Tips for Differing Standards of Tidiness within a Household

Family life and having roommates are both rewarding, but each can also be a challenge at times. One of these times is when you are trying to find a balance between keeping everyone happy in areas where they differ.

When some members of your household are neat freaks, and others are more suited to audition for a hoarding television show, it is not an easy task for everyone to live together. Here are some tips on how your household members of various levels of organization can dwell peacefully together.

Have a Group Meeting

The most important tip on how to negotiate this dilemma is to keep your lines of communication open. Hold regular meetings to discuss the issue. Make it a time where everyone can input and try to keep it light-hearted and as fun as possible.

Decide on Common Goals

Although some family members or roommates may be drastically more or less comfortable with disorganization than others, there are sure to be some common goals you can all agree on. Some of these might be to have a regular group clean-up time, or to keep the living room clean since this is where your visitors spend most of their time when they are over. Choose deadlines that everyone can agree on, and talk about a minimum level of cleanliness that everyone agrees is important.

Decide on a Reasonable Compromise

Perhaps the messiest individual of the group simply may not be able to stay consistently organized, nor leave things spotless all the time. Maybe as a group you could choose certain rooms that need to be tidy, and others that are not so important.

Bedrooms are generally an area where organization can be left to one’s personal choice. This way, if someone has items that need to be put away but they don’t have time to do so immediately when they return home, they know that they can put the bags in their own room or another appointed "messy zone" until they have the time for it.

Make other compromises such as letting family members or roommates switch their cleaning duties with someone else if they are running late from work or have an especially busy day ahead of them.

Let Each Person’s Strength Be Highlighted

No two people are alike, even in the same family. Everyone has different strengths, and this can be capitalized on when you are creating your cleaning schedule. Perhaps one of the household members loves cleaning the kitchen after supper, while another prefers more time-consuming but less frequent tasks such as vacuuming. Create the schedule to cater to everyone’s likes, dislikes and natural abilities.

It can be a challenge to live with someone who is at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to household organization, but there is no need to let it destroy your relationships or living arrangements. Stay focused on what you love about each of your roommates, whether it be family or friends. Appreciation for each other and a commitment to working together will help you to live in harmony while taking responsibility together for the home you live in.

 

Step-By-Step Goals For Organizing Your House

The truth is you can really increase your productivity a great deal by simply organizing your belongings around your home and office. Here are some tools to help you when first starting on your goal to organize your life. It is so important to develop a plan. There is nothing that is more potent to achieving your goals than having a specific plan to start off. 

A lot of people set far too broad goals when first embarking on any area of their life. In order for your plan to succeed, you need to have realistic, precise goals that are well-defined and written out. It is a good habit to set long-term and short-term goals. For instance, your long-term goal could be getting your whole home completely organized in a year's time. Your short-term goal could be getting one room in order within a month. 

After you have your goals in mind, write them down on paper and put that paper in a place you can view it often. Maybe you may want to use a planner notebook or a digital app. Knowing a target in your head is not enough; it needs to be in a place where you can view it often and constantly motivate you to achieve your goals. 

Finally, you need to determine the reason why you want something. It may not be enough to simply want to get organized. You need to know why you have this desire. Without wanting something whole-heartedly, it will be harder to achieve it. 

While the above tips may seem simple, it is incredible how many people set out to achieve a target without knowing what they want to get done. The simplest and yet strongest force to achieving your goals is knowing where you are going and why you are going in that direction. Follow these tips to help you get organized and enjoy the process!

How to Keep Your Home Free of Clutter in the New Year

Decluttering is a little like losing weight. No matter how well you deal with your problem in the beginning, it will keep coming back unless you understand the concept of maintenance.

If you have gone to the bother of decluttering your home and making it more minimalist and free of mess, here are some tips on how to keep it that way so that you never have to have another moment of panic.

Regular Maintenance

This step refers to simply keeping things the way they are by tossing junk when you realize you don’t need it, instead of stashing it in a pile that needs to be sorted over and over. Read your mail and immediately toss it, shred it, or deal with it and then put it into your file cabinet. There is no excuse for papers to be lying all over the floor, making it impossible to find them when you actually need them.

When you buy something from the store, put it where it is going to be kept immediately instead of setting bags on the floor and table. After the laundry comes out of the dryer, fold it and put it away immediately in the proper rooms and drawers. When you have five spare minutes, use it to tidy and clean up anything lying around. This is how you keep any huge messes from forming again.

Declutter Regularly

In addition to your regular maintenance, it is important to declutter on a regular basis. You can decide to have a serious decluttering day every three months, every six months, or just whenever your home starts looking like a junk yard. Make it a serious appointment and tidy your home from top to bottom, giving yourself another clean slate to work with.

Stop Buying Unnecessary Things

One of the biggest ways you can stop clutter in its tracks is to stop buying unnecessary things. By only allowing what you need to enter your home, you will cut down on the number of items you need to clear out later. Before you buy an item, think about whether you really need it, or if it is something you will regret at a later point in time.

Get Everyone on Board

You can’t conquer clutter alone, unless you live alone. If you are part of a family who lives together, or have roommates of any kind, you will need to make everyone a part of the decluttering team. Talk to everyone about your wishes to maintain a junk-free haven, and talk about the many benefits of living in a more minimalist way than you have been. Let the other household members know that everyone’s efforts will benefit everyone else, and that you expect cooperation and teamwork.

Decluttering is only half of the solution. In order to maintain a beautiful home, you will need to take steps to keep it that way after the original clean sweep. Use these tips to keep your home free of clutter for years to come.