How to Keep Your Home Free of Clutter in the Future

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. 

Regular Maintenance

This step refers to simply keeping things the way they are by possibly selling or donating certain items when you realize you don’t need them, instead of stashing them in a pile that needs to be sorted over and over. You can read your mail and make a habit of appropriately dealing with it. There is no excuse for papers to be lying all over the floor or dining room table.

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 can keep 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 cluttered. 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 clutter-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.

Ways To Get More Done

 1. Avoid interruption: If you have a private office, you may want to close your door. You might even place a sign saying something like "Hard at Work: Please Come Back Later." If you are interrupted, help keep the interruption short by remaining task-oriented.

2. Schedule time to make phone calls and return e-mail. When you leave a phone message, list times that you will be available by phone. Ask the other party to do the same - it will save you both a lot of time that would otherwise be spent on everyone's favorite game, phone tag. Also, avoid checking your voice mail and e-mail too frequently. Instead, review them at scheduled intervals during the day.

3. Plan stress breaks throughout the day. Make sure you give yourself a break! Working to the point of total brain fatigue and muscle tension will never do you any good. Stretch, take some deep breaths, and go out to get your lunch, call your kids - do something to give yourself a little break. If you'd like, you can schedule these breaks as a reward for when you've finished a particular chore.

4. Appreciate your own approach. Just as we are all different in other ways, we all have diverse organizational styles. Keep in mind that you have gotten where you are today because of whom you are and what you have accomplished. Employ improved organizational skills to enhance your personal style, not change it. Getting organized should make you feel good, not burdened.

5. Stick to your plan. The best-laid plans often fall victim to their makers. While spontaneity is important, there is a fine line between it and plain procrastination. Once you've come up with a good plan for tackling a task, stay with it. Only you can prevent yourself from wavering.

Motivating Your Family To Get Organized

As you begin the process of organizing your household, you may ask yourself what the best way is to motivate your family members to become and stay actively involved in the process. Each family member is unique and so is their method for organizing and prioritizing. But if you approach it from a coaching standpoint, it is possible to motivate your family to get on the organizational bandwagon. 

First of all, remember that your family will get involved in the process for their own reasons, not necessarily just to please you. Help each family member pinpoint their own motivations for wanting to get organized. Maybe they are feeling less productive in school or at work, or they never seem to have enough social time.

Each of us has a strong suit when it comes to being organized. Find that about each family member and emphasize it. Take the opportunity to share your organizational strengths and tips, and ask them to do the same. Offer praise, not criticism. 

Organizing isn't about getting rid of things at all. It is about identifying what's important to you and giving those things a reliable, consistent home. Don’t try to force your family member to get rid of their things, but to prioritize which things holds the most importance and to focus their organizational goals around that. 

Finally, being organized is about being responsible. If your child or family member has worked hard to get organized and stay organized, recognize this feat and reward it. Perhaps you can come up with a family reward such as purchasing three or four new board games the family can play together. 

And remember, the best teacher for your family is you, so lead by example. Maintain your personal organization systems and consistently strive to improve and find new ways to keep on top of the clutter so chaos doesn’t overrun your life. Your family will learn from you. 

Garage Organization Made Simple

You may have conquered your house, your home office, and your car, and you’ve mastered the art of scheduling and cooking in bulk. But your garage may still be a cluttered and unorganized mess. As with everything else, a neat and organized garage is attainable with some planned effort and simple storage solutions. 

First, you can get a handle on the mess by temporarily moving everything out to sort through what goes and what stays. Large, clear plastic containers can help you do this. They're great for clearing away the clutter and then using for storage. Take your time during the sorting and purging process. 

Consider adding a cabinet to your garage, if needed for storage. You may want to look for units that offer the option of keyed locks. The garage is also where most of kid’s sporting goods land. To keep bats and balls organized, you could purchase a hamper-style organizer. You may decide to designate a section for each child. Add a bin or shelf to temporarily store messy, muddy shoes as well. 

