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Posts Tagged ‘home decluttering’

An Immaculate Home for the New, Minimalist You

Friday, November 10th, 2017

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Decluttering one’s home is most homeowner’s wish. The problem is, when it comes down to actually doing the task, many just simply give up. While decluttering isn’t easy, it is easy to accumulate so many stuff in life. You justify this by saying that these things are your collections and that they even make you happy. Remember, though, that true happiness is never dependent on materials things.

So, why should you declutter?

Clutter Equals Stress

It is not an imaginary thing – clutter can cause stress. Cortisol (the stress hormone) is often associated with a high volume of household stuff. This means that the more material things remain cluttered in your home, the more stress you tend to experience.

Messy homes are even seen as places of failure.

Stress is also attributed to other conditions such as overeating and weight gain. Some people feel more tired when they see a lot of clutter in their home. And haven’t you noticed how difficult it is to focus or even to process information when you are in a cluttered environment?

Decluttering in a Nutshell

First, dare yourself to live only with the things that you need. A lot of stuff even in a spacious home could easily look like a hobo’s haven. If you can, stick to the basics such as a comfy couch, a bookshelf, an end table, and a beautiful center or coffee table.

Always be focused on cleaning up. You don’t have to begin piles of magazines. You can just clip the articles that you want then have the rest thrown to be recycled.

Categorize your possessions. This is an effective way to sort through your stuff. Begin with your clothing, then carefully check your jewelry, bags, shoes, books, electronics, and so forth.

Discard any of the items that you have not used for over six months. If there are items that you keep for posterity’s sake or for sentimental reasons, then at least store them properly so they won’t visually clutter the rooms of your home.

Give away the things that you no longer need.

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The Decluttering Don’ts

If the professional fees of organizing professionals make you dizzy, then it’s time to DIY. But if you have to do this on your own, make sure that you’re not going to do these mistakes –

  • Do not buy boxes before you clean up. Sure, you may feel excited by the idea of buying storage boxes, bins, and baskets but they may not be used once you sort through most of your stuff. Also, be sure to measure the spaces where these bins are going to be stored in. It would be tragic to turn these storage pieces into clutter.
  • Don’t tackle the project in just one day. An entire day of cleanup is not the way to do it. Few people have ample energy to do cleanups lasting for eight hours. You could feel frustrated when your day does not go the way you envisioned it to be. To prevent this burnout experience, it is best to clean up a few hours each day.
  • Do not finish each task even when you’re already tired. Remember that you need to categorize your stuff so take your time. Arrange the items that you are going to give away and the stuff that you will recycle or sell.
  • Do not think that you’re a failure. There are many homeowners that even spent an entire month just to finish their decluttering process. Give yourself ample time to declutter, too. Embracing a tidier, minimalist space is not an easy decision to make so just take it one day at a time.

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No Space for Hoarding – 4 Decluttering Tips to Commit to Memory

Wednesday, February 15th, 2017

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Some people have admitted to hoarding; some keep denying their obsession. Hoarding is characterized by someone having a hard time parting with possessions. Such a behavior can have a harmful effect on the physical, emotional, financial and social life of the sufferer.

Well, we’re not here to discuss about a psychological disorder, this is not the site for that. You also won’t read about symptoms leading to hoarding. Let’s just discuss how you can keep your home clean and clear from stuff that you don’t really need.

The basic guidelines include the following –

Under Two Years

The guideline to not becoming a hoarder is to let go of things that don’t have any sentimental value to you. Or, if you have not used the item for more than two years, then you know that it’s really time to let it go.

At times, these items could not mean anything at all. It might be as ordinary as empty butter containers in your cupboard. These may have been intended, originally, to become storage containers but they just ended up taking space. If this is the case, then it’s time to throw them away. Allow other people to recycle them and turn them into something more useful.

Minimalist Clothing

What about those clothes that you have kept for a long time?

Clean up your wardrobe by, first, removing all your clothes from the closet. Do you see any empty hangers? Set them aside then start sorting your stuff into three boxes – keep, donate or trash. Take a careful look at your keep box. Take a second time to sort through it again. You will observe that there is more clothing there that can be classified under the donate box.

