What Are The Benefits of Decluttering and Organizing Your House?

 

I have a question for everyone reading my blog today. What is clutter?

• Clutter is anything in your home or office that does not serve a purpose or function in your life anymore.
• Clutter may include items in your home that are broken or nonfunctional.
• Clutter may be material items in your home that you do not need or love.
• Clutter could also include unnecessary duplicate items in your home.
• You may be surprised to realize that having too many storage containers that aren't actually being used in your home may add to your existing clutter problem. That is the main reason it may be suggested that you declutter your home "first." Then, it should be easy to figure out exactly how many storage boxes to buy and specific sizes you may need.
• Clutter could also consist of accumulated items of trash to be thrown away or removed in an appropriate manner. 

Now that we know what clutter is, why do you think our homes accumulate clutter?

• Clutter may be caused be delayed decisions.
• You haven't taken the time to decide on appropriate areas to keep your specific items in your home.
• Procrastination: maybe you feel overwhelmed about organizing or decluttering your house.
• You may be experiencing that frustrating "all or nothing" feeling about home organization. For example: you may think to yourself, "I will never have enough time to get my organizing projects done. There is just too much to do. So, why should I even start?"
• Maybe, you have a very busy family schedule and you haven't been using a good weekly/monthly planner for routine chores/tasks in the home.
• Possibly, the family doesn't realize your home organization goals and you may get easily distracted with many interruptions throughout the day. It may be very helpful for you to communicate your short-term and long-term organizing goals with your family. You may decide to have family members participate in your plan. This may be especially important in helping to keep your home maintained after you have everything set up the way you like it.
• You may have felt the lack of energy or motivation to complete organizing projects in the past.
• Often times, a major lifestyle change may cause a change in the normal flow of organization in your home. Here are a few examples: a birth or a death in the family, new marriage or a divorce, job relocation, or health problems.

How can clutter affect your life in a negative way?

• Clutter can take up lots of extra space in a home. Think of how much more additional space you may have available after you get rid of any unnecessary clutter.
• You may be using a lot of your valuable time to take care of all the material things in your house.
• You could be spending extra money for duplicate items that you have been purchasing because you haven't been able to find the things that you were looking for in your house.
• Many people say they lack energy because they are tired of maintaining all the material things they have accumulated over the years.
• They don't have enough time to take good care of themselves or to enjoy their favorite hobbies and outlets.

What are the positive benefits of home organization and decluttering your house?

• You will be able to focus on things that you enjoy, such as: exercise, hobbies, good nutrition, etc.
• You may find that you have more time to spend with family and friends.
• Hopefully, you won't have the need to purchase unnecessary items because you will have easy access to your items and be able to find everything when you need it. You will learn how to find "the right place for everything in your home."
• You may really enjoy the big bonus of having more space in your home once you get rid of your clutter.
• An organized house, free of clutter, may help you save time when you need to do your routine daily/weekly household chores.
• I find that I focus and concentrate better and feel more productive and less stress with work when my house and office are organized.
• You may increase your confidence to invite your friends over to your home again.

Designing Your Own Organizing System

By reading my blog you are taking a step closer to getting your home and your life more organized. Have you been feeling the clutter in your life is getting out of control and more chaotic? Do you waste a lot of valuable time searching for items around your house? I know for myself, even with being home so much more throughout last year during the Pandemic, I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done like I used to in the past. I think a lot of the reason is because I am cooking even more now throughout the whole day, which means more meal preparation and clean up time afterwards. 

It seems like before the Pandemic, I had more of a consistent routine daily/weekly schedule. Do you ever think how much better your daily life would be if your house was really organized? I have read so many wonderful books and articles about organization throughout the past several years. 

Sometimes it is easy for life to seem to get somewhat out of control, such as with all of the changes in 2020. You may feel overwhelmed with so many daily responsibilities to accomplish, without enough time for you to relax a bit. You may even begin to feel anxious and depressed about the situation. 

Maybe you actually started to spend money on shelving units, bins and containers, hoping to bring order to counteract the chaos. Don’t lose hope or motivation. You can turn your situation around. Start with a small, manageable project that won’t take too much time. Be consistent and keep going with this reasonable project until it is completed. It could be cleaning out and organizing one kitchen cabinet or drawer. Successfully finishing smaller tasks will help to build your confidence to tackle larger projects. 

It is very important to understand that organizing is not all about throwing things out, but about identifying what is important to you, prioritizing and maintaining access to what you routinely need. Clutter control and finding the ideal storage area for your individual items are important keys to good organization. Home organization requires patience and consistent efforts. However, the end results are so rewarding.

By learning helpful organizing skills and techniques, you can begin to restore order and balance in your life. Organizing your home and cleaning may provide comforting, peaceful order to your life. 

