Decluttering top tips

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Cleaning up for a fresh start in Spring:
Quick and easy top tips for decluttering your home

"It’s ridiculous that I get such a sense of achievement from ticking things off a list, but I do, to the extent that I’ve even been known to add things I’ve already done, just so I can tick them off!"

Clutter create chaos. It can be stressful to look at. It costs you time when you’re searching for stuff. And it can affect the value of your home.

So here’s my quick guide and top tips for decluttering and creating the perfect pad, whether you’re trying to reduce anxiety in your home, prepare it for sale, or get it ready for decorating.

1. Find the right room: The first step is pretty easy. Simple walk around your house and make sure everything is in the right room. Encourage the teenagers to take their plates out of the lounge. Remove the corkscrew from the bathroom counter (what on earth was it doing there anyway?!). Move the TV remote from the kitchen to the living room. You don’t even have to start tidying yet.

2. Get handy with a list: Lists are great for helping you feel like you’re making progress, and that positive energy helps you to complete more tasks. Make a list of every room in the house, along with the tasks that need to happen in each room, for example:

Kitchen:

Reorganise drawers
Tidy table
Reorganise cupboards
Under oven
Below sink
Above coffee maker, etc.

It’s ridiculous that I get such a sense of achievement from ticking things off a list, but I do, to the extent that I’ve even been known to add things I’ve already done, just so I can tick them off!

3. Don’t be afraid to make a mess: Before things start to look tidy, the room will look worse than when you started. It will get better! I promise. Take your list and choose a room, and choose a task to tackle. If you’ve decided to reorganize the drawers, take everything out first and put it on the counter or floor. Sort everything into piles of what you want to keep, what you want to get rid of, and perhaps a pile of things you’re not sure about. (You can make a judgement about them at the end, based on how often you use them, whether they can be repurposed, or simply whether they actually fit in the drawer – or on us, in the case of clothes! Sometimes we just need to get used to the idea of getting rid of it.)

Think about how to keep your drawers tidy in the future. This could be buying little inserts from a storage company, using cutlery trays, even using shoe boxes. If your belongings are compartmentalised they will be easier to find and keep tidy.

4. Have a system: We know that everything should have a home, but sometimes it’s also about having a system. Some things don’t have homes. Where does the post go, when it arrives, for example? If you’ve time to deal with it straightaway, that’s great. But if not, does it just accumulate on the kitchen table? Perhaps have a shoebox in the hall so it’s all in one place and when you’ve time you can pick up the box and go through it. Then you’re not searching all over the house for the bill you need to pay.

What about your wallet and keys? Do you need a drawer in the kitchen? Do you have phone chargers all over the house or can you create a charging station so all electronics are kept in one place? Essentially, if you’re always hunting for something, you need a system, or a home for it.

5. Hand it to them on a tray: Filing trays are really handy. It could even be a shoe box. If my children, or my husband for that matter, leave bits and pieces lying around, I put them in a tray, one for each person. I then either keep hold of it until they are madly searching for the blue pen they left on the kitchen table or, when the tray is full, empty it in their room. It’s really hard to get kids to keep their rooms tidy. You can try and incentivise them, reward them, or if you don’t have the energy, simply shut the door. You don’t have to live in their mess!

One growing concern about decluttering is how much serviceable stuff ends up in landfill. Perhaps someone else can use what you don’t need. Or maybe it can be upcycled. I really try to think of creative ways to reuse things, in place of buying something new. And that ends up being key to keeping the clutter at bay. The trick is to buy less, and only use what you need.

Decluttering isn’t about turning your home into a museum where everything is perfect. It’s about creating an environment that reflects your personality and how you like to live. It’s about making a home that’s relaxing, where you want to spend time, rather than a receptacle of chaos where you’re constantly moving detritus out of the way.

I’d love to hear your top tips. Good luck.

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