Declutter Archives - The Motherly Heap

6 Tips to Maintain a Clutter-Free Home

Jordan N. — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 17:05:04 +0000

You’ve decluttered your home. You’ve put in the work to get rid of unnecessary things and unused ones. Now, as weeks and months roll by, you are looking at cluttered spaces in the home with a huge question – why are the clutter piles back again? How do you maintain a clutter-free home? Here’s a secret, no one’s home is genuinely clutter-free. That includes mine too. On the contrary, somewhere in the house, stuffed boxes and overflowing storages prove that the clutter bug is at it again. Nothing makes a mom cringe more than looking at the clutter all over the house. And you know, it will be eating up your time and energy. So, now, here are six tips on how to maintain your home clutter-free. We can only try to find solutions to each situation, and recommendations may be hit or miss. So, stay with us on this – prevent bringing in more items and tackle clutter head-on. Practical Tips To Maintain and Keep a Clutter-Free Home Ask before you buy Purchasing things on a whim. Shopping spree with no plans. Shopping scenarios, here and there. Now, thinking of keeping the home clutter-free, you’ve got to stop impulse buying. Easy to say, hard to do. Then, let these questions be on your mind before swiping the card or handing in your cash – The list goes on… Asking yourself questions before buying an item can help you sort out what you need or want. Hopefully, it deters you from getting things you don’t need yet fills up your home with clutter. Be ruthless on clutter Yes, you’ve cleared out some from your stash. Yet you still have plenty of storage boxes to sort out—souvenirs and memorabilia, sometimes clothes from the early college years. Check and check. It’s time to part ways. Instead, become the ruthless declutter queen – starting today! Let it all go. You take a picture of something you choose to keep and not use anymore. Then, say goodbye. Adios. They said, “other people’s clutter can be another’s treasure.” So let it be a therapeutic step of letting go and giving away. Scan prints/art into digital items and save them on a hard drive. Or best, find them a new home. Contentment It is personal. How we feel and what we have and deserve are ours. When we feel content with the things around us, we are more relaxed and happier. As a result, we don’t seek out other material things to fill the void or be the answer to what we’re dealing with. It may be in our nature to want more, to keep – just in case. So even buying just for the sake of buying or item DEALS gives us a heightened feeling – only to realize we didn’t need it. Clutter in the home can be the aftermath of wanting more material things; the problem is some items don’t even get used or meet their purpose. Time to let go. Related Posts: Declutter First Before Organizing Your Home Organization Hacks for Your Laundry Room Family Affair Involvement in the maintenance of your home requires the entire family. YES, not just mom or dad. Everyone. Kids love to be involved. So the responsibilities of keeping their school backpack organized, taking out the clutter from their bedroom, tidying their personal space – let it be a family affair. Add decluttering to their chores. There may be some pushback from the kids, but having a clutter-free space shows them how peaceful it can be for them too. Be able to concentrate on homework or enjoy their personal space without the chaos. It also helps them reflect on how they feel around the home. Of course, it will never be perfectly clutter-free; it’s understandable. However, feeling responsible for the home environment can keep them from adding to the clutter. Make a habit It takes an average of 66 days to make a habit. Since you’ve done your part on the initial decluttering of your home, let it drive you to continue clearing things around. Creating a decluttering habit incorporates it within your daily routine. Motivation can become fickle, but a strong decluttering routine can keep you going. Time and Plan Dedicate time to decluttering the home. Would it be the early morning, midday, or late evening? You can also use the clutter timer – 5 minutes pick up for any area. You’d be surprised how many you can check off your list when you are determined to make your home clutter-free. Any area is a potential clutter place. But, as I’ve mentioned, planning your time and energy to declutter can help you in many ways. Clutter-Free Home and Maintenance Maintaining a home is complex, and adding clutter to the mix becomes complicated. Prevention is key to keeping clutter from piling back up again. Getting ahead of chaos can become another task in your homemaking, yet it can be a savior to your sanity. How you maintain a clutter-free home does do cleaning and organizing your home more accessible. As a result, it won’t be as time-consuming. Include these tips in your homemaking routine today, and let a clutter-free home bring peace and happiness. What are your hidden secrets in keeping clutter under control in your home? Please share your tips with us.

