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Easy Ways to Declutter the House
There are many easy ways to declutter the house without getting overwhelmed or getting stuck with big home organizing projects. The trick is to apply good time management and project management with your home organizing projects.
So here are some easy ways to
declutter the house without causing a
major upheaval in your life:
Identify Your Clutter
Areas
Tackle your Top 5 Organizing
Tasks
Identify what these clutter areas so that you can start to declutter and reorganize your home. Once you have got your list of clutter areas, you will want to identify the top 5 decluttering tasks to complete in order to banish your problem. If the tasks are too big to handle all at once, then chunk them down.
Chunk Your Decluttering
Tasks
Chunking your tasks is a great way to tackle big projects in smaller more manageable chunks. For example, you may have decided that your bedroom is a clutter zone and that dirty clothes are forever piling up. You may need to reorganize how you do your laundry and set up more efficient systems so that you collect your dirty clothes in an organized fashion by placing a laundry bin in your bedroom. Once your laundry bin is full, this will be your reminder to do your laundry.
“Keep Items off the Floor”
Rule
The keep items off the floor” rule is a handy one to follow. Whenever you see clutter piling up around the house, do a clean sweep of items of the floor. You will be surprised how many items that you leave scattered around different rooms of your house such as your lounge room, on your bedroom floors, and in the games room area.
You will be amazed how easily you can create a clutter free home just by following the “keep items off the floor” rule.
Monitor your Tasks
As well as chunking down tasks, monitor the time you take to complete tasks. If you assess a task to be a 15 minute task, then set yourself the challenge of completing the task within the estimated timeframe. Some people find that using a stopwatch or a kitchen timer helps them to keep on track with managing and completing their household and decluttering tasks.
Hope that you have found these tips on how to declutter the house useful so that you can get started with your home organization projects.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
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Date Published: Jan 26, 2011 - 7:40 pm
Declutter A House To Reduce Your Stress Levels
Being disorganized can certainly increase your stress, and one easy way to reduce your stress levels is to become more organized. If you are chronically disorganized by nature, then stress will result when you can’t locate a missing item, or when you are under pressure to meet urgent deadlines at work. Regardless of your individual circumstances, once you get into the good habit of being more organized, it will become second nature.
Being Organized Requires
Discipline
Learning how to be more organized requires a level of
discipline to follow some simple organizing rules. Some of the
basic rules to declutter a house include the following:
Returning Items back to their
Proper Location
Establish Organizing
Systems
Other ways to declutter a house revolve around establishing good organizing systems for different areas. If you live in a big family it is especially important to have systems in place of where items are located. This helps to ensure that family members know where to find items, and once they have finished using an item, they can return it to its proper location.
Clean Up After Yourself
The kitchen is usually an area in the house which is well frequented. The kids get hungry and raid the fridge or pantry to find a snack to eat when they get home from school. Teach the kids from young to tidy up after themselves. So that you won’t end up with dishes in the sink, or crumbs scattered all over the kitchen counter tops, because they haven’t bothered to clean up after themselves.
Achieve Time Savings
Being organized means that you will save time for searching for lost items, and it also means that you can complete tasks around the house quicker because you have all the resources that you need at your fingertips. Cleaning up after yourself once you have completed a task, especially in the kitchen, is also a time saving. Because dishes don’t get crusty because they are washed up straight away after you have prepared a snack or meal in the kitchen.
There’s no doubt that learning how to declutter a house can significantly reduce your stress levels. Apply the above home organizing tips in your life and start to enjoy the rewards of a well organized home.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
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Date Published: Jan 24, 2011 - 10:47 pm
3 Essential Decluttering Tips to Swear By!
Remember in the good old days when you were in school. When assignments were due, they just didn’t get done unless they were urgent and had a due date. The same goes with completing other tasks in your life, such as decluttering tasks. If the task is not urgent, you tend to ignore the task, thinking that you will attend to it some other time when you are free. Unfortunately that some other time nevers eventuates because you haven’t set a date for its completion.
Set Urgent Organizing
Deadlines
So one of my favorite decluttering tips to share with you revolves around setting an urgent deadline for its completion. The task may be critically urgent, but not been attended to for months, because you forget about it for some reason. If you set a deadline, then subconsciously you will be thinking about it from time to time, that the task has not yet been completed.
The Family
Whiteboard
For home organizing and decluttering tasks, using the family whiteboard will help you to organize yourself and your family more efficiently.
I love the satisfaction of crossing off completed tasks off the family whiteboard. Once decluttering tasks have been completed for the week, you can start to add more new decluttering tasks to your trust whiteboard.
Getting into some Good
Organizing Habits
One of my other essential decluttering tips that I share with friends is to communicate to them the importance of developing essential organizing skills and of forming some good organizing habits.
The first point relates to the fact that if you are disorganized, then you will need to improve your organization skills. Most of us have room for improvement to improve how efficiently we can complete tasks, and this includes getting ourselves more organized.
The second point relates to forming some good organizing habits. Once we have mastered some good organizing skills, the next stage is to translate these skills into tasks that we carry out on a regular basis. That way, our house never gets out of control so that it looks like a bomb shelter. And because we do things incrementally, our home always looks neat and well organized.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form
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Date Published: Jan 23, 2011 - 8:27 pm
It’s Kitchen Decluttering Time!
The kitchen is one of my favorite
rooms in the house for a variety of reasons. Lovely smells from
cooking emanate from the kitchen, whether it be dinner cooking on
the stove, or the smells of muffins and cakes baking in the
oven.
But when your kitchen becomes
messy, then you know that it is time for some kitchen
decluttering. There are some areas of the kitchen to tackle that
it can be a touch overwhelming. After all, there is the fridge to
keep clean and organized, the pantry to keep well stocked with
ample food provisions. Then there is also the layout of the
kitchen to consider such as the Triangle Method.
Fridge
Place a bowl of hot water with a
lemon that has been sliced in half. This will be very effective
in removing unpleasant odors from your fridge. Whilst your fridge
is nice and empty, take a bucket of warm soapy water and wide
down the sides of your fridge.
You’ll soon have a brand spanking
new fridge to use again.
Here are some more kitchen decluttering tips to help keep your
kitchen organized:
Don’t accumulate an excess of food
in your fridge or pantry. It will result in wastage and cost you
more money.
Keep enough provisions to last you
for the week. This will ensure that the ingredients that you use
for cooking such as vegetables are used for cooking whilst they
are fresh. By the time the week is at an end, you should be ready
to replenish and restock your pantry with new provisions.
Keep some emergency provisions in
your pantry. Staple products like pasta and rice are good
emergency provisions to store in your pantry, along with a few
canned provisions of your favorite vegetables or preserved meats.
That way, if you are pressed for time, you can easily turn to
your emergency provisions to prepare a quick meal for the whole
family.
Pantry – Label Items
Clearly
As well as ensuring that your
pantry is not over crowded with too many provisions, you also
need to organize the items in your pantry so that they can be
easily located. Use a simple labeling system to organize
different areas of your pantry. One shelf could be marked for
canned goods, whilst another shelf is labeled to store dried
provisions like lentils, beans, rice and pasta shells.
Air Tight Containers
Use air tight containers to store
all your dried goods like rice and pasta shells. Flour should
also be stored in air tight containers to prevent weevils from
attacking your baking supplies.
Hope that you have enjoyed these
kitchen decluttering tips. Stay tuned for more home organizing
tips and resources at Declutter Day Tips.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form
below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Jan 13, 2011 - 12:45 am
Household Organizing Tips - The Essentials of Time Management and Rewards
Household organizing can be really painful if you
have let things unattended to for a long time. You may find
clutter piling up in your bedrooms, or perhaps hidden clutter in
your bedroom closets – whatever the situation may be, it needs to
be dealt with expediently before the problem gets worse.
So where is a good place to
start with your household organizing chores?
For the inexperienced, such as
young adults who have just left home, the basics of household
organization are essential life skills that need to be acquired.
Even basic decluttering and cleaning tasks are new to young
adults and students. So time management would have to be one
essential skill that needs to be learnt by young adults.
Time Management
Time management is one essential
component of learning how to complete decluttering and cleaning
tasks around the house. Teach your kids from young some essential
life skills by giving them some basic tasks to complete around
the house. Then when they move out of home (eventually!) they
will be well equipped with some essential home organization
skills and not feel helpless about managing a household.
Communicate to the kids that once a
week, time will be set aside to complete one chore around the
house. You can hang up a simple whiteboard in your kitchen area
and get the kids to write up the task on the whiteboard.
The other aspect to time management
is to set the time required to complete a task. For basic tasks
allocated to the kids, such as sweeping the floor, the time
allocated should only be around 15 minutes. As their attention
span may be short, and if they are only young, 15 minute tasks
are a good length of time for a task. As the kids get older, you
can increase the complexity and length of the decluttering tasks
to a longer duration such as 30 minutes to 1 hour. For example,
Johnny your eldest son should be able to help out his Dad to
clean the car each week. Later, he should be able to achieve the
task by himself with minimal supervision.
Keep the Reward System
Simple
Create a simple reward system by
communicating to the kids that if a decluttering task is done
well, that they will be rewarded with something nice. The reward
shouldn’t be too big or be based on costly purchases. The reward
could be as simple as walking down to the nearest local park to
play ball or to play with the dog. Implementing a simple reward
simple is a good way of keeping the kids motivated to complete
and learn a task. It should also teach them the importance of
finishing a task to completion, and the satisfaction that comes
from completing a task.
In summary, hope that you have
found these household organizing tips to be useful. There are
two important components to keeping your home well organized -
apply good time management practices to complete decluttering
and home organizing tasks, and apply a simple reward system in
getting the kids to help around the house.
"Get your
free mini-course if you want to take action to declutter your
home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Jan 03, 2011 - 9:40 pm
Decluttering Your Home Regularly and Finding Some Ingenious Ways to Reduce Clutter in Your Life!
The task of decluttering usually arises because we have
collected too much junk and clutter. It may be come into our
hands from a variety of sources. It could be stuff that we have
bought for ourselves from the shops, well meaning presents from
friends and acquaintances. Before we know it, we have a huge
stockpile of stuff at home that we don’t quite know what to do
with.
The Crux of our Clutter
Problems
The problem of clutter
usually arises when we accumulate too many possessions around the
house. Perhaps the holiday season has just gone by, and we had an
exchange of presents at Christmas time. We go home and find a
pile of presents, some useful and some that we will never use
because it was not quite to our taste.
Hence, the start of our clutter
problem arises. A friend of mine recently mentioned a fantastic
idea in terms of the exchange of gifts at Christmas time. What
she and her friends do is to have a “Make or Bake” present
exchange. What a wonderful idea! If you make something for your
friend, you can use your creative talent to craft them something
beautiful and useful. And if you choose the bake option, we all
know the delights of creating something tasty from a good recipe.
Whether it is your favorite chocolate cake recipe or brownie, the
present has been made with love and will be enjoyed by your
friend.
It was a shock when I read in the
newspapers how consumers spend millions of dollars in unwanted
Christmas gifts each year. It is a time old tradition to exchange
gifts during the festive season, and it would be great to adopt
new ways of celebrating the spirit of the event. So the next time
that you think about purchasing a present from the shops for a
friend, perhaps it’s time to think of alternatives that will
result in less wastage.
Presents From the
Heart
Presents made from the heart are
the best sorts of presents. There is much joy in the time spent
making the present. Firstly, you have to decide what gift would
be suitable to make for your friend. You will probably think
about the types of hobbies that your friend has. Next, you will
need to gather together some materials to make the gift. Try to
make use of recycled materials if at all possible. Have a hunt
around the house to see what suitable materials you can find to
make your gift. Be as creative as possible in creating and making
your gift. If you have a creative flair, you can show off your
talents to your friends. For those amongst us who are not so
creative, this may be the opportune time to be more creative. You
may even surprise yourself with your creative talents!
Decluttering Your
Home
Decluttering your
home is an important task that needs to be done regularly.
However, with just a few simple changes to our traditions to
habits, we can find ingenious ways to reduce the amount of
clutter in our lives!
"Get your free mini-course if you
want to take action to declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Jan 02, 2011 - 9:13 pm
Organizing Paperwork – Tips and Tricks You Shouldn’t Be Without
The last time you visited your local organizing store, you had to
purchase more bookshelves and storage solutions for the home
study. Books and magazine collections can take up a lot of space
in the study. Rather than buy more bookshelves, it may be time to
reduce your prized books and magazines collection.
Organize Magazines by
Date
One useful decluttering tip is to organize your magazines by date
order on your bookshelf. You could separate each year’s
susbcription using a divider, so that when you have accumulated
too many months worth of magazine, you’ll know that it is time to
dispose of your old magazines.
Be Aware of Your Clutter
Tendencies
Be aware of your clutter collecting tendencies and try to change
your habits, one step at a time. Try to form new habits and learn
how to throw stuff away, no matter how hard it may seem at first.
Discard the “All You can
Accumulate” Habit
There is no prize awarded to the person who can accumulate the
most possessions over their life time. So rethink your habit of
accumulating too much stuff and start to think of ways to reduce
clutter in your home.
In With the New Minimalist
Movement
The minimalist movement is the trend that is becoming popular by
the day, so you may want to revisit your habit of accumulating
excess junk and clutter. Why not join the minimalist movement
instead and count the minimum number of items that you can
proudly own and still be able to live life in abundance? It can
be an uplifting experience to set yourself a new challenge of
changing that persistent “All You can Accumulate” habit.
The Challenge
Identify what your decluttering challenge is going to be, for the
next week, month or year. Paper clutter is one of the biggest
problems for clutter bugs and hoarders. Set yourself the
challenge to reduce paper clutter in all areas of your home.
I know of one friend who achieved a successful reduction in paper
clutter by scanning all her documents digitally. Her project was
a mammoth one, but completing her challenge brought her one step
closer to having a clutter free home. It takes time and
dedication to achieve your own personal goals, but it is well
worth the effort.
Assess The State of Your
Mind
Perhaps there are some underlying reasons behind your need to
accumulate clutter such as excess piles of paper. Find out the
best ways for organizing paperwork, and start to
introduce these new habits in your life, so that you can reduce
paper clutter.
Recycle Paper
Recycle waste paper by creating handy “to do” lists. Place your
to do lists in prominent locations around the house. The kitchen
area is a great area for a “to do shopping” list so that as
stocks run out in your kitchen, you can quickly jot it down on
your shopping list before you forget.
These are some of the tips and tricks that you shouldn’t be
without when embarking on the task of organizing
paperwork around your house. Good luck with your paper
decluttering challenge.
"Get your free mini-course if you want
to take action to declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Dec 22, 2010 - 12:21 am
Declutter your Home - Simplicity is the Key to Creating a Stylish Home
When you flick through home magazines, the one thing that stands out is the simplicity of the homes that are displayed in these glossy pages.
When it comes time to declutter your home, do it with style by creating
a home that stands out because of its simplicity.
Simplicity can be created by reducing clutter in your home and
by applying the basic principles as follows:
Less Is More
The “less is more” principle is king. When you enter a room, look
at which objects and furnishings stand out when you survey the
room. If you have gone overboard with decorating your home, nice
decorations, no matter how nice they might be become lost in a
sea of clutter. For example, if you have a nice ornament to
display on a side table in your living room, it’s best to keep it
simple by displaying only one ornament, rather than many.
Treasured ornaments collected from a memorable holiday add a nice
touch when looking for suitable home decorations. They also
provide an interesting topic for conversation when friends visit
your home.
Basic Colors
If you live in an older home, getting rid of old fashioned items
in a room can really give the room a makeover. For example,
removing old patterned wallpaper that is usually a winner, and
replacing it with a neutral color can create a stylish and more
modern look for your living room.
Declutter Regularly
Once you have chosen some primary colors for the walls and
carpets of your room, and a few nice ornaments and decorations,
regular maintenance is required to declutter your
home and to keep it in a clutter free and dust free state.
Create a weekly schedule of decluttering tasks by room, and
schedule these tasks for completion during the week.
Create a Clutter Free
Zone
Make your home a clutter free zone by pointing out to members of
the household that possessions are not to be left lying around
the room. Rid of bad habits such as leaving magazines and paper
clutter strewn on the living room table, or toys and books
scattered across the floor. If you have children, then set
aside a separate play area away from your formal living areas for
their playtime.
Simplicity is the key to creating a stylish home. Take action to
declutter on a regular basis, and create a stylish room by
choosing primary colors and a few well selected ornaments and
decorations.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Dec 20, 2010 - 9:46 pm
Declutter Tips That Will Make You Truly Joyful
Less is More
Did you know that sometimes “less is more”? We all have heard stories of friends
who are clutter bugs. Clutter can become a huge burden, there is no doubt about that.
It piles up around the house, and gets out of control. Or think about the extreme case
of hoarding which is a serious issue that can arise due to mental problems.
Adopt the philosophy of “Less is More”. Count your blessings for all the manypossessions that you already own. You’ll be surprised at just how lucky you are to already own countless possessions. The number of people who are subscribing to the
minimalist movement is growing at a staggering rate each year. One of the reasons for this growth in the minimalist movement is because these individuals have found a new found freedom of having fewer possessions and clutter in their lives.
Here are some useful declutter tips to help simplify your life:
Enjoy the Simplicity
Enjoy the simplicity of having fewer possessions in your life. You’ll find it uplifting
and a breath of fresh air. Celebrate this simplicity in your day to day life. Move
around the house without bumping into clutter. Free up space in different parts of
your house. Endeavor to create simplicity in all aspects of your life. Start off with
your own home. Then move on to create simplicity in other aspects of your life, such
as your work environment.
Don’t Worry about Keeping up with the Jones
The other benefit is that uou won’t ever have to worry again about keeping up with
the Jones. Previous conversations in your household may have revolved around
talking about the neighbors ie. “Did you see that new car they bought last week?”
or “I saw them take out of their new car that brand, spanking new coffee machine
last week. You couldn’t miss it. It was so big, and it was a top of the range model.
Seriously, I think it made more than cappuccino!” The McMansions of today may be
out of fashion soon. Because when we reduce all that clutter in our lives, we probably
won’t need such big houses to live in.
Here are a few more decluttering tips that will make you feel truly joyful.
Reduce Stress and Financial Pressure
Reducing the urge to buy more stuff for our homes also means we’ll save money, and
take off some financial pressures in our lives. Financial strain is at the top of list of
people’s problems. It is also at the top of the list in terms of what couples argue about.
What’s the Hurry?
these days always seemed to be in a rush. They talk and drive at the same time, they
talk and cross the road at the same time. No wonder so many accidents happen every
day. He said that they are always seem in a hurry and don’t always watch where they
are going.
Take the time to slow down. What’s the hurry? The same applies to owning
possessions. What’s the hurry with buying more possessions? You’ll probably be able
to do without that state of the art coffee machine. Save the purchase for another day,
and you’ll probably find that you won’t even need to buy it.
For more useful decluttering tips on home organization and simplifying your life,
please visit Declutter Day Tips.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Dec 06, 2010 - 10:19 pm
4 Decluttering Ideas to Tackle Those Mountains of Paperwork
Stuck and unsure where to start with your home organizing project?
Dealing with unsightly paperwork
would have to be at the top of the list for a home organization
project. Look around your home, and if you’re surrounded in a sea
of paperwork, and inboxes filled with correspondence awaiting
filing, then organizing your paperwork should be a top
priority.
Here are a few decluttering ideas
to help you get started with tackling those mountains of
paperwork:
“Magical” Mountains of
Paperwork
Accumulating mountains of
paperwork is a favorite past time amongst clutter bugs, might we
say. In fact, I call these mountains of paperwork “magical”
piles. They seemingly accumulate without much input from us.
Paperwork comes through our mail box, it gets delivered to the
front door of our home by way of product catalogues. Then
suddenly one day, we find ourselves having to deal with mountains
of paperwork that have somehow “magically” appeared from
nowhere.
Electronic
Options
Say Bye Bye to Junk Mail -
That Dearest of All Paper Clutter
Reduce
Correspondence
Other decluttering ideas to implement for your
burgeoning paper problem is to minimize printing out emails,
letters and other correspondence. As an alternative, use your
computer hard drive to store files. Make the time to set up a
good filing system on your hard drive. Your electronic filing
system has the advantage of taking up less space. Also take
advantage of the search facility on your computer to locate
documents quickly and easily.
Electronic Personal
Organizers
Use an electronic personal
organizer to note important phone numbers, ideas and notes all in
one location. It will save you from having to search for missing
information on random bits of paper.
Hope that these paper decluttering
ideas will help rid your home of those mountains of
paper. It’s time to take action to eliminate those piles of
paperwork today, once and for all.
"Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to
declutter your home and get organized.
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we'll email you your first lesson right now."
Date Published: Dec 06, 2010 - 12:04 am
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