About Decluttering

It’s not just about decluttering your home of possessions. It’s also about the reasons behind why the clutter is there in the first place.

Read below for some quick tips about decluttering and cleaning your house to get you started on the path to a calm and organised home.

DECLUTTERING

A home that is free of excess clutter is much easier to maintain and keep clean.

FIRST STEP – Before you set about decluttering, I suggest you gather 3 bins, bags or baskets. Label 1 donate, 1 rubbish and 1 put away. Use these to assign the items to, as you declutter. Read this post to learn more: Declutter Session Success: Simple First Steps.

START SMALL – Choose a shelf or drawer to start with rather than tackling a whole room. Break the task into smaller more manageable bits so as not to become overwhelmed.

SET A TIMER – Using a timer gives you an allocated time to complete the task. If you decide to spend 2 hours, set the timer for 1 hour, 30 minutes to declutter, then reset for 30 mins to tidy up.

GET RID OF THE EXCESS – Make a commitment to remove as many excess items as possible. Donate items that are no longer useful to you and discard broken items. Be conscious of what new items you allow into the home.

REMOVE ITEMS IMMEDIATELY – When you have finished decluttering an area, place items to donate into the car ready to drop off at your local centre. Rubbish should go straight into the bin. All other items should be returned to their rightful place in the house.

CLEANING

Let’s clean things up and rid the home of dirt and disorder

CREATE A CLEANING SCHEDULE – In order to keep your newly decluttered areas clean and tidy, it’s important to establish a schedule for each cleaning task that needs to be completed. Write a separate list for daily, weekly, monthly, bi-annual and annual tasks.

ALLOCATE CHORES – You don’t have to do it all yourself. Create a cleaning roster to include all household members. Encourage others to be responsible for their own items. Give children simple age appropriate chores to do.

TIDY UP EACH NIGHT – Do a quick pick up and put away of items left lying around at the end of the day. Then you won’t be faced with today’s mess, tomorrow.

DO THE DISHES AFTER EVERY MEAL – A good habit to get into is doing the dishes after every meal. The last thing you want to face at night when you are tired is a mountain of dirty dishes from throughout the day. Furthermore, a clean kitchen will make it much easier to get ready in the morning during the work/school rush time and when you need to prepare the evening meal after a hectic day.

ROUTINES

Establishing routines and simple habits, will keep things running smoothly even when life gets extra busy or something unexpected comes up.

MAKE THE BED EVERY MORNING – Making the bed sets you off on the right foot for the rest of the day. Plus, your bedroom will look much tidier and your bed will be ready for you to crawl into at the end of a long day.

EMBRACE ROUTINE – Doing tasks on the same day each week and in the same manner will help cleaning and tidying tasks become second nature.

DAILY ROUTINES FOR CHILDREN – Make a list for each child showing their daily tasks and the time each should be completed. For example: 7.30 am-Get ready for school – 4 pm Homework Time – 7 pm Clean teeth

CHECKLISTS

Clear your mind of all those niggling little ‘I have to’ thoughts and put them on paper.

KEEP A ‘TO DO’ LIST – Writing down tasks that you need to do helps you to focus on what you need to achieve during the day and acts as a visual reminder.

SHOPPING LISTS – Keep a shopping list handy in the kitchen. Household members can add an item to the list when they notice it has run out. Plus, they can request items they may like you to get on the next shopping trip.

BILL PAYMENT SCHEDULE – Record the bill name, amount and date due on a bill payment list. Refer to this list throughout the month to make sure you don’t forget to pay them.

HOME MAINTENANCE LIST – Having a list that contains monthly and annual maintenance checks, keeps your home in good running order. For example: June – Test Smoke Alarms, October – Book Pest Control, March and September – Clean out the Gutters

CHALLENGES ABOUT DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME

Need some motivation to get started? Try one of these challenges.

ONE ROOM PER MONTH – Grab a piece of paper and write down every room in your house. Now number them 1 to 10 or however many rooms you have. 1 being the area of clutter that bothers you the most and 10 being the area that bothers you the least. Start with the room at number 10 – the least cluttered room and aim to finish decluttering that space by the end of the month. When the next month starts, you can begin on the next room. Always start with the least cluttered area, small wins will help motivate you to keep going.

1 IN – 1 OUT RULE – A simple rule to follow is, for every new item you bring into the home, you remove one old item. For example, you buy 3 new clothing items, find 3 to donate. Your child receives 10 new presents for their birthday, help your child to choose 10 toys, games or books to donate.

TAKE THE 30-DAY MINIMALISM CHALLENGE – If you want to kick-start the decluttering process with a fun challenge, then try the Minimalism game. For one month, aim to get rid of as many items that match the days date. For example: 1 item on the 1st, 2 items on the 2nd and so on. By the time you reach the end of the month it will become quite a challenge to remove 20 to 30 items a day. Can you do it?

However you decide to go about decluttering your home, look around you and ask the question of each item. Does this item deserve a place in my home? If the answer is no, then out it goes!