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Declutter First Before Organizing Your Home

Jordan N. — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 22:39:06 +0000

Managing your home as a busy mom can become a headache, especially if house items are all over the place. The trick to keeping it all together even with chaos is to declutter first before organizing everything. Do you feel getting rid of things becomes exhausting and emotionally taxing? Is clutter stressing you out? How do you feel about addressing the home clutter before even dipping into the organizing part? When you set a goal to organize your home, your brain instantly zones in on every nook and crannies. You also envision a space with much purpose and calmness after every organization project. Have you ever done a home organization project and had to stop because unnecessary items are lying around? A pile of old notebooks, unworn clothes in your closet, or even double items in your kitchen? What happens then? You hit the breaks before you can even begin? That’s what I’m talking about here—the importance of decluttering your home before delving into any organizing effort. Next, you’ll find out why you even declutter beforehand as part of your homemaking. 6 Reasons to declutter before organizing your home: You’re only keeping what you need. This effort is the purging time to sort and choose helpful things around the house and what’s needed. Reducing the clutter will help you see what organizing you need to do around the house. If you tackle organizing first, you will end up with the same amount of things to manage and not take anything away that’s not being used or needed. Do these quick declutter compartments at home: FIVE CONTAINERS (Label the #2-5 boxes) TRASH – for items to throw away. Bye-bye things! DONATE – to give to charity, home shelter, etc. SELL – for what it’s labeled for sale (garage or thrift stores) KEEP – items that are currently being used on a daily basis or even weekly STORAGE – used for seasonal items (downsized items like Christmas or Easter decors) Your effort and time are cut down from home organizing or even cleaning too. You spend less time organizing when your home is decluttered first. Why is that? Fewer things, less organizing to do. Hence, more time for other homemaking aspects. The goal is not to use up all the time re-organizing or getting stuff around. When the home is decluttered, you acquire more time for what matters to you the most. You’ll be able to concentrate on the task at hand rather than being distracted by the clutter. You are adding more organizing containers where you don’t need them. Tackling decluttering ahead of time, you’ll be less likely to buy more containers to store more stuff. Likewise, cutting down on clutter in your home means no need to be shopping for more organizing storage and others. So now, no need to rehome extra unused items. How you’ll save money from buying unnecessary purchases to store clutter in your home. One thing is good, needing only the storage for valuable items and not just for hiding stuff. When the mess is taken care of, you may find plenty of empty bins from the recently decluttered storage. You may even get money from the stuff you plan to sell. Decluttering your home doesn’t cost you money, and make sure you have a concrete plan. You’ll open space when you declutter your home first before you can even begin organizing. Having just a few things – you can manage space around, and less cleaning is needed; more home for those important things. Also, organizing will become easier when you have the proper space to do your projects. You will appreciate the space that you’ll discover after your decluttering efforts. Then, when you have an empty room, you’ll have a clear vision of what you want that area to be. You’ll have fewer items to clean, and you’ll gain some organizational inspiration seeing a cleared space in your home. Pick a method that works for you. When you decide to declutter – you may put it on your to-do list as a weekend thing, one room at a time, or even as a month-long endeavor. It may be a 15 minute daily declutter or 1 hour declutter time for the whole family. You undoubtedly know what worked for you in the past, or you may jump into a new method you’d want to add to your decluttering routine. You’d be tweaking your decluttering process if a technique didn’t seem to work for you. What’s the takeaway for the first declutter before organizing method? Homemaking requires a system for your home – what works for you and your family. That includes your effort to declutter first at home. When you know what you need, you can quickly downsize your home items. You also cut down the time allotted for organizing and cleaning your home. Only having the necessary things; you’ll save money in the long run. With the space you’ve discovered after decluttering, you also find empty containers now that you can practically use for the important, valuable household items. Then last, when on a decluttering spree, you’ll apply the system that worked for you or start incorporating new ways to achieve your homemaking goals. It’s a win-win situation for you. Now, as a homemaker – decluttering first before organizing your home will be an ongoing process. The decluttering means you’ll have to deal with the amount of stuff in your home and readjust your organizing needs as time permits. It’ll take time to get used to, especially if you haven’t put in place routines that genuinely help you keep your home decluttered and organized. Don’t worry; everybody got to begin somewhere, right? So what’s left to do? Start scheduling your declutter time to get the ball rolling. If you’re looking for tips to succeed in Decluttering your Home, Cleaning Routine, and Managing your Home, check out these posts. Related Posts: Quick Declutter Tips You Need To Know Homemaking – The Ultimate Overview for Today’s New Homemakers Cleaning Routine for a Stay-At-Home Mom (That You Actually Can Stick To) Subscribe to my newsletter for other tips and updates from The Motherly Heap. Thanks for stopping by today!

