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.

8 Good New Year’s Resolutions for Moms

Are you a mother? If so, making a New Year’s resolution may literally be the last thing on your mind. Even still, you should make one. New Year’s resolutions do not have to be big life changing events, like losing weight or getting out of debt. They can still be small and meaningful, like:

1 – Spend More Time with Your Children

If you work outside of the home or have children who are active in sports or other extra curricular activities, it can be difficult to get quality time with your children. If pressed for time, start in small steps. Sneak in 15 minute to read a book, play a game, or just talk with your child. When possible, consider a fun family night, where all members of your family can bond.

2 – Attend a School or Daycare Function

Due to hectic lives and busy schedules, most parents just drop off and pick up their children from school or daycare. A good New Year’s resolution is to attend a school or daycare function at least four times a year. Is your child’s kindergarten class putting on a small play during school? Try to request a few hours off work so that you can attend.

3 – Sort Your Kid’s Belongings

Whether you are the parent of a toddler or teenager, you likely have a lot of kids items accumulated in your home. You may have a collection of old toys, clothes, books, and movies. Sort through these items. If you intend to have more children, sort, box, label, and store. If you do not anticipate needing these things again, donate, sell or host a yard sale.

4 – Take a Break

This may contradict the suggested New Year’s resolution of spending more time with your kids, but most mothers aren’t just moms, but super-moms. Those who aren’t parents and even dads are surprised to learn how much a mother does. So, be sure to take a break yourself. Whether it involves cuddling up with a new book once a month or monthly visits to the spa, do it. Make taking a break your New Year’s resolution.

5 – Ask for Help

As previously stated, many moms are super-moms because most do it all and then some. Yes, some will say it is a mother’s responsibility, but it also your responsibly to care for yourself. So, don’t be afraid to ask for help on occasion. In fact, make it your New Year’s resolution to do so. Ask your husband to watch the kids while you enjoy a day of shopping or pampering. Other alternatives include asking a close friend or family member or hiring a babysitter.

6 – Give Your Relationship Extra Attention

Most claim that romantic relationships slide down the importance scale once children are involved. Yes, your children should come first in every aspect of your life, but don’t let your personal relationship fail. For that reason, schedule monthly date nights.

7 – Spend Time with Friends

In terms of spending time with friends, use your best judgment. You and your college friends may be in different places in your lives. Suggest lunch or coffee. If you must, take steps to develop new friendships with those who share similar interests. Start by joining community groups for parents.

8 – Learn to Let it Go

As a mother, you may want to make sure everything in your life is perfect. You want to make sure your kids are healthy, they get good grades, you make enough money, and that you have a clean house. Yes, these are all important aspects of raising a family, but learn to let the small things go. To tired to do dishes? Don’t let a sink full of dishes bother you for just one night, do them in the morning.

Enjoy a Happier Life as a Minimalist

Adopting a more minimalist lifestyle can help you to:

• Save money
• Be more productive
• Help the environment
• Create a MUCH more beautiful home
•  Add the ‘wow factor’
• Support the lifestyle that really makes you happy
• Escape the rat race

All those are pretty worthy causes. And no matter what kind of person you are, simply reducing the clutter in your home and changing the way you think about your purchases will help you to be a more fulfilled person. But none of that is the ultimate goal this lifestyle shift. The real goal instead is to make you happier. When you become more minimal, you become happier.

How Minimalism Leads to Happiness

There are two ways that minimalism leads to happiness: direct and indirect. We’re going to look at how you can use minimalism to really transform your mindset and your approach to your belongings, but we will come to that in a moment. In the meantime, what we’re interested in is some of the direct consequences of minimalism and how that makes you happier. 

Save Time

You have far less clutter in your home now and that means you have less tidying to do. You’ve introduced simple systems to help you wash up and keep the house clean and you are less demanding on yourself. All this means that you can now come home and actually relax in a calm and beautiful environment. It’s impossible to overstate just what a positive impact this can have on your life or how much of a change this makes.

Reduce Stress

You live a less expensive lifestyle and thus you may possibly be able to work fewer hours. When you realize that you can achieve all those things you want to achieve without staying in work until 8pm and without taking on lots of extra responsibility and overtime, then you realize that you don’t need to work a bigger job to be happier! Now you’re coming home earlier and not bringing that stress home with you. That makes you a better friend, a better partner and a better parent.

What about job satisfaction you ask? Well, perhaps you need to stop looking at your work as a way to achieve your satisfaction. What about gaining satisfaction from your own projects instead? How about writing an amazing novel, getting into incredible shape, or going on amazing travels?What about setting up a highly rewarding side business? Or working online?

