Organization can bring a sense of health and well-being to your home and heart. Thinking of “spring cleaning” can be daunting and just be an added chore that we don’t want to do. It doesn’t have to be a nuisance though! Let’s switch the mindset by first learning about the benefits of decluttering and then learning the best methods to sorting, tidying and organizing your home. Read on for our Declutter Expose!
So how does decluttering and organizing your home help? It’s more than just making it look nice and clean. Having order to your home benefits your mind and body as well. Here’s a few ways that this practice will improve you and your families overall well-being and happiness
Excess clutter can cause adverse physical health. The more stuff you have, the more surfaces you have for dust and allergens to collect on. This can decrease the overall air quality in your house. Reducing clutter makes your everyday cleaning needs easier, quicker and promotes a peaceful, stress-free environment. It is also an opportunity to donate what you don’t need to those who do! These all lead to an increase in self-esteem. When you struggle staying organized, you can tend to feel out of control, your physical environment has a significant impact on your mental health. Having less clutter means less anxiety, there’s less worries around finding things, safety in your spaces about how your home looks to visitors. Bringing positive habits and practical solutions into your daily routine will enhance more areas of your life than just your home.
Additionally, here’s a list of even more benefits to decluttering and organizing!
Increase your living space, your rooms will feel and look bigger
Focus on your favorite things more without the distraction of the things you don’t need
A sense of accomplishment on a daily basis
Helps you to let go of the parts of your past that no longer bring positivity to you life
Improved financial responsibility, when you’re mindful of what you bring into your space, you’re more mindful of what your spending your money on
Now that we understand how much good decluttering can bring to your daily life, let’s get into the best methods for your declutter and how to keep up those practices.
No matter which room of the house you’re going through, there is a rule of thumb to follow when determining what you should keep. Just use these three simple questions when determining what should stay and what should go:
As you move through each area in your process, apply these questions to the items you’re going through. With those questions as your foundation in organization, start in the area of your home you spend the most time in. This tends to be the living room and the most difficult to keep neat since it is the most often used. Coffee table / ottoman trays offer up easy organization for magazines, remotes, etc. They also add a nice decorative elevation to the room (see our February blog “Decorative Accessories That Invigorate Your Home”). Place a basket near the couch for throw blankets and a stylish trunk to keep toys or anything else out of sight when you have guests. Cut down on the amount of books or trinkets you keep in your bookcases, shelves, mantles and sort them by height or color for a neat, uniform look. Being proactive in your day-to-day tidying of this room will keep it looking great, with minimal effort, just like in our next room, the kitchen!
The kitchen can get crowded quickly! There’s plenty of awesome options for this room to provide order and cleanliness. Here’s a few of our favorites:
Categorize your drawers, cabinets and pantry, each kitchen item should have its own home (i.e. dish towel drawer, baking appliance cabinet, cooking utensil drawer / silverware utensil drawer, group your food in your pantry).
Clear your countertops - only keep items you use everyday on the counters, everything else goes in its respective drawer or cabinet.
Purge your plates, bowls, cups, silverware. Keep what you need for your family and enough for when you have guests. Anything more is unnecessary.
Get rid of duplicates and “unitaskers”, if you have tools that promise to make some specific task easier, but in actuality only fill your drawers uselessly, pass them along.
Another area of importance in the home to focus on, the entryway. This is the first thing you’ll see when you’re entering your home and will set the stage for your mood. You want to make this space inviting and functional. Designate a space for keys and mail, add a shoe organizer, maybe a stylish bench for bags and backpacks. Add hooks on the wall for coats and a rug or runner to catch any dirt from outside that would otherwise get tracked through the house - an entryway is easier to sweep than a whole house!
We’ll touch on one more considerable space that is much less visible but can be the most problematic for storing junk and clutter. Closets! First and foremost, evict, depose of, weed out, eradicate anything in any closet that does not currently or in the near future serve a purpose. A good consideration during this process - has it been used (or looked at) in the past 6 months, will it be used in the upcoming 6 months. If the answer is no either way, get rid of it. Install drawers, shelving, baskets. Like in the kitchen, categorize everything and give it a home. Allocate space by length and size, this will help you to maximize every inch. And if something doesn’t have an intentional home in the closet, don’t just shove it in there to hide it away!
A gentle reminder, everything in your home should have its own home. Give everything a place to live - and keeping your spaces clean, decluttered and organized will be a breeze. Here’s our last helpful hint in The Declutter Expose, keep a specified “put away” or “return” bin. If you find something around the house in a space it doesn’t belong, bring it to the “return” bin. Once a week, take the bin throughout the house and put everything in it away, where it belongs.
Bella Home Interiors offers services such as Designer By Your Side and One Day Decorating to bring the designer’s eye and expertise into providing organization while making it look good. Schedule a consultation!