Simple Ways to Clean Up Mess and Clutter at Home

Most of us are busy people.  We don’t have enough time to clean up the clutter at our home.  While we have the desire to keep the mess out, it seems such a daunting task.   It almost feels like that doing this chore will whittle away our precious time.

In the end, we usually end up postponing the activity as when it comes to cleaning the clutter, procrastinations seems to be the better option.  Truth be told, we don’t even know how and where to start.  There are ways to clean and style your home without stress.  To avoid this situation here are a few tips and recommendations:

1.)  Make a List

Make a short list of things that you should organize and tidy up.  For example: Organize Room Cabinet, dust the Living Room ceiling and clean the kitchen drawer.  Having a list will break down the whole chore into simple task.  This will help make it look more manageable. You can check our 4 Tips To Maximize Closet Space for more ideas.

2.)  The 15 minute rule

Set aside at least 10-15minutes each day doing each one.  See below example

And so on and so forth.

This is very simple to do and not time consuming.  If you think 15 minutes is too much time then you can make it 10minutes or even 5minutes a day.  If you were not able to finish doing the task on the day you can always continue it the next day.

Learn to manage your expectation as the 5-15minute rule will not remove all the clutter from your home right away the way you expected it to be.  But if you constantly do this, you will notice how this small step will clear your mess in no time.

3.)  Zone Defense

Make sure to use each zone of the house where they meant to be.  Make sure that you designate a spot for each thing that you are using.  For example:

• Designate a zone for your bags.  If you have plenty of bags, try to put the unused bags in the closet or in a box.  You can also designate a spot for the bag that you are currently using.  Then always put that your bag in that spot after you’re done using them.
• Designate a spot for your mails, newspapers, magazines or any other paper materials.  Avoid putting them in dining table or drawers.  For the newspapers and magazines, you can put them on a magazine rack.  After a week, you can start disposing the newspapers.  If you are sentimental and want to keep the magazines, put it in one box.  If you don’t do this the magazine rack will get full and you will have no more spot for the incoming ones.
• Assign a medicine drawer.  Avoid putting things inside the medicine drawer except the medicine. In my experience, I used to put mails on the medicine cabinet.  Eventually, there came a time that I have no more space for the medicines. The medicine drawers are for medicines.  The mailbox cabinets are for mails.

4.)   Visualize the perfect home

Try to visualize how you want your home to look like.   Visualize beauty and elegance.  Be imaginative.  Try to be as detailed as possible.  Making your dream house is easy.

5.)  Store It

If something doesn’t look good make sure you have a storage area.  Get rid of some displays or furniture that doesn’t look good anymore.  You can replace them if you want.  There are a lot of affordable home decorations in market that will make your home look good.  Finding quality yet inexpensive home decorations is also one thing that you can consider.

Try something new like table top fountains or glass figurines that you can add on your table display.  Plan ahead for shopping at furniture stores.

6.)  The One Year Rule

Evaluate your storage area once a year.  If you see something which you haven’t used for a year it’s time to let it go.  There are other people who may put it to good use.  If you are sentimental then be flexible and make it a two year rule.

Making your house comfortable and clean is easy.   You don’t have to spend hours to clean up your clutter.  Proper time management and discipline is just what you need to make things done.