De-Cluttering Your Home

Keeping a house clutter-free can be quite difficult, that is until it is organized for the first time. It seems that they go together. It is really hard to have a clutter-free home without it being organized. There are some basic things that can be done to keep any home clutter-free and organized.

One of the things to remember is that the clutter didn't just happen in one afternoon. This means that it can take longer than one afternoon to get the entire house clutter-free. The house can become messy in less than an hour, but that is not the same as being cluttered. Clutter is when there are too many things and not enough space for those things.

It seems like we all like to have our "things." Problems begin to occur when we have too many of these "things" and they begin to drift into other parts of the house.

If you want your home to be de-cluttered fast there are two things that will help. The first is to enlist the help of friends or family that you know you can work with well. The second is to have and use some of the organizational tools and furniture that are available to help stay organized. These types of tools include storage boxes that go under beds, magazine files, and even bookcases. Just remember that too many containers or boxes can lead to visual clutter, even when the items are put away.

Start to de-clutter first; the organizing part will come later. With an empty box or container go through each room of the house and put anything that does not belong in that room into a box. Do not put the items away for now; just keep the items in the box.

Sometimes the house can be so cluttered it is hard to know where to begin. Don't spend a lot of time agonizing over what area to start with. Start with the room that has the least amount of clutter.

Make up your mind that you will be eliminating and getting rid of items that you have no use for. With that mindset you can tackle any room. With garbage bag in hand eliminate the stuff or "things" that you don't need, don't use, or have two or more of the same item.

After all the clutter has been removed it is time to begin to organize. Using some of the organizational tools and furniture that are available will help keep everything organized. Remember to have a place for everything and everything in its place. This also includes small things that are used every day. For example, if you have a place for your keys and you place the keys in that same spot every time you will know where to find them.

Remember the box that has all the items from other parts of the house? Take time now and put those items away into the right rooms.

The most important thing to remember after de-cluttering is that you must do a regular maintenance on your home. Plan on about 20 to 30 minutes once a week to get rid of all the stuff that you have gathered in the past week; the result of this will be a clutter-free house. This will make your house feel like a home.