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Quick Declutter Tips You Need To Know About

Jordan N. — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 03:45:00 +0000

Declutter your home, they say. When we see clutter everywhere, it can be anxiety-inducing. Just seeing the things that don’t have a place; and all the nick-nacks bring panic to us, busy Mamas. We dreamed of lounging around a well-kept home while savoring a warm cup of coffee. Tidy spaces give us an inner stillness and joy. It provides us more time for our loved ones when we don’t spend our limited time on unending decluttering projects. We all want a clean and properly kept home like the one we see in a home magazine. I, for one, dreamt of those tidy and decluttered homes. But then, the daydreaming end, and I’m back to reality. It could be better, way better, and less chaotic. It’s all familiar to see legos scattered everywhere, office supplies disorganized, chaos in the cleaning supplies cabinet, and so on. These little things can add up exponentially when not tended to. Piles of stuff that aren’t in their proper place are eyesores and stress triggers. Let this not be the norm in your home. For your family to have a comfortable living, the home needs to be kept orderly. Yet, with young children, it’s absolutely challenging to achieve just that. Find a system that works and that is sustainable. What can you do now to get started on home declutter? Let’s go straight to it! Plan it out. Grab your phone and input the time block for this decluttering session. You may be a paper/pen planner, so go ahead and pen it in. It is always a good way to start with your objective for the day with a solid plan. Do a monthly plan for each room, or do a weekly corner declutter plan. You can do one drawer at a time, one bookcase, one under the sink, and the list goes on. You’re the declutter boss! When you do, you get to set your attention to that particular task each time. No more bouncing around like a bee in a spring garden. On a given day, you’re clearing multiple areas, and not producing at least one decluttered area seems counterproductive. You know what I mean by this. Tackle a single area at a time. Also, putting in a time block will help you have a time frame to stop the task at hand. Start with a quick declutter for 5-10 minutes each time. Additionally, starting the process and not reaching 100%, don’t let it deter you from achieving your decluttering goals. You started, and that matters. Once you get more time for this endeavor, go for 30 mins to an hour. You’ll be quite amazed at how much you can do in a stretch of time. Set out a vision for that space to declutter. Mama, your mind can set the scene. You are continually motivated to do it without prompts. It can take some practice. If you want, you can also pin a picture on your vision planner or phone and let it inspire you. Setting your vision beforehand will help you stay driven to accomplish it. Solicit help from your kids/spouse to assist you in realizing that vision. Have them declutter their own personal spaces and encourage them to maintain them. One thing about decluttering with kids, it can lead to more whining and uncooperative. Make a game out of it for fun, treasure hunt in their bedrooms. Get a big clear bin to dump everything they find and sort it out together. Let them be involved. The quicker the tasks are done, the quicker they can get more extra time for fun stuff to do. Assemble the necessary items you’ll need. What am I talking about here? Items that can help store the clutters around your home. For example, cloth bins can be ideal storage in your kids’ rooms. Use a desk organizer for your home office or your kids’ study space. Maybe placing a decorative basket around the living room for blankets can spruce up space. This basket can serve as storage plus décor as well. The options are endless, you know. You can also re-use what you have at home; that way, no more extra stuff, and re-purpose them. So, do what works within your own home. Now, don’t forget to take that big waste bag for the actual trash that needs to be thrown. As you get that bag filled and see the area of your home clearing, a sense of fulfillment follows. Set a waste bin in every room. Remind little ones that all trash goes in there and not on the floor. Where do you start the declutter map? There is no right or wrong area to