Find a workable storage solution for all the little things in your garage. You can carefully organize bolts, screws, fasteners and other small parts into small clear containers so you can easily see what each contains. Then, you can label each container and find a safe, appropriate place to store them. For long-handled items, such as rakes and shovels, look for storage units to keep everything straight. 

Time Management and Organization

Would you like to improve your time management?  If you find yourself easily distracted, missing important deadlines, or showing up to important events late, improving your time management may be a good idea.  Unfortunately, many individuals do not realize just how much trouble poor time management can cause them.

When it comes to improving time management, many individuals are surprised with all of the options that they have.  One of those options is using time management tools to your advantage.  If this sounds like an approach that you would like to take, please continue reading on.  A number of helpful and successful time management tools that you can benefit from using are outlined below for your convenience.

An alarm clock is a simple, yet effective time management tool that you can and should use.  What is nice about alarm clocks, is that most of us already have them in our homes.  Be sure to set your alarm clock to get up in the morning.  Consider resetting it five minutes before you must walk out to door to work, set it for when you want to start preparing dinner, and so forth.  Although we often associate alarm clocks with getting up in the morning, they can actually be used for so much more.

A task list, also commonly referred to as a to do list, is another time management tool that you can and should use to your advantage.  What nice about task lists is that they are free and easy to do.  All you need is a piece of a paper and pencil.  Outlining everything that you must do for the day is a great way to make sure that you stay focused and on task, which is an important component of managing your time.  If you must, keep separate lists for home and work.

Daily, weekly, and monthly planners are other time management tools that can be used.  The type of planner that you will use will all depend on your own personal preferences.  With that said, many individuals prefer daily planners better, as they often leave more space to create a to do list or at least a spot to write down important dates and times.  If you do use a daily, weekly, or monthly planner, be sure to keep it with you at all times.  

Calendar alert programs are other time management tools that come highly rated and recommended.  Calendar alert programs are so much more than just a traditional wall calendar.  For the most part, these time management alert tools are found on computers and cell phones.  What you will need to do is enter in an important date and time.  When that date and time arrives, you should receive a message on your computer screen or cell phone screen.  Text message and emails may also be sent.  These types of programs are often used to remember birthdays, but they can be used on a wide range of other events, projects, and activities.

Finally, another tool that you will want to consider using is that of a time management training seminar.  In addition to attending a physical class, you may be able to purchase a seminar in video format.  Although some individuals do not consider receiving training a tool, it is an important tool.  There are professionals out there who can share time management tips with you, as well as help you improve your organizational skills.

Optimize Your Kitchen Organization and Simplify Your Life

The kitchen is easily the busiest room in our homes. From cooking and entertaining to a place for your kids to do their homework, play board games or work on their arts and crafts projects. It can be easily overrun with art supplies, outdated spices and unused or damaged utensils. 

Go through your kitchen and appropriately discard anything you don't use, along with any food or spices kept in the kitchen that are beyond their expiration dates. Then take everything out of your cupboards and drawers, and clean inside them. This would be a good time to replace any cupboard and drawer liners with fresh, new ones. 

 

Store your pots and pans, nesting the pots and pans together to conserve space. Make sure you keep the matching lids for them. This is also a good time to make sure handles are securely fastened, so keep a screwdriver handy to tighten down skillet handles or pot lids if necessary. 

You can keep your dishes near your eating area or your dishwasher to shorten meal preparation or cleanup time. Plastic storage containers should be inventoried to ensure each has a matching lid and that they are free from cracks or other damage. You may decide to store them near your refrigerator to ease meal cleanup time. 

 

You could alphabetize your spices and keep them on a spice rack or in a nearby cupboard on a revolving rack. Store food items that you use on a daily in a place you can easily grab them when needed. Organize your pantry so that similar canned goods are in the same place and can be found easily when it’s time to cook meals. You can use airtight food storage containers to lengthen the shelf life of your foods.

If you have small appliances on your kitchen countertop that you don’t use on a regular basis, you could store them in a nearby cupboard or pantry. A storage cabinet for those appliances that are used on a regular basis keeps them out of site and dust free.

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.