As a professional cleaning company, we advise our clients to clear their homes of clutter before we even arrive. Easier said than done, right? With our hectic lives and schedules, managing clutter can seem like an overwhelming task and many people do not know where to begin.
Here are 9 things you can do daily, weekly and monthly to get control of your clutter—instead of the clutter controlling you:
Daily
Do a 30-Minute Clean
Every day, take 30-minutes to get one small part of your home—like a junk drawer or the hallway closet– in order. Go through items quickly keeping things that you “always use”, storing things that are “used for special occasions” and getting rid of anything you “haven’t used in 6-months.” You will be amazed at the difference you can make in just 30-minutes each day.
Sort Your Mail by the Recycling Bin
As soon as you get your mail, head over to the recycling bin and immediately discard any unwanted junk mail and fliers. This will keep those items from piling up on your kitchen table.
Create a “Catch All” Bin
At the end of each day, go through every room in your home and put any item that is out of place—such as the TV remote control that has found its way to the kitchen counter—in a stylish, “catch all” basket (we love this one made of sustainable materials from Land of Nod). As you move from room to room, you can put items back in their rightful places.
Weekly
Donate Items
Designate a box or basket for donations and keep it in a central location that is easily accessible to all family members. Throughout the week, whenever you run across clothing, sports equipment, toys or household items you do not need, place it in the donation box with the goal of donating at least 10 items per week to your local non-profit agency.
Go Electronic
Use your tech tools to keep papers off of your desk and tables. Once a week, organize business cards and addresses into an online contact list, put appointments and events in an online calendar system (use a Google calendar to share with all family members), save hard copies of documents to an external hard drive and scan kid art projects to be saved to their own online art gallery (just create a folder in DropBox & share with family members).
Binder It
Create a 3-ring binder for each family member as well as one for bills and recipes. As soon as loose paper comes into the home, punch holes in the side and place it in the proper binder. Go through binders weekly and take out those papers that need to be acted on that particular week. Put recipes in clear report covers before placing into binders—this will keep food from getting on the pages.
Monthly
Swap Your Books
All those paperback books you still have sitting in boxes in your storage space? Swap