start decluttering. Pick a spot which bugs you the most. Whenever you see or pass by it, it thumps your heart. Yes, pick that one! You can also start where you can see the most visible clutter and start sorting things out. Like I’ve said, there really isn’t an exact right location to declutter first. You know your home, and so you definitely know which areas need to be done first and foremost. The What-ifs? Be reasonable and scan each item; what its purpose right now in your home? Is it about time to donate or toss it away? What if I’ll need this in the future? What if I can fit into these old clothes again? Again, what if… and it goes on… I think you get the idea here. So familiar, right? So you did the sensible thing and sorted it out. Now, gather all the sorted items that didn’t make it to your items-to-keep bin. Now, what? If throwing away is giving you a panic attack, then breathe and revisit this area. You can organize a garage sale in your neighborhood and use it to be a money-motivated decluttering for you. You can check an article by Dana K. White talking about this dilemma of decluttering. Who doesn’t want hard cash for old stuff you don’t use anymore, right? Then, use it to your advantage. “If we are constantly looking for use in items, we’re never going to get rid of anything. What we should be considering is if the item has use to us.“Amy Trager Source: A CASE OF THE “MAYBE SOMEDAY” March 2020 That takes us into a detour: Re-purposing Items. I’ve talked about re-purposing items; however, you have to be attentive that not everything can be re-purposed. That particular item has already reached its useful potential, and it has to go. Don’t be terrified to part with it when you declutter your place. But then again, it’s also an opportunity to earn money when you repurpose things like furniture and sell them. Go for it if you have the talent and time to do this. Do it while the item still has value. Related Posts: 6 Tips to Maintain a Clutter-Free Home Declutter First Before Organizing Your Home What can hinder your effort in your home decluttering? Firstly, procrastination in your homemaking, and when you do, the clutter accumulates over time. It’s slippery when you keep putting off the things that require your attention. You pay the price. The whole home does. Promise yourself – today is the day to get started and keep yourself accountable. Establish a smart goal each time. Set out to obtain it. Secondly, take away distractions. What do I mean by this? Your phones or other devices. Once you’ve access what you needed from your phone in preparing yourself to declutter, put it aside. Don’t be sucked in whenever it beeps. Refrain from checking every notification. Lastly, not being able to let go is another obstacle. It can be a tough assignment of decluttering because of items connected to memories or their importance. Do the ones that have less affinity to you, and do the most emotion-provoking item last. This can occur, and it can take you an extended time to finish one area in your home. What can help drive you? You can put on music that helps you get going while decluttering. Whatever your jam is, stick to what motivates you to keep going. You can listen to audibles too. Do you know what keeps me motivated to declutter? Those Youtube Clean With Me/ Declutter with Me videos. It plays in the background while I do quick pick up. There’s a calming feeling when I listened to Mamas speaking as they clean. Moreover, recall that vision of yours at the forefront of your mind. Let it push you to take that first step and move you to stay on track. Set up small celebrations for every hard area you’ve completed. Be reminded of your objectives when you start to declutter your home. Focus on what’s going to bring you delight for the benefit of a clean, uncluttered space. Make it a point to thank your children/family for keeping up with their own stuff and putting items back in their proper places. It doesn’t have to be a one-person circus to make it work. Remember, when you declutter, you need a plan, and you need a strong determination. It requires the right items to store things and the right attitude to achieve it. Mama, you can unquestionably do this! If you like this article, please share it. Leave me a brief comment on how you’ll tackle your home this time equipped with these tips.

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