For some people, organization comes naturally and seemingly without effort. For others, it’s an uphill battle that can stress you out more than a messy home. However, decluttering shouldn’t make you feel anxious or overwhelmed—it should do the opposite. By strengthening a few decluttering habits, you’ll start each day feeling calm, collected, and ready to tackle whatever comes your way. To get you started, here are 10 decluttering habits that you can start doing right now.
Create a Morning Routine
Decluttering is a process. While you can declutter your entire home in a single day, it’s not going to stay that way unless you form a habit and make small changes every day. One thing that you can start doing right now is to create a morning routine. Write it down, hang it up, and do it every single morning—no excuses. Jumping into your morning decluttering routine right away not only helps you keep your house in order, it will put you in an inspiring mood for the rest of the day so you can continue to make small adjustments without feeling like it’s a chore. Some of the best items to include on your morning routine include:
- Making your bed
- Putting away your pajamas or nightgown as soon as you change out of it
- Do a load of laundry, if needed
- Make sure to wash your dishes after breakfast
While these items might just seem like a list of morning chores, laundry and dishes are some of the most cluttering items that we encounter regularly in our homes. Without conscious thought of putting them away as we use them, they quickly add up and create a chaotic mess that feels overbearing.
Always Keep the Dishes Clean
With that being said, as you move throughout your day, never let dirty dishes accumulate. If you have a dishwasher, great. After you’re done with a dirty dish, rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher right away. Make sure that you talk to your family members about doing this as well so that you won’t feel like you’re wasting the day cleaning up after everyone else.
If you don’t have a dishwasher, washing the dishes right away becomes harder, but still necessary. It only takes a minute to wash a plate and a cup, but when the dishes start to pile up it’ll end up taking an hour or longer to get through everything. Plus, when you wash the dishes right away, you’ll avoid having to scrub off dried food later.
Implement House Rules
In addition to having everyone clean their own dishes after eating, make sure that you establish a few key house rules. It’s not your job to do all of the work, especially if you have kids that are older than toddlers. Assign small tasks to your kids to help declutter regularly. Not only will his keep your home clean, it’ll help establish responsibility and good habits for their future. A decluttered home allows for easier studying, more clear thinking, and less wasted time. Work with your significant other or spouse to create these house rules and then make sure that you’re both doing your part.
Keep Clothes off of the Floor
Throughout the day, make sure that bedroom floors stay spotless. By keeping clothes off the floor, you’ll immediately create a space that feels organized and decluttered. Just the appearance of assorted garments on the floor can cause you to feel chaotic and contribute to the problem. When you change your clothes, either hang them back up or put them immediately into the laundry basket. If you try on more than one outfit in the morning or before a night out, make it a habit to continually put those clothes back on the hanger, not on that chair in the corner of your room or the floor. This simple habit will make cleaning your room much easier and will make you feel more at ease.
Create No Clutter Zones
Flat spaces are notoriously cluttered areas. When you walk in your home, it’s second nature to throw any papers, purses, or whatever you had in your hands onto the nearest flat space. While this isn’t problematic when it’s taken care of immediately, over time it leads to a cluttered mess. By eliminating visual clutter, you’ll help your home feel more organized, even if you have some intense junk drawers.
Since flat surfaces tend to become the primary place to put things that don’t have a designated space, create a place for everything. Add a purse hook or a key organizer to the wall by your door. Create a filing system to put away bills, notices, magazines, or invites immediately when you get them. Talk to your family about designated storage areas and where things go to make sure that everyone is on the same page. While it seems like it’s a lot of effort to make these changes, they eventually become part of your daily life and you won’t even think about it.
Keep Appliances off the Counter
In addition to keeping your flat surfaces clear of any clutter, consider keeping the appliances off of the counter. While they’re more convenient to use, appliances on your counter create a disorganized feeling. The cleaner, less cluttered your counters are, the more organized you’ll feel. Plus, when your counters are free of any appliances, you’ll be less likely to use them as clutter zones.
Create an Evening Routine
Going through your morning routine will help you start the day—you should also have an evening routine to end the day. Again, this is a simple decluttering habit that you can start doing right now that will have a huge impact on your life. When you go to bed with a clean home, you wake up feeling calm and ready to tackle the important parts of the day rather than the trivial ones like cleaning up yesterday’s mess. Your evening routine should help you clear the slate and set yourself up for a great next day. Some things to include on your evening decluttering routine include:
- Put everything in its designated place
- Wipe off all of the kitchen counters
- Take out the trash
- Put away any laundry from earlier loads
- Fold blankets on the couch and straighten up
Keep a Donation Box Nearby
Get a container, put it in a closet, and designate it as your donation box or clutter for-sale box. Throughout each day, week, or month, put things in the respective boxes that you no longer need. If you’re going through your closet and find a shirt you never wear, be realistic. Are you going to wear it again? If not, add it to the pile. If you’re unsure, put it on and wear it for the day. This is a great way for us to be more decisive when it comes to our wardrobe and unnecessarily hoarding clothes that we’ll never wear.
Do the same for items throughout your home. If you walk by something and it doesn’t bring you joy or has no sentimental value, consider whether or not you really need it. A few strategic decorations are great, but excessive knickknacks make a home feel cramped and cluttered. When the box gets full, bring it into your preferred donation center.
Try the Two-Minute Rule
The two-minute rule is a rule from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” It’s pretty simple and straightforward. If a task takes less than two minutes, do it right now. This helps us avoid procrastination and keep our homes decluttered throughout the day. You’ll find that by incorporating this simple rule into your daily life, you’ll avoid having to spend hours at the end of the day completing a series of small tasks. By enacting the two-minute rule around your home, you’ll start to bring it into work and improve your overall productivity.
Use Strategic Storage Options
Some homes have an ample amount of storage and that’s great. Unfortunately, not all homes are blessed with walk in closets and basement storage. If you find yourself storing things in awkward areas that makes access difficult, consider getting a climate controlled self storage unit. This will help you declutter your everyday life and remove the things that you don’t use or need regularly. The less you have around your home, the more decluttered your life will feel.
If you’re interested in renting a self storage unit to help you declutter your home, contact the Lock Up Self Storage today. All of our units are temperature controlled for the ideal storage environment to improve the longevity of your items. With 24/7 security features, you’ll get the peace of mind you want and need at a self storage facility. To learn more about our storage units, give us a call today at 1-866-327-LOCK or stop by one of our locations for a tour of the facility.
