Organization Tips to Declutter Your Home

Cleaning up a cluttered room takes some organization, but the space available in a neat room is a benefit for the whole family. Clearing clutter is simple. Clutter can make even the most spacious of houses feel cramped and small, and it’s easy for clutter to pile up quickly in every living space. Getting rid of clutter can be a challenge, but a clean house is a healthy and productive house. There are a number of simple things a family can do to get rid of clutter and keep the house looking great and staying organized.

Ready to start off the year with a clutter-free home? Let’s start with the basics …

How to Identify Home Clutter

The first step to clearing out clutter is to identify it. There are a number of ways to know what items are clutter items and what are not. Making lists is the easiest way to combat the first step, which can often be one of the most challenging. Go through the house, room by room, and make a list of each item in every room.

Having a list of everything in the house is a good visual for letting families know exactly how much stuff they own. This can be good impetus for getting the house clean and organized. Organize lists into sections. A good breakdown for lists is to include

* Items used on a daily basis (including clothes, televisions and cooking pots)
* Items used on a weekly basis
* Items used on a seasonal basis (like fall and winter clothes, leaf blowers and firewood)
* Items that are not used (junk mail, magazines, broken items and old clothes)

Use the list for each room when cleaning and clearing out clutter. This will help keep the task in perspective and provide a basis for organizing items during the cleaning process.

How to Organize Clutter Cleaning Projects

Start small. Clearing a house of clutter is a major project, and tackling it all at once can be exhausting; wearing the family out trying to do too much at once can mean that the clutter never gets picked up. Choose one room to work on, and only work through one room at a time.

Although working through one room at a time can feel slow, it’s a great inspiration for the rooms that follow. Walking through a newly clean room can make it easier to clean a dirty room, when family members see how easy it is to clear out the clutter. Try to clean out one room a week and then focus on keeping each room clean.

How to Clean Up Household Clutter

Beginning to clean up clutter is a big step, and approaching it the right way will help ensure that the house gets clean quicker. The easiest way to clean clutter out of a room is to work in steps. Use the list to start the cleaning process.

Take out items that are not used, or are garbage, first. Clean up old food items, broken toys, junk mail and old clothes, and move them to an open area where they can be sorted. Throw away trash items like food. Recycle items like cans and junk mail. Donate serviceable items like clothes that no longer fit; get a receipt from the donation center, as donated items are tax-deductible.

Once all of the items that are thrown away have been removed from the room, do a second examination of what’s left. Decide if there are any other items that can be donated or thrown away, or even sold for a profit at a garage sale or online. Old textbooks and movies can easily be sold online.

When the room is cleared of all unnecessary items, the organization process begins.

Organizing Tips – Cleaning Household Clutter

Divide the remaining items into the room into categories based on how often they are used. Items used on a daily and weekly basis should be kept in easily accessible locations, such as in a cupboard, on a shelf or in a dresser. Seasonal items, such as summer and winter clothes, can be placed in clear containers for off-season items and stored in a closet or attic.

Items should be further divided into categories based on what their use is. For example, when cleaning a kitchen, try to keep similar items grouped together: store a blender with other cooking items like a crock pot, and keep the coffee pot near the coffee cups for easy storage.

Give each item a specific place within the room. This will cut down on lost or misplaced items, and ensure that the family has a working organizational scheme. Keeping items where they belong is a simple way to avoid further clutter.

Feel free to let me know if you find these decluttering tips helpful. Until next post!