Rules for Preventing Clutter Creep
Clutter can find its way into every home. If you’re not careful enough, it can take over and make your living space cramped and uncomfortable. A cluttered home can undoubtedly affect your lifestyle, make you more anxious, affect the quality of your sleep and prevent you from being focused and productive. This guide will help you maintain an organized and spacious home with less effort - here are rules to follow for preventing clutter creep into your home.
Why You Should Keep Your Home Clutter-Free
At first, many people would think - it’s just some clutter. It can easily be tidied up. However, if you let the clutter take over, taking it back to its previous state can become very difficult. Decluttering and cleaning the whole house takes a lot of time and energy and sometimes even requires the help of a professional. That’s why following these simple rules for preventing clutter creep will help you maintain your home tidy with minimum effort. These tips will make home maintenance simple and less time-consuming, making sure you feel good about your home and creating your favorite place to stay.
A clutter-free home means more creativity, productivity, and efficiency.
Let Everything Have Its Place
One of the best ways to keep the clutter away is to ensure every bit of your household has its place. From bigger to smaller items, find a spot for all the things in your home, so they don’t end up all over the house. You may require some additional organization assistants, such as storage baskets, shelves, boxes, organizers, and more. These are perfect for sorting out items that commonly turn into clutter. Furthermore, this simple hack makes tidying up a lot easier. You’ll pick up items and put them away much more efficiently when you know where they belong. Otherwise, you end up leaving things all around, making the clutter a lot more visible. Baskets and organizers are great for the kitchen, pantry, bathroom, bedroom, and living room space.
Alternatively, you can rent a small storage unit and store away all items you don’t use regularly. Over the years, relocation specialists have seen many people benefits from renting storage not only during the move but also to keep their valuable items out of sight but still safe and secure.
It’s easier to tidy up if every item has its place in your home.
Review the Purchases
Clutter often appears due to buying things we already have or impulse purchases. That’s why reviewing your buying habits can help you with preventing clutter creep. Firstly, always consider the items you’re buying and see if they are truly necessary . It’s helpful to put an item back and walk around the store and then come back if you decide it is necessary or you want it. Very often, people realize the item they initially wanted to purchase is actually unnecessary. However, whenever you end up buying a new thing, remember one useful rule for clutter prevention - one in, one out. Every time you get a new thing for your home, remember to deal with an old item as well. If you bought a new bag, donate or throw away the old one, as you’re sure you’re not going to use it. This will create a healthy circle of things in your household, minimizing the clutter.
Implement Some Minimalism
Even if you’re not a minimalist, you can apply some of the habits to your household to make it more spacious and comfortable. This can be applied to multiple things of one kind you have in your home. For example, you probably don’t need three different black bags, two very similar winter jackets, or a couple of kitchen pots or gadgets that do the same thing. If there are things you keep for a “just in case” situation but actually have the same item you love and use, it’s best to ditch the ones that only eat up the space. There are many ways to put such items to better use, such as donation, recycling, etc. You can also do some DIY projects and reupholster old furniture to five it new life - be creative with the items you have at your home without constantly bringing new piece and creating a mess.
Minimalism is the key to a clear home and a clear mind.
Do Regular Clutter Maintenance
You shouldn’t forget that clutter is a normal part of every household. Life happens, days are busy, and clutter appears seemingly out of nowhere - and that’s fine. However, you shouldn’t let that pile grow. Do regular clutter maintenance sessions that will keep your home organized and tidy. Dedicate a day in a month when you’ll hit all the critical clutter areas and review the items you have in your drawers, wardrobe, kitchen cabinets, etc. Regular tidying doesn’t take a lot of time and keeps your home form a more serious clutter problem.
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Introduce Tidy-up Rules For The Whole Family
If you don’t live alone, clutter can appear out of nowhere and much faster than you think. That’s why you shouldn’t be the only one who deals with it. If you have kids, teach the basic tidying up rule - putting items away as soon as we’re done using them. If everyone does their share of tidying up, your home will be much more manageable. Remember that these things take time, and don’t expect everyone to become super-organized. Go step by step, and more importantly - lead by example. Getting organized takes time and skill, and there are books that can help you learn to create a neat space and make you fall in love with your living space again.
Don’t Forget About Sentimental Clutter
Clutter is not only about things that physically eat up our living space. Sentimental clutter is also part of every home and includes items we’re attached to for memories or emotions. You should learn how to let go of sentimental clutter and create a better living space without the process being traumatizing or emotionally challenging. Memorable things sometimes clutter our homes but also clutter our minds, not letting us forget about the past and turn to a new, more exciting chapter in our life.
Preventing clutter creep is fairly easy if you take the right approach to it. It can even be a rather enjoyable, cathartic experience where you take steps toward a healthier, more enjoyable home. Just be sure to understand why you’re doing this, and everything will be a lot easier.