can help you to figure out what items you want in the room and which ones can go into one of the containers we mentioned earlier.
Sort Out Items That Are Cluttering The Room
Items such as remote controls and magazines can create clutter, as can children’s toys. Create a spot for them, such as a basket or floating shelf so that they will be out of the way.
Sort Through Your Decor Items
The living room can be the room of the house where decorative items, such as ornaments and throw cushions, cause clutter. Think about which ones you really need. The less you have, the easier the room will be to maintain.
Organize Your Bookshelf
If you have a bookshelf in the living room, it can easily become cluttered and look messy. To organize it and make it look stylish, place heavier objects at the bottom of the bookshelf. This can include storage bins.
Lighter objects, like your paperback novels, should be placed higher up. Donate any books that you don’t like or haven’t read in months, and focus on keeping your favorites.
Add other items, such as a statement ornament, a plant, or framed family photos, to make the bookshelf useful and more beautiful.
Bathroom
You might not think your bathroom can become cluttered, but take a closer look and you might be surprised! Even a small bathroom can become messy, so prevent that from happening by following these tips to declutter your bathroom.
Sort Through The Medicine Cabinet
Check for any expired medication that should be thrown out and is just taking up valuable space.
Stock Items In Your Cabinets That You Use Regularly
Plasters and bandages can come in handy on a regular basis, especially if you have kids, but you don’t need an extensive medical kit in the bathroom as it won’t get used often. Rather put it in storage. Follow this rule with other items too – only keep items that you need and use regularly.
Install baskets or magazine racks in the bathroom for bulky items that you use regularly, such as hairdryers and makeup bags.
Install a Shelf Above The Bathroom Door
This is especially useful in small bathrooms where you don’t have a lot of storage space.
Roll up your towels. Keeping these in a drawer or cabinet can help you ensure they save space while being handy when you need them, but check their quality. If the towels are old and ragged, consider cutting them up and using them as cleaning cloths instead. Only store items in the bathroom that are still in good condition.
Prevent Shampoo Bottles From Creating Clutter Next To The Bathtub Or In The Shower
Designate a shelf for them and if they’re too bulky consider keeping some products in smaller bottles while the larger original bottles can be put into storage.
When sorting through items on the bathroom counter, make sure you only have products and items that you use daily. So, for example, soap or hand wash should be right next to the basin.
A good rule to follow is to store the items close to where they are used, such as toilet rolls next to the toilet and body wash next to the shower or bath.
If you have drawers in the bathroom, avoid stashing clutter in them by designating specific purposes for different drawers. A good idea is to put items you use daily in the top drawers and those you don’t use regularly in the lower drawers.
Kitchen
The kitchen is a room in the home that is particularly susceptible to clutter because it’s the heart of the home where you make meals, keep shopping lists, stock up on food, and have time together with your family.
Here are some tips to keep it uncluttered and organized.
Donate Or Throw Out Spares Of Items
You might think you need extra mixing bowls or mugs, but if they’re just collecting dust in your cabinets, they’re wasting valuable storage space.
Organize food in your cupboards so you can see exactly what you have at a glance
This prevents food from expiring at the back of the food cupboard.
Place Items You Use Frequently Within Easier Reach
Pack away items you only require on special occasions. You can do so in a specific cupboard or in bins. This prevents them from cluttering your living space.
Scrutinize your dishcloths and cleaning cloths. Both of these can accumulate in the kitchen. Check for ones that are past their prime. If they can still be salvaged, consider using them for other cleaning tasks around the home.
Use Magnetic Shopping Lists
This makes lists easy to use and prevents paper clutter.
On the topic of paper clutter in the kitchen, if the kitchen is the room where you store bills and other paper items, consider switching to electronic versions of them. Or, designate one drawer to paper so it doesn’t take up valuable counter space.
Check The Fridge And Freezer For Expired Items
Throw these out so you can make better use of both appliances. Get into the habit of putting stickers on Tupperware used for food storage so you know what’s in them and when you put them in the fridge or freezer.
Donate any cookbooks you haven’t used in a long time. If you like having your favorite cookbooks in the kitchen, designate them to one cabinet or shelf.
Pack Away Any Appliances That You Don’t Use Regularly
Store them in a cupboard so they don’t take up counter space.
