An organized and clutter-free home leads to better sleep, mood, and focus. It keeps us productive and helps relieve stress and anxiety — allowing us to find peace in our day to day.
Here are a few tried and tested tips for decluttering and organizing your home:
CATEGORIZE THE CLUTTER
Before tidying up and simplifying your space, you should have a box each for items you want to keep, fix, recycle, throw away, or donate. Sorting your belongings into these five piles will make decluttering quicker and easier, helping you save time and energy.
MAKE A DECLUTTERING CHECKLIST
A decluttering checklist acts as a visual representation of everything you need to organize. It helps you get started with the challenging task of sorting through your belongings and deciding what to do with them.
Your decluttering checklist can include items you no longer need — or as world-famous organizing consultant Marie Kondo puts it: items that don’t spark joy. It can also be a list of rooms or areas you want to prioritize, such as your closet, garage, or home office.
START SMALL
The best way to declutter a room is to focus on one area at a time. You can begin simplifying your space by opening your junk drawer and disposing of old batteries, pens, and sticky notes with random scribbles.
After organizing one small space, move on to a larger one, such as the kitchen counter. You can keep working your way up to more spacious areas of your home until you no longer feel overwhelmed with clearing out and streamlining them.
FIND SMART STORAGE SOLUTIONS
Drawer dividers, pantry baskets, under-shelf hanging organizers, and other smart storage products make decluttering easier and more enjoyable. They help maximize and optimize your storage spaces.
You can also rethink your existing organizational systems and see if different ones would work better. Changing a walk-in closet’s fittings, adding shelves underneath the stairs, or purchasing furniture that doubles as storage often have a big impact on how organized a space can feel.
TIDY UP IN SEASONS
After the winter, thick duvets, clothing, and footwear should go back into the closet. Christmas décor should also be boxed up once the holidays pass. During tax filing season, it’s best to sort and throw out old files, receipts, and business records to make room for new documents in the home office.
MAKE DECLUTTERING A HABIT
Working simple organization techniques into your daily routine will make future decluttering sessions easier. Putting away clean laundry, removing old receipts from a purse, or clearing out anything that doesn’t belong on your desk goes a long way towards keeping your space neat.
ASK FOR HELP
If decluttering seems too overwhelming, don’t be afraid to reach out to friends and family for help. You can also rely on them to clear out the more challenging areas of your home, such as the garage or the yard. Working with professional organizers who can assist you in reorganizing, donating, selling, or disposing of your belongings is also an excellent option.
If you’re preparing your home for a sale, our experts from our staging company Staging Design Concepts can help you in decluttering and organizing your home. Call us at 617.828.1070 or send us an email here to get started.