Take out the box that’s labeled trash.

Keep Photographs and Sentiments

Of course, there are a lot of items that were given to you by your loved ones. This does not mean that you should flood your home with items that you no longer use. If these items are sentimental to you, then have them displayed. If the collection has been hidden all the while inside the cupboard, then it was time for it to go a long time ago.

Don’t fear the feeling of letting go. This is letting go of your kids’ clothes when they’re already adults. The secret to having a clutter-free home is to admit that you need to let go of some stuff. You can take photographs of these sentimental items instead and have them kept in an organized container.

Recognize Commonly Hoarded Items

It is also important to recognize the items that are commonly hoarded. These are papers (especially old newspapers), clothing, plastic bags, car parts, tools, bolts, nuts, screws, electronic equipment, and building materials.

Old furniture should also be discarded and replaced with sturdier ones.

As soon as you identify your hoarded stuff, then it’s time to declutter. Find them one by one then label every single one of them. Create homes for these items and ensure that they are always returned to their rightful places.

Horizontal surfaces must be kept clean at all times. Remember that flat surfaces can easily gather dust. Keep your paper files to a bare minimum. In your kitchen, be sure to label pantry items in order to save time in finding ingredients.

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Decluttering Takes Time

Admit to yourself that you have to begin slowly. Don’t go through all your stuff in one day then have a mound of them dumped the following day. Doing so could lead to negative feelings such as anxiety and regret. Instead, go through one small space or collection at a time.

Keep yourself from saying, “I’ll put this aside for now”. Get things done and do them now. Don’t trick yourself. In place of this, you can try framing only the best item or two from your collection. You can then consign, recycle or donate the rest of the pieces.

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Your New Year’s Resolution – Clutter Busting!

Tuesday, January 24th, 2017

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Home organization is, ironically, such a mess. This is especially true when you don’t know where and how to begin. So if it’s your New Year’s resolution to create a semblance of order in your home, then you should consider learning these tips –

Establish a Schedule

Maintaining a schedule is crucial in home organization. As you consistently organize and clean up during the same days, you would avoid the headaches that come with accumulated dirt and dust.

This is your effort to stay on track so you have to set the days on your calendar when you will declutter. A lot of people focus on bathrooms, kitchens and other common areas of their homes that they end up ignoring the home office.

Paper Clutter No More

It is so easy for paper to accumulate in a home office so whether your paper clutter consists of receipts, mails, magazines or business cards, you have to have a solution for every kind of clutter.

As you receive copies of your magazine subscriptions but you end up reading them on your tablet anyway, then you might as well cancel your subscription and move on to digital subscription.

Throw your mails in the junk as you sort them and consider each one that’s not needful. To cut down on receipt clutter, use an app to scan then manage your numerous receipts. Receipts by Wave is one such app.

Well-Used Wall

If you’re a little short on cupboard space, it’s time to get your stuff out in the open. Go ahead and display the dishes on a chalkboard wall. This dark background will allow you to indicate a place for every item. The added benefit is that you even encourage others to keep their stuff right where they belong. If you’re artistic enough, go ahead and draw shapes; if you’re more of a poet, write poems, and if you’re more of a writer, then go ahead and concoct words that inspire.

The Unique Tub

What better place is there to congregate clutter than at the entry? So get a galvanized tub, put some discreet compartments using foam cores and you’ve just created the best cylinder for keys, mittens, hats, caps, gloves, bug spray, and just about anything that you can add in there.

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The Correct Nightstand Setup

The bedroom is a place of rest so to have it look cluttered just defeats this very purpose. It’s time to turn that messy nightstand into something more organized. Create compartments within the nightstand’s drawers so you can place your reading glasses, some novels, the remote control, cell phone, etc.

Toy Tagging

Children’s play stuff are a common clutter inside homes. Yet homes can actually still look pristine even without curtailing your kids’ play time. Stock your shelves with tagged toys or label the containers with photos of the toy that is placed inside. When you want to update, just swap the photo of Buzz Lightyear with that of Bumblebee.

