6 tips to be clutter free in 2017
It may not be spring cleaning time yet, but starting to clean up the clutter could improve your overall emotional, physical, and mental well-being. The beginning of the year is actually the best time to start cleaning because it gives you a clear physical and mental space for 2017. If you’re ready to start decluttering for the year, here are some easy tips to get your home ready. .
15 minute rules
It’s important to use time to your advantage when cleaning up the mess. Don’t think about wasting a whole day cleaning or spending hours in a room in your house. Instead, block out 15-minute time slots for cleaning and focus on accomplishing as much as you can in those time slots. You can do 15 minutes per hour, 15 minutes per day, or 15 minutes per week. The most important thing is to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
start small
Trying to tackle everything and jumping from room to room is a quick way to get frustrated and quit. Instead, start with a small space of your choosing and only work on that space until it’s complete. Don’t try to go out and take care of the whole house at once.
No clutter zone
Once you’ve cleared a small area for yourself, designate it as the clutter-free zone. Whatever happens, don’t allow clutter in that space. This space could start as small as a corner of a room or as large as an entire floor of your home. As you clean, make your area larger and larger until your entire home is a clutter-free zone.
system stack
A great way to get organized is to sort your items into four piles: keep, throw away, donate, and maybe. If you’re having trouble making decisions about which stack to put items into, you can use a maybe stack, but make sure that by the end of the day everything in the maybe stack has been moved to save, throw away, or donate. Some helpful things to consider when making decisions about what to set aside are how functional the item is, how much storage space it takes up, and why you want to keep it.
remove clutter
If you are using the pile system, you will fill up, start the piles of garbage and donate. Put these items in boxes or bags and once you fill a bag, immediately take it out of the house. Put it in the trash or take it to the donation center right away. This will prevent you from second-guessing yourself and passing and taking things. If you keep reconsidering your decisions, you’ll end up organizing the same things multiple times.
Set goals
We often get discouraged while cleaning up the mess, especially if we’ve worked really hard and can’t see a noticeable difference, so it’s important to set small goals to give yourself a sense of accomplishment. Be sure to keep your goals manageable. For example, make cleaning a countertop a goal. This is usually something you can accomplish in one session and doing so will make you feel much more positive about cleansing again the next day.
Hopefully these tips will help you get your home back on track for 2017. If you have a reasonable amount of clutter, your home should be clean in no time, but if you have more clutter than you can handle, you may need some professional help. .