Avoid Clutter Build Up

The biggest and easiest way to impact your home’s appearance is to eliminate clutter.  When items don’t get picked up or put in their proper place they can take over any house.  Sometimes, storage of our accumulated items becomes an issue.

Before you can reduce the items lying around making a home look cluttered you need to decide what is needed or wanted and what isn’t.  Once you’ve done that, if you still have a lot of items remaining without a place to put them storage for those items is going to be needed.  Go through each room and identify where extra storage space is needed.  Once you’ve decided where you need the storage space, it will be time to decide on what type of storage pieces to purchase.

Many storage solutions are available, everything from bookcases and chests to ottomans.  The room in which you need the storage in will somewhat dictate what type of storage you will need to purchase.  For living room storage consider an ottoman with built in storage, for a closet there are many options for organizing from hanging shelves to shoe storage. Is your storage in your bedroom limited?  Try under the bed storage pieces or nets that hang from the ceiling.  The nets are a great option for storing kids’ stuffed animals.

Now that you’ve got your storage it’s time to tackle de-cluttering your house.  Don’t feel like you have to de-clutter the entire house all at once.  Focus on one room at a time or if that is too overwhelming for you do one drawer at a time.  Start small and work your way up to the bigger things and you will find that you have de-cluttered the entire house.

Just a couple tips to help you accomplish your goal of de-cluttering and keeping it that way:

When sorting, make several piles: a keep pile, a sell pile, a giveaway pile and a trash pile.

Schedule a thirty minute clutter cleaning session once or twice a week; this will keep you from having to spend several days clutter cleaning once very few months.

Once you are done reading a newspaper or magazine dispose of it, either in a recycling box or in the trash.  If there happens to be an article you want to read later just clip the article.  It will take up much less space this way.  Post it somewhere you’ll see it such as a bulletin board so you’ll remember to read it and then get rid of it.

Put items away when you are done using them.  Leaving things on counters can pile up fast and make a room look messy and un-kept.

Each night go through each room in your home, place items that belong in that room but are out of place where they belong and place the items that are misplace in a large basket.  Then go through and place the items in the basket in the rooms they belong in.  It shouldn’t take long and it will help clutter stay at a minimum.

Make use of every minute.  If you happen to be on the phone, grab a sponge and wipe down the counters, fold laundry or take care of other quiet chores.  A hands free earpiece works great for this.  Allowing your hands to be free will give you the opportunity to be multi-tasker and keep your home clean and neat.

Use these tips and your home will be and stay free of clutter build up.