Not sure how to declutter your home? I’m a home organiser who specialises in busy family spaces, and after 6 years of organising in 1000’s of chaotic homes, I see the same roadblocks over and over again.
Here are the most common pieces of advice I give my clients who want to declutter their homes, fast.
Your systems are too complicated
More often than not my clients are letting ‘perfect’ be the enemy of ‘good’. They want to achieve perfection and it’s getting in the way of just getting things done.
If they want to declutter and organise their homes fast, I advise them to use larger categories, lower their standards and use more simple systems.
You can’t turn chaos into perfection without taking some short cuts along the way. And if that means that you need to quit folding the kids clothes so you can actually get them away quickly, then that’s totally ok.
If the system is working, the system is working.
You (probably) have too much stuff
Almost every home we go into has the same problem; too much stuff.
Have you ever heard of a clutter threshold? It’s the specific, personal limit of belongings an individual can comfortably manage and keep organised in their space. Dana K White coined this term and I encourage you all to read her work, she speaks a lot of truth.
But basically, mess = more stuff than you can manage.
Don’t use your house as landfill
I understand that so many people are trying to keep things out of landfill, but the way you do that is to be super picky about what you consume and bring into your home.
Once it is clutter that no one wants, it’s already landfill, landfill that is cluttering up your home. Do yourself a favour and release it. Keeping it is not helping anyone or anything.
You can’t save the environment single handedly
Controversial, but if you didn’t catch a private jet to Vegas this weekend, you can forgive yourself for using resources that make your life easier.
You can allow yourself to use paper plates, or throw soft plastics in your red bin, or use a meal delivery service without guilt. I have had clients who save everything to be recycled from tea bag strings to bottle tops, all of it is preventing them from effectively decluttering their homes, all of it creating more work for them (just another things they’re failing *in their eyes*) and I’m here to say, if it’s not bringing you joy and if it’s making your home and life cluttered – it’s ok to grant yourself some peace and let it go.
Collecting tea bag strings to crochet possum houses is for retirement… or never.
Change can absolutely start at home but so many of my clients who are living in chaos hold huge amounts of eco-guilt and it’s not fair to feel that way when corporations aren’t taking responsibility.
Use the snowball strategy
Just like you wouldn’t pay down debt by constantly paying off one credit card with another, don’t destroy your progress by moving the mess around.
i.e make your bed in the morning and make that a habit. Then choose a new goal, like clearing the rest of your bedroom.
The next day, repeat those two steps before you move onto the next space. Always protect your progress when moving forward. You can read all about my clutter snowball strategy here.
Double handling is the enemy – One touch rule
Try to avoid making doom piles around your home by using the one touch rule.
If you read a school note, put it straight into your diary, if you get an invite, RSVP on the spot.
If you need to put something away, don’t just put it in the general direction while that’s in your hand and head, deal with it then.
You don’t have time to deal with the same thing or thought more than once.
Tidy people prevent mess
Spend your whole life cleaning but your house is a mess?
It’s probably because you are chasing instead of preventing.
In most tidy homes, the kids eat at the table, the toys are minimised or packed away rather than accessible to kids.
Shoes are taken off at the door, clutter is left at the shops and glitter is banned. When my house was a mess, I did SO much housework.
You need to focus on putting the fence at the top of the cliff, rather than the ambulance at the bottom.
Store it at the store to declutter your life and your home
Most people don’t need to use their homes as a stock room.
So, instead of having multiple of everything and not knowing where to put it all, just store it at the store.
With the exception of medical supplies, we usually don’t need things instantly and running out is ok.
This can be hard for people who have experiences food insecurity and other adverse experiences but having a tidy home takes trust. Trust that if you need something, you’ll be able to get it at that time.
The amount of nappy boxes, paper towels, tea etc. that I find in my client’s homes is truely remarkable.
Declare bankruptcy on clutter
You can absolutely be someone who has all matching containers in their cupboard, but you’re going to have to chuck out your old ones for that to happen.
You can have one beautiful roll of wrapping paper rather than the piles of used gift bags, but you’re going to have to actually chuck things in the bin.
You can have all matching socks, undies, plates and cleaning products, but to achieve that, you’re going to need to get rid of the rest.
Consider this the permission you need to declare bankruptcy on your wrapping paper collection today.
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