Meanwhile, you also have less work to do around the house and fewer financial strains. The less you realize you need, the more relaxed and fun life becomes again!

Increase Freedom

Less stress and fewer physical ties mans more freedom. When you have more space in your home, you have more freedom even just to move around in that space! Freedom is such a fundamental part of the human experience and absolutely essential to our happiness!

Going Deeper

But that happiness goes much deeper. Because what minimalism is really about is knowing that you have everything you need to be happy right here, right now. Recognize that fact and you can start to really appreciate how lucky you are and you can learn to be happy with anything. On the other hand, if you always feel you want more and if you’re always pushing toward that next thing, then you’ll find you never really stop to enjoy the things you already have.

Put a stop to this by developing a gratitude attitude. A good way to do this is to spend every evening taking stock of everything you have and everything you’re grateful for, for just five minutes. This might mean writing those things down in a notepad, or it can mean running through them mentally. Try to think of different things each night. And there is so much to be grateful for.

You can be grateful for the fact you are in good health. You can be grateful for the fact that you have people who love you. And you can be grateful for the fact that you have a roof over your head at all. Another tip is to make sure you schedule time to enjoy the things you own and the space you have. Better yet, make sure that you are truly enjoying the things that you are doing as well.

We have our list of things that we can do for an evening and this can be an eclectic range of things from going stargazing in your own garden, to sleeping in the summer house, to building a robot with the kids. Whatever the case, try to be creative when writing this list and to think about all the different ways that you can use the space you already have to have fun.

Look at objects you have around you and try to think of the new and exciting ways you could have fun with them or do something worthwhile or fulfilling. Try to rediscover that child’s sense of wonder in your own home. But what’s more, is that you then need to take the time to really reflect on what you’re doing and how fortunate you are. This is called being ‘present’ or being ‘mindful’ and it is currently a very big topic in psychology.

It essentially means that instead of letting your mind wonder to work and to all the things you’re stressed about right now, you’re instead going to stop and reflect on what you’re doing and how much fun you’re having. 

Tonight, think about how comfortable you are in your bed and about how much you’re looking forward to eating that breakfast cereal tomorrow. Learn that it really doesn’t matter what you have. What matters is your perception of the things you have. What matters is your appreciation of those things. You create value in the way you engage with the world and your belongings and in doing this, you bring value into your own life. You can be rich without spending a penny.

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Video Titled "Pantry Organization (Quick 15-Minutes!)"

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Get Organized Tips

1. Tell yourself that no matter what, some level of clutter with a child is going to happen.

2. Begin with messes and clutter that you see every day. Organize your kitchen, garage, and family room before your hallway closet.

3. Use drawer dividers for socks, underwear, and tiny items, to keep them separated and organized.

4. Use this same principle to organize your silverware, with clearly defined places for every spoon and fork, or drawers for ties and socks or underwear. Think in this same way for every aspect of your home. This will save many hours of searching for things. It will dramatically cut down on the clutter of items left out "for now" or "until I find a place for it." Develop a new mantra: everything has its place and a place for everything!

5. Allocate everything in your house a place. This way your family will know exactly where to find it and where to put it away, when they searches for something they need. 

6. Keep items that are used frequently in places where you can reach them without stooping or bending, and store them close to the place they will be needed.

7. Establish one defined place in your house for storing library books, and end a house-wide hunt when it is time to read or return them.

8. Hang hooks for your keys and purse at the entry to your home, so each time you walk in, you can hang them up.

9. Get rid of all junk drawers, or allow yourself just one that you clear out once a week or more. When you establish certain items are being used repeatedly, designate a drawer for those.

10. Enlist a new rule: donate or throw out one old thing for every new purchase that enters your home.

11. Make a mental note to observe what things pile up in your house and where they cluster, and then come up with a place nearby that becomes the official home where those things will reside. For this purpose baskets, shelves, and folders will work well. Set aside one basket for you and your partner for incoming mail, bills, and receipts and letters.

12. Never go up or down empty-handed when using stairs. Always grab some items that belong to upstairs rooms and quickly put it away while you are there. 

13. Create a number of brightly marked folders for discount coupons, invitations and directions, and other time-sensitive papers that just clutter your counters.

14. Things you don’t need any longer:

· Clothes you no longer wear.

· Extra paper or plastic grocery bags.

· Makeup and samples you have never worn.

· Sunscreen that's expired or more than one year old.

· Organize your coupons and throw out all that have expired.

· Cookbooks you rarely use. Cut out your favorite recipes only.

· Magazines you meant to read but have never taken the time for.

You will free your mind to remember your daily chores by getting rid of your clutter and organizing your home top to bottom.