Decluttering Habits That Will Help You Keep Your House Organised

Decluttering Habits That Will Help You Keep Your House Organised

A home doesn’t stay organised, tidy, and decluttered without effort. It does take some work but if you establish some good decluttering and cleaning habits, it will be much easier. Once you do the habits without thinking about them, they become part of how you live and then keeping your house organised will not feel like such a chore anymore.

• Don’t wait for a big purge

Big decluttering sessions when you tackle a full wardrobe or a full room in one go can be very satisfying as, at the end, you often have quite a few things to get rid of. It is also a huge task when you do it this way – one that takes up a lot of time – and you are pretty much just delaying getting rid of things that you could’ve removed already if you’re “saving up” for a big purge. Don’t wait! If you see something that you don’t love or use anymore – whether it’s a dress, a skincare product, a toy or a kitchen utensil, put it in your donation box or discard it in a suitable way NOW. Be someone who is always aware of their home and decluttering as they go about their daily life.

• Take every opportunity

Life is filled with many moments where we are just waiting for something or someone before we can do the next thing we need to do. Waiting for the kettle to boil, the microwave to ding, for the advertisements to finish, for your child to eat their food, the bath to run… There are so many moments like this throughout a regular day – don’t waste them.

Take every opportunity to get little things done during these moments. Empty the dishwasher while you wait for the kettle to boil, load the dishwasher while waiting for something to cook, wipe down the bathroom while the bath is running, clean the worktops white your child is slowly finishing their breakfast, do a 5-minute tidy-up of the living room during the ads of your favourite TV-show. All these small moments will add up and your home will be much tidier and cleaner without it feeling like you’ve spent ages cleaning.

• The One Touch Rule

The one touch rule is a great one to help keep your home tidy. It means that you only touch an item once and have to return it to its actual home. Don’t get the plates from the dining table and put them next to the sink – either wash them or put them in the dishwasher. Don’t pile things up on the bottom of the stairs to take up later, just do it now if something needs to be put back. And so on – most things like this don’t take very long at all but will have a big impact on the clutter in your home.

• Daily Habits

Your daily habits are probably the things that will have the most impact but the hardest to change in my experience. You need to come up with systems that work for you, your family and your home. These systems and habits with help make things flow smoothly and hopefully help avoid things building up into bigger jobs. Try to get into a routine about how the daily tasks of your home will get done – dishes, cleaning the kitchen, tidying up, dealing with recycling and rubbish and, of course, the laundry!

I have managed to come up with a few solutions that really help us as a family but I am still working on a few areas that I haven’t found the perfect habits for yet.

• Decluttering Spree

Even though I think it’s best to declutter as and when you see things, it can be fun and useful to sometimes do a bigger decluttering session. It doesn’t have to be a huge job, it’s more that you are moving around your house intending to find things to discard rather than accidentally discovering things while you are doing other things. Take a box or a bag and just move through your whole house and see what you find that you no longer need, want or use. Get the rest of the family involved too – my kids have gotten quite into decluttering now which is very helpful!