Did you know that clutter can have such a negative impact on your life? Not only can clutter be overwhelming, but it can even create a sense of anxiety. If it seems like you’re constantly trying to declutter your home, let’s look at how you can get rid of the clutter once and for all.
How to Get Rid of the Clutter
No matter how cluttered your house is, you can conquer the mess with just a few simple strategies. Follow these tips to get rid of the clutter in your home:
Go Room by Room
First things first. You want to start with one room. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to be all over the place trying to declutter their entire home at once.
Don’t do that. It’s overwhelming and you’ll likely give up before you make noticeable progress.
Start in one room with one small area. Get that area done and then do another until that room is decluttered. You can then move on to the next room.
In my Get Organized Series, I share checklists for tackling one area in your home at a time. I aim for one area each week. If you consistently set aside time each week to get rid of the clutter, over time you’ll find it takes far less time to keep your home organized than to get it organized.
Be Brutal
If you truly want to declutter your home, you must be brutal. Stop thinking, “Oh, I might use that one day.” If you haven’t used something in over a year, it’s time for it to go.
I am so guilty of this! And I cling to the one time every two to three years that I finally need one of the hundreds of items I’ve been stockpiling and use that as evidence of why I need to keep everything.
The problem with this mentality is that as we hold on to more and more things, it gets hard to organize and keep track of what we have. Consequently, we end up buying extras of things we already have simply because we can’t find them when we need them! Even though you think hoarding things away is saving you money, it’s actually costing you more.
If you have clothing, craft supplies, school supplies, serving dishes, or anything else that you haven’t used in over a year, you need to let it go. These items are taking up space in your home and keeping you from enjoying the things you do have.
Create a Place for Everything
One of the easiest ways to keep your home clutter-free is to create a place for everything. When you have a place for everything, you can easily put things away when you’re done with them.
Another benefit to assigning each item its own place is that you’ll be less likely to accumulate extra things you don’t need. When you are that the store weighing whether or not to buy a rice cooker, you’ll second guess the decision because you know you need to find a place to store it.
If the item is something that will truly make your life better, you’ll be willing to put in the extra effort to reorganize and find a place for it. If it won’t, you won’t buy it no matter how cute it is or that everyone you know loves theirs.
When deciding where to store items, you want to choose places that make the most sense. For example, put your dishes in the cabinet next to the dishwasher and oven mitts near the oven.
You also want to take the time to show your family members where everything goes so that they are more apt to put things away. If, like my kids, they repeatedly put things away in the wrong place, make it a weekly chore for them to reorganize those spaces properly. My kids miraculously understood the pantry organization when I implemented this policy!
Embrace Hidden Storage Solutions
Let’s face it. There are some things that are impossible to display neatly.
Some items, like toys, backpacks, and reading material are used often and can’t be disposed of. In these cases, instead of trying to get rid of the clutter, we just need to find a way to disguise it.
For example, you might store your children’s toys in bins inside a cube organizer
or throw blankets inside a bench that has hidden storage
. This allows you keep your home neat and tidy looking.
I’m a big fan of multifunction furniture. We have storage ottomans
in several different rooms since they double as seating (or footrests) and storage.
How to Keep Clutter Away
Once you’ve managed to get rid of the clutter, it’s important to stay on top of it if you don’t want to go through the whole process again. Here are some ways to keep clutter from collecting again.
Bring One Home, Get Rid of Two
We all have things that we collect or just like to buy. For example, it might be handbags, shoes, or even books.
Whatever you like to purchase, if you have a large collection, make sure to get rid of two each time you bring a new one home. You can either donate or sell the old ones.
This makes more space in your home may even give you some change in your pocket.
Develop New Habits
As I mentioned earlier, it takes far less time and effort to keep your home organized than to get it organized when it’s a mess. The trick is to develop a habit of regular decluttering.
Just 5 to 10 minutes a day can save you hundreds of hours! That’s because when clutter starts to accumulate, it becomes far easier to add to the mess until it becomes overwhelming.
Your home doesn’t have to be in constant chaos. There are so many simple things you can do to beat clutter once and for all. Whether you go room by room or create a place for everything, you can make your home gorgeous. It just takes a bit of time and hard work.