When families collect too much stuff, the unnecessary clutter can interfere with the tranquility and calmness of the home environment. Too much clutter can actually cause feelings of despair and frustration. Clutter takes up a lot of precious space in your home that could be used much more efficiently.

One of the first things I learned when I was studying to become a professional organizer was the major importance of assigning everything in your house a specific place or “home” so that you will know exactly where to find that item in the future when you are searching for it. This is a good habit to teach all of your individual family members.

You could start in your foyer/entryway area of your house and place a small basket or dish to hold your keys. A larger basket set on an entryway table could temporarily hold library or school books, so they don’t get lost and remain quick and easy to find. A coat rack could nicely hold your seasonal coat and purse. 

I know you can think of several areas throughout your house for organized storage of various items. In the bedroom you can use drawer dividers for socks and tiny items. I have found useful, multi-purpose ottomans to store many things, such as seasonal throw blankets in my bedroom. They are also handy to store excess books. 

In my own closet, if I find clothing that I haven’t worn for a year or is no longer my size, I decide if I want to sell or donate those items or store them. I use slim color coded hangers to display only the clothing that is currently my size and that I plan to actually wear often.

One thing I routinely do with my kitchen items is to try to donate a small appliance at the time that I purchase an upgraded model. I have a small kitchen with limited counter space. I do a lot of cooking every day, so I try to prioritize things carefully in my kitchen. It takes a decent amount of time, but I need to really maintain order inside my small kitchen cabinets for adequate storage purposes.

I find that my dining room table can easily get cluttered with excess grocery supplies or with mail/bills, etc. It definitely is a fabulous habit to keep your kitchen and dining room table clean and free of all clutter. Hopefully, you may have a spare desk or even a dedicated cart of some kind to keep your mail and bills, along with your writing supplies, calendars, notebook and menu planners. 

I keep at least three boxes in the house labeled the following:

1.) Donate

2.) Sell

3.) Put Away

Then when I straighten out rooms throughout the week, it makes it easier to keep things tidy and organized.

There a few things to consider when you are deciding to donate items, such as:

1.) Have you used the item in the past year?

2.) Do you have duplicate items?

3.) Have you upgraded to a newer model?

4.) Are you holding onto the item just for sentimental value?

Part of organizing is deciding what is important to you and finding an appropriate place for your items, so your home can be maintained in an easy manner. You will reap the benefits of a calm, happy, “clutter-free” home environment. Hopefully, you will have more available quality time to spend enjoying your favorite things and more relaxation. Organizing is not about throwing out a lot of household items or buying lots of storage containers.

Don’t feel guilty for accumulating a lot of stuff over the years. Developing a unique smart organizing system that will work for you and your whole family will certainly help you maintain your household.

To create a lasting, successful organizing solution, make your system fit your personality so you feel comfortable with your home surroundings. Create neat order, clear surfaces, simplify your life by designing your own organizing system unique for you and your family!

Simple Steps to Cleaning Clutter on Your Kitchen Table So That a Family Dinner is Possible

By Wendy Mitchell 

If you are like me then odds are the majority of the clutter in your home resides on your kitchen table. While this is most commonly the place were you may enjoy meals with the family, it may also be the dumping location for mail and anything else that may not have a set place in your home. Here are some key tips that can help you keep your kitchen table clutter free so it can be used for only the tasks as it was intended.

First, designate a specific area in your home for mail. Unless you are someone who sorts through the mail as soon as it comes in the door, you will need to have a set area for the mail to be dropped at. Whether it is an organization box that hangs on the wall in your kitchen or a basket near the door, you need to have one place for all the mail to go. Just remember that it will need to be sorted through on a daily basis so bill can be placed in their designated area and junk mail can be filed accordingly so as to prevent clutter from occurring in other areas of your home.

Second, find a home for the unknowns. Odds are you have at least one or two items sitting on your table that have no home of their own. Items with no home are the second largest cause of clutter because these items tend to sit in one area for an extended period of time because we do not know what to do with them. Take the time to find a home for the item in question so it is gone from the table. Every item that has a home is one less item that can cause clutter on your table.

Lastly, start recycling. More than likely the last thing that still resides on your kitchen table is all the newspapers that you either purchased or have delivered to you on a daily or weekly basis. Newspapers are the most common form of clutter because the pile seems to grow nearly overnight and finding a place to put them usually ends up forming more clutter just in a different location. Start recycling your newspapers and any other paper goods that your home uses. This way you can designate a specific are in your home for papers only and once a week the pile will be taken care of. You can either drop them at the curb for garbage pickup or drop them of at your nearest recycling center. Either way you have a plan for the newspapers which eliminates another cause of clutter in your home.

Cleaning Clutter From Your Home Is The Key To Living A Stress Free Life. Get Started Today ORGANIZATION FOR THE HOME

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