The New Year is always a great time for fresh starts. It brings a feeling of starting over; an opportunity to improve one area or all areas of your life. This year, take some time to complete projects you've been putting off for months. You can create an even better home for you and your family by decluttering and organizing your home. And, once your space is organized, you can begin to better organize other aspects of your life, work or other projects!
1) Keep Things At Arms Reach
Keep items that you use daily somewhere where they can be easily reached, whether that's in a basket, on a shelf or in a cabinet. Store everything that is used sparingly on a higher shelf, in the garage, or in the attic. It will be easier to find what you need, when you need it.
2) Add Shelves
If your home is cluttered, adding more furniture will not help. Instead of adding a bookshelf or desk, add wall shelving. You'll have room for books, picture frames, paperwork and even a television without adding more furniture into the mix. Wall storage brings a unique style to any home, simply because it houses and displays your things. For extra style, you can get creative by making or purchasing different shapes or styles of shelves.
3) 12-12-12 Challenge
This challenge comes from the Becoming Minimalist website, and is a simple project to add to your routine. This can also be useful if you are just starting to declutter your home! It provides a mindful and balanced structure to prepare ourselves (especially for those of us who have trouble with organizing!) for our cleaning tasks. Here's how it works: Choose 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate, and 12 items to return to a proper place in your home. This helps you organize, declutter, and give to a good cause all at the same time!
4) Use Your Garage
Make your garage your main storage area. Use old dressers, desks and other furniture to store seasonal items and items that you don't use daily. Paint the furniture in your garage the same colour to create a unified look. That way, your storage is organized too! This colour association makes it easier for you to associate storage items and locate the items when you need them, as well as making a nice-looking storage space.
5) Get Rid of Broken Items
There's no point in keeping items that are broken or unused; they are just taking up precious space in your home. If you haven't used it, or have fixed it in the past six months, you probably never will. Throw it out, recycle it, or donate it to make room.
6) Use It Up
It's a habit to save special items for special occasions, whether it's fancy bath soap or an expensive spice. Sometimes, it's even just an air freshener with our favourite scent. Whatever it is for you, use it! Use them and enjoy them right now! Use what you have before you buy something new. Not only does this keep the clutter at bay, it will gives you a valuable lesson in embracing the present.
7) Deal With One Room At A Time
Take the whole process step by step. Organize and declutter one room at a time, on a schedule that works for you. If this ends up being one room a day, or one room a week, that's how it will end up - as long as it works for you. This makes it easier to focus on the task at hand. For example, if you are doing one room a week, then all you have to worry about is that one room's organization and cleanliness for the whole week. By shifting to your focus onto one room at a time, you don't have to juggle everything all at once. Juggling with all of the aspects at once when you take on a project is usually how they end up never being completed! After all, who wants to deal with that? When you allow yourself to only focus on one thing at a time, you'll be amazed at how efficiently you breeze through every step.
Go through these tasks every few months to help maintain your home. A decluttered home can give you and your family peace of mind, room for something new, and even help prepare your mind to tackle other large tasks.
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