My 4 Easy Hacks for Clutter-Free Living
Decluttering our homes is a needed process. It makes your home more enjoyable place to be. But it isn't a one-time thing.
Since we bring things into our homes every week, we have to be in a constant habit of clearing out things that are no longer needed or useful.
You have to be in a constant state of decluttering. Here are four simple tips to implement to create the habit of clutter-free living.
Before the tips: Watch your mindset
Mindset matters. Try to be in the mindset that you are always going to need to be on the watch for things that are overwhelming me or my space, things that are causing a mess, things that are in my way.
By noting these things and removing them, we will be well on our way to having a neat, clean environment without a lot of effort.
My goal is to clean less. I used to spend three hours a day cleaning and then it would just get dirty all over again.
I have my routine down where my home may not be perfectly spotless but by decluttering, I have been able to get our home to a place where a large part of it can be tidied up in 15 to 30 minutes a day and even ready for company.
1. Remove troublemakers
Tip one: keep on the lookout for things that are constantly out of place. For example, if your kids have a toy with a lot of pieces, and they consistently leave all of the pieces out on the floor, that’s a good candidate for the donation pile.
If we have an item that never seems to be put back where it goes, we need to either make it easy to put that item somewhere or maybe we need to discard that item.
Having items in our homes that are constantly out of place shows that we are not able to manage that particular item very well. It may mean that the item is not well suited for our home. If we can’t find a good place for that item, the solution is to donate the item.
2. Use laundry day to declutter
Declutter your clothing as you do laundry. Whenever you wash, dry, fold, and hang your clothes, look for items with holes, stains, or don’t fit well.
Maybe you don’t enjoy wearing an item anymore. Go ahead and put those items in the donation pile.
3. Make it a family habit
Have a set place for a donation box so your family knows where to put things they don’t want. Encourage your family to work together to fill that bin every month. Filling up a bin every month will help us to constantly remove clutter from our homes.
It also helps to cultivate in our kids a spirit of giving and generosity. That bin may be the sprouting of a beautiful journey that our children take throughout their lives of giving rather than receiving.
4. Make it a lifelong journey
Remember this process is never done. I have heard the saying that decluttering is a lot like an onion. There are layers upon layers of clutter in our homes.
Once you take out one layer, you’ll find another one–those items that may have been overlooked in the first round of decluttering since it was probably overwhelming.
As you go along, you’ll find smaller and smaller amounts of things that need to be decluttered. It’s like peeling an onion layer after layer until you are left with very little.
It may seem overwhelming but if you just take it layer by layer and remember that this is a long-term process, it may help you to not become so discouraged and overwhelmed.
If you do all of this hard work now, it will pay off in so many dividends in the long run. You will find joy and contentment that you didn’t even know was there because you are not so distracted by all of the clutter in your home.
Clutter free
Creating a clutter-free home has been a great experience for me and my family. Let me know in the comments how you want to create a clutter-free life.
Next, check out my Easy Food Storage System to Prevent Food Waste.
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