Don’t Forget Electronic Clutter

The electronic clutter that you have on your computer shouldn’t be treated differently from paper clutter. You should also sort the files especially the ones on your desktop. Know that people who are organized with their electronic files tend to be orderly in their home office.

An example of an organizing tool that you can use is Evernote. This is an app that will help you remember the big and small things on your tablet, phone or computer. You can also organize recipes using the Evernote Food app. Here, you can also record the places where you have dined at.

Conclusion

Organization requires discipline so you have to commit to your New Year’s resolution. If you want your home to declutter and remain decluttered, then you have to have a resolve to make your home stay immaculate – there’s simply no other way.

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Say Byebye to Waste

Monday, May 9th, 2016

 

The American Leather Living Room Meyer-Sectional invokes clean living with its clean lines and simplicity.

The American Leather Living Room Meyer-Sectional invokes clean living with its clean lines and simplicity.

 

Starting anew whether your family is moving or remodeling is a huge undertaking. Expect mess everywhere but once you’ve settled, you should make minimal to zero waste as your home’s new goal. Of course, an endeavor of such magnitude does sound too good to be true, indeed, it is an ambitious take on life. Through persistence, though, your entire home can have a low-consumption kind of living.

Here are some tips that can help you reduce waste in your home –

Bulk Buying

Carryout containers and packaged foods are a huge source of non-recyclable plastic garbage. Just think about those wrappers, chip bags, cartons, and trays – every little one of such packages are made or mixed with plastics which are disposed in landfills.

Cooking at home is a great solution as is eating fresh produce. Purchase vegetables and fruits, and buying other stuff in bulk will help you veer away from those small plastic containers and packages. Buying fresh helps you cut your salt, preservative and artificial dye consumption.

A lot of cosmetic brands also sell their products in bulk in many health stores. Seek such discounts to eliminate the use of plastic in your home. Simplify also the use of cleaning supplies so that you will have a significant reduction of plastic spray bottle garbage.

Be a Neat Freak

Okay, that’s going a tad overboard but reducing the amount of surface where garbage may accumulate could also minimize the amount of garbage and clutter in your home. To effectively implement this, make sure that you have cabinets and other storage units where you will place only the needful stuff.

Don’t collect things that you don’t need. Keeping stuff for sentimental reasons is modified hoarding. Take a picture of that thing which you hold dear then let go. You can also donate unused stuff on a regular basis. Have a giveaway box set up in the attic or basement. Collecting stuff that you don’t use everyday ends up as a pile of garbage inside drawers and closets.

If giving your stuff away is not your style, then find ways that you can sell some of your things. You can even make more money this way.

Shop for Need

Don’t shop. Period.

More often than not, people shop even when they don’t have a need to. If you will be fully honest with yourself, most of your purchases are unnecessary, right?

Shopping for leisure presents the danger of accumulating stuff that you don’t really need. So, yeah, there’s no need to buy that cute outfit just because it matches your Prada bag. Have your house thank you for owning less stuff.

Look for furniture that can maximize the use of space in your home. This Hooker Furniture Living Room Lift Top Floral Cocktail Trunk doubles as decorative furniture at the foot of your bed while storing some of your stuff.

Look for furniture that can maximize the use of space in your home. This Hooker Furniture Living Room Lift Top Floral Cocktail Trunk doubles as decorative furniture at the foot of your bed while storing some of your stuff.

Clean Up

Hold a general cleaning activity on weekends. Make it a fun activity where family members chat and laugh during the cleanup. Have some lemonade and brownies to pep everyone up.

Let go also of the just in case attitude where you keep things, well, just in case you’d need them. If you truly assess all the stuff that you are currently keeping, you would be surprised how many have just been stored for many years.

If you are unsure about giving away or selling some of your stuff, then place them inside a plastic container. Should months pass and that plastic still remains intact, then you’d know by then that it’s time to let go.

Another way of cleaning up your home is to acquire a new perspective in life. Try visiting a homeless shelter and spend some time with someone who has been deprived of the blessings that you take for granted. Doing this will make you realize that having less is actually more; you will then be ready to let go of things that don’t really matter.

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