Home Organization Tips

3 Ways to De-clutter Your Home

These home organization tips are practical steps anyone can follow to immediately increase the order in their household. You may not even be aware of the subtle effects a disorganized house can have on your lifestyle, but once you’ve got things in order you’ll notice an immediate difference in how quickly you get things done, how little time you waste searching for things, and your overall feeling of self-esteem that stems from taking pride in your home.

Tip #1: Stop the Hoarding Habit

Most of us have done it at some point – some are worse than others. You hold on to little trinkets that remind you of some obscure event in the past. Some people even have every little notebook from high school still stashed away somewhere in their garage or house. The first step in organizing your house is to eliminate the unnecessary. Don’t waste your time organizing things you shouldn’t even be keeping in the first place – learn to cut the cord when it comes to old junk. This one thing will make the rest of the job ten times easier.

Tip #2: Designate a “Right Place” for Everything

Disorganized people like to make their bad habits sound rational by saying things like, “When I leave things lying around, I know where they are.” These are the same people who get annoyed when a tidy person puts their things away in a sensible place. Perhaps you’ve been like this in the past.

Of course, this sense of “knowing where things are” is a total illusion. It might work for the cell phone you had in your hand five minutes ago, but what about when it comes time to dig out a photo album you haven’t seen in six months?

This is why every item in your house should have its own space, and it should be put back there when it’s not being used.

Tip #3: Keep Personal Objects in Personal Rooms

This is closely tied to Tip 2, but worth elaborating on. Part of the reason a home becomes messy in the first place is because people leave things lying around in the wrong place. The reason this is such a problem is because often personal property gets left in communal areas, such as the living room.

The living room should be a place for property used by the whole family – and nothing else. Institute a rule that any personal objects must not be left lying around communal spaces like the kitchen, living room or bathrooms, unless there is a proper place for them in those rooms. Got kids who are forgetful, or deliberately keep breaking the rules? Give them a few warnings, and then play hardball. If something gets left somewhere it shouldn’t be, it goes into a locked storage box for a day, a week, or a month. Forgetful kids will suddenly develop very good memories when you bring in a rule like this.