Clutter is one of the most common features of a modern household. With minimalism and Marie Kondo’s method on the rise, to declutter your home is to declutter your life. Because of this, we’ve got the best decluttering tips to improve your home.

Clutter is generally seen as unwanted and unused items that collect somewhere in an organized or unordered way. Junk is often found in someone’s house, backyard or garage and can contain household items like furniture, bikes, books and more.

Mess can create a variety of problems both to your mental and psychical health. With so many people working from home these days, it is important to avoid and remove household clutter when it:

• Inhibits Daily Activities:

Tripping over junk or letting green waste take up precious room in the backyard can have a negative effect on your day to day life. This can make chores such as cleaning, cooking and relaxing extremely difficult.

• Makes Things Hard To Find:

Everybody hates losing their keys or wallet as they are just about to walk out the door. A cluttered house makes finding these important items more difficult, causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. Use drawer dividers and drawer organizers to keep track of your precious belongings.

• Affects Your Mental Health:

Many people find that an organized and decluttered home leads to a structured and fulfilling life. Because of this, the opposite is also true. Rubbish can cause you to feel overwhelmed and stressed while also even triggering coping and avoidance strategies. Using house plants and fresh flowers to brighten an area has a positive effect while also decreasing the chance of mess accumulating.

• Impacts Your Relationships:

Having an unorganized and messy home generally leads to arguments between family members and loved ones. A disheveled area like a messy coffee table also makes it harder to entertain friends and guests.

Decluttering can do wonders for nearly every aspect of your life including:

• Creating A More Spacious And Orderly Home:

Removing unwanted junk creates extra space for you to enjoy your home, creating a more welcoming atmosphere for crucial areas like your living room and dining room. Removing knick knacks and smaller items also creates a more structured living space.

• Finding Items With Sentimental Value

Spring cleaning and garage sales create an opportunity to not only remove junk and make a bit of money while doing it, it also lets you uncover memories and hidden treasures like things purchased on holiday and pictures of events like weddings and birthdays.

• Creating A Less Stressful And More Minimalistic Environment

Removing junk also reduces stress and anxiety created by the environment as there is so much less to clean and organise, saving us precious time in our day to day lives.

Making a plan is the best way to create an organized space, this may take a few hours but it’s well worth it as there is no point in throwing a few things away at a time.

Firstly, decide on which area of your home you want to clean up, one space at a time.

Common areas where bric-a-brac can be found is in places such as the bathroom and kitchen which can contain a lot of junk, making it hard to clean up. One of the best ways to make this easier is to create zones.

Start this process one room at a time by breaking them down in smaller sections, whether this is cleaning out your under the sink storage in the kitchen or cabinet space in the bathroom. This will make the decluttering process a whole lot easier and allow you to move onto other rooms.

To avoid having to clean up on a regular basis, make sure to sort through everything carefully and try to remove things that go out of date. Its things like baking supplies and cleaning products go off so check expiration dates and throw them out!

A sorting system is exactly what you need if you want to remove a lot of unwanted items quickly. The three box sorting system is highly popular and one we recommend:

• Keep Box: Make a box dedicated to the items you are bound to keep and use in your everyday life. Try to keep only what you need.
• Get Rid Of Box: This box is reserved for items that you no longer need and will either throw away or donate
• Storage Box: A box filled with seasonal clothings or sentimental items that you will keep but store away after decluttering

Alternatively, Marie Kondos has a neat method to follow if you want to become a professional organizer. She encourages us to only own things that bring us joy and discard items that do not bring joy, which is a useful practice to implement especially with larger clean outs. Her exact method is also very easy to follow. With this decluttering tip, cleaning up will become a lot easier!

One of the most important aspects of decluttering is getting rid of the items themselves! Depending on the item, there are many different ways this can be done such as:

• Rent a dumpster or call your local council clean up
• Donate clothes and broken items to a local charity
• Recycling the items into projects or art
• Repurposing objects is a great way to feel like you own less stuff.
• Make some side money by having a garage sale
• Sell or trade your unwanted items on auction sites
• Clean out your linen closet by putting seasonal clothing and other items in storage units

When it comes to waste, prevention is better than cure. Reducing the chance of unwanted goods starting to form will always be easier than removing it. There are many ways to do this including:

• Use Storage Spaces Effectively And Strategically:

Efficient storage solutions are one of the best ways to create more storage areas.  Utilising wall space by using vertical space storage solutions like wall shelves to create space and the use of storage containers to store items makes it easier to avoid mess. Evening hanging items from shelves is a great way

• Clean Out Your Closet And Garage Regularly

These two areas of your home are some of the worst offenders. Minimise junk by regularly donating dirty clothes and seasonal items while also keeping an eye on the garage so bulky items like bikes and tools don’t accumulate.

• Have A Purpose For Your Laundry Room,  Home Office Space And Living Rooms.

Designing and decorating a room with a specific purpose provides clarity for the rest of the home. This means that only items that serve that area should be in that room, making it easier to keep an ordered household. Two of the worst offenders are laundry and offices spaces. Use your laundry basket to keep track of loose clothes and a recycling bin for any paper scraps in the office. If you have small children, dedicating a room as the craft space can also reduce the mess spreading around the house

• Buy For Your Needs

Practice minimalism by only buying things that you really need or could use in the future. This not only helps reduce mess but also reduces debt as you aren’t buying things that could turn into future rubbish!

Maintaining a decluttered and orderly house is one of the best ways to keep your own home in tip top shape. When you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by clutter and don’t know what to do, remember these decluttering tips or call us on 1300 78 22 47 to start decluttering today!