Keep Items In An Area Of The Kitchen Where You Use Them
For example, store mugs next to your kettle or coffee machine, and baking utensils in a holder next to your baking station. This helps you to prevent losing track of them when you need them or leaving them to create clutter in other places.
Keep All Your Cleaning Supplies In One Place
These can be conveniently stored in the cabinet under the sink. Go through all of your cleaning supplies to see what you really use and what you can rather throw out or repurpose, such as in the case of brushes and cloths.
Bedroom
Your bedroom is supposed to be your sanctuary. You should feel relaxed when you enter it after a busy day.
The last thing you need is to feel stressed out because of all the clutter in your bedroom. Follow these tips to declutter your bedroom.
Ask Yourself What You Really Need
Do you really need all those candles or ornaments on your dresser that are taking up space? Do you really need to keep tons of cushions as decoration? Remove items that don’t belong in the bedroom but other rooms of the house. For example, medications and hair tools should be moved to the bathroom.
Clean Up Your Clothing
Do you end up throwing clothing onto the bed or a chair in the corner of the room? Sort through the items and hang them up so that you free up space. You should also pack any out-of-season clothing and put it in storage so that it’s out of the way.
Declutter Your Bedside Tables
These can easily become cluttered with knicks and knacks. A good way to sort them out is to think about what you really need to keep on them, such as a book you’re reading, your glasses case, and box of tissues. If you have items on there that you don’t even use, store them in another place.
Remove Furniture You Don’t Really Need In The Bedroom
Do you have a chair that never gets used or a dresser that is just a clutter hazard? By moving these into other areas of the home, you could find that they get used in a more practical way while freeing up floor space in the bedroom.
Clean Under The Bed
If your bedroom is really small, you might use the space underneath the bed for storage. But make sure it’s neat and tidy, and that you regularly vacuum underneath the bed to prevent it from harboring germs.
Use Trays, Baskets, And Bowls To Reduce Clutter
These come in handy when sorting your belongings, such as jewelry items.
Make Use Of Furniture That Doubles Up As Storage
For example, a beautiful kist not only adds a decorative element to the bedroom but can be stored with items such as out-of-season bedding or clothing.
Consider Moving The TV Into Another Room
Not only does this encourage a more relaxing space, but it prevents clutter in the form of wires and remote controls.
Garage
The garage can easily become a clutter hotspot as a result of how it feels like it’s separate from the house.
It’s often the go-to area of the home when you want to store items that you can’t seem to find storage space for anywhere else in the house.
Prevent it from becoming a mess by checking out these tips.
Put Aside Any Items You Don’t Use
You might be holding onto items you think you’ll use in the future, but if they’ve been sitting in the garage for months or years it’s time to give them away.
These items include bicycles, broken lamps or other items that you haven’t got around to repairing, and even tools that you never use.
If you need them in the future, you can always rent them.
This step is an important one to do first as once you’ve put aside items you don’t use you’ll be left with all the items that you do need.
Set Up Designated Areas For Different Items
For example, all your gardening tools should go in one area and all your camping/hiking gear should go in another. Store seasonal items, such as skiing gear or inflatable pools, out of the way, such as in storage bins on a high shelf.
Install Shelves
This is a great way to make use of the vertical storage space in your garage because the floor is usually taken up by large items, such as cars, lawnmowers, and generators.
Storage Bins
Storage bins are an excellent way to avoid misplacing tools and small gadgets while ensuring they don’t clutter up shelves or cabinets. Label them so you know exactly what’s in them.
Hang Some Items On The Wall
This prevents items such as garden rakes and shovels from getting in the way and being knocked over all the time.
Have A Garage Sale!
This is a fantastic way to get rid of any items in your garage or elsewhere in the house that are still in good condition but which you don’t use anymore.
Related Questions
What’s The “One In, One Out” Rule?
This rule states that for every item in the home that you decide to keep, you need to throw out or donate another one. This helps you to declutter your home while also fostering a minimalist lifestyle.
What Are Some Creative Ways To Store Items?
You don’t have to be limited to shelves and storage bins. For storage, you can use vertical space on the walls, the space underneath stairs and above doors, and the space underneath furniture such as coffee tables and beds. Think out of the box!
Conclusion
If you want to declutter your home quickly and effectively, there are easy ways in which you can do this. In this article, we’ve featured all the tips you need to know to keep your home clean, decluttered, and stress-free.