Clutter is a fact of life. Whether you are single or have a houseful of kiddos, the endless parade of items on and off of your counters can make for a home that feels disorganized and chaotic at best. And what’s worse – when you are living in chaos, it makes it difficult to move past the daily stress and mental bandwidth that goes hand in hand with not knowing where to find things or with never having space on your counters to prepare meals or sit and read.
However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t champion over your clutter, giving things a home so that you can feel stress-free and organized in one fell swoop. There are countless organizational tools at your disposal and, with just a little time and preparation, you can have a home that is worthy of an organizational award. The following 6 steps will take you from cluttered to tidy faster than you can say, “I need another cup of coffee!”
- Give yourself the gift of time. Decluttering isn’t a quick task. It didn’t take 30 seconds to fill your counters with stuff, and it won’t take 30 seconds to clear them off. Find a pocket of time in your day – ideally an hour or two – that you can dedicate to this project and then stick to it; finishing is most of the battle, and once you have clear counters you will be so glad that you carved out that time. Some ideal times to tackle your clutter might be on a weekend, later in the evening once your family is in bed, or even during an extended lunch break, if you like a challenge with a hard deadline.
- Find your “pain points.” These will be the worst offenders in your home. Is it your kitchen counter? Your bathroom counter? Your office? once you have identified your main points of clutter you can start deciding how you want to deal with it. Some of the most popular clutter locations include a foyer entry table, office countertops, kitchen islands, and laundry rooms. Often people find that they are in the habit of leaving keys, wallets, purses, mail, and more in the same places over and over again – instead of fighting this, you may want to just take note and make a plan to set up specific drop zones for those items so that at least they are organized moving forward.
- Decide on your plan of action. It is unlikely that you will simply stop putting things on your counters, so decide if you want to “intercept” things or “corral” things. If you want to intercept things each day, you will need to plan for a way to collect things and re-distribute them to their proper places every night. if you want to corral things and give them a home right there on the counter or in a nearby drawer, you will need to plan for the kind of “home” you will create. If your clutter is of the “big mess” variety, you may want to actually sit down and write out a solid plan of action to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed as you move from counter to counter, and from room to room.
- Beauty matters. We are all drawn to things that we find beautiful or fun to look at, so when you consider the storage needs and organizational tools you will get for your de-cluttering plan, make sure that you take into account things that you will be happy looking at day in and day out. Sure, an old shoe box will hold receipts and keys just fine, but would you rather look at a vintage basket or a metal organizing bin that perfectly compliments your granite countertop or your gorgeous backsplash? The choice here is yours, but definitely consider the location and storage requirements so that you do not purchase something that will turn into clutter itself in two months.
- Divide and conquer. Place like things together and throw away dated or extra items that really serve no purpose anymore. If you want to really go for it, get a notebook or binder where you can store addresses, recipes, shopping lists, calendars, and more so that those items never find their way into the trash on accident or – worse yet – stay out on your countertops gathering dust with each passing week. Once you have put like things together, you will know how much space you need to allocate for those groupings. Many people like to keep a “junk drawer” so that their excess paper clips, scissors, and more are at the ready but still concealed from view.
- Commit to a maintenance plan. Whether it is a nightly ritual or a bi-monthly process, deciding on how you will maintain your newfound organization is the key to ongoing success. Taking time here and there to put things back in their proper place will be quick and painless if you keep up on it, allowing you time to get on with your day and with what you love doing.