Decluttering and tidying up are hot topics right now with Marie Kondo seemingly “sparking joy” in everyone’s life. However, not everyone can afford to hire a tidying expert to come in, say hi to the house and walk them through the process.
With that in mind, here are seven things you can do to declutter your home and each of them only takes five minutes per day. Over the course of a year or so, you can have your home completely decluttered.
1. Designate a spot for incoming papers.
Start piles for things like flyers, receipts, warranties, manuals, etc. and keep putting any new incoming papers in their designated piles rather than leaving them all over the place. Go through your piles every once in a while to get rid of outdated or unnecessary papers.
2. Start a clearing zone.
Designate a zone — whether it’s a three-foot perimeter around a shelf or your couch or some other place — that you are only allowed to keep things that are in use. Everything else in that zone must be put away. Each day extend the zone by a foot until it encapsulates your whole house.
3. Clear off a counter.
Start small and clear off a counter in your kitchen. Put everything away on that counter and then keep it cleared. Always put things back in their designated place.
4. Clear off a shelf.
To keep yourself from not being overwhelmed, just pick a single shelf rather than a whole shelving unit. Organize things on the shelf, put things that don’t belong there away and then do another shelf the next day, etc.
5. Schedule decluttering.
Pick an upcoming weekend and get the whole family involved in going through their things and deciding what is important to them and what they can get rid of. Pick up the necessary bags and boxes so you can put things in them and take them to the charity shop right away.
6. Pick up just five things.
These should be things that you use, but don’t have places to “live,” like scissors for example. Designate a “living space” for them and then always put them back in that space. Do this for a few items each day.
7. Create a “maybe” box.
When you’re going through your stuff, sometimes you know exactly what to get rid of and what to keep and other times you need some more time to think about it. This is where your maybe box comes in. Put the maybe stuff in the box, squirrel it away somewhere and set a reminder to check it in six months to see what you really missed out of it. Chances are that your maybe box will turn into a giveaway box.
Doing these seven things, along with passing tidying and decluttering skills onto your children, should give you enough momentum to tackle your tidying.
While it’s a good idea to get rid of things inside your home, adding things to the outside can be just as rewarding, especially if those things give you shade in the hot summer or added security. If you are thinking of adding some awnings or shades to your home or some rolling shutters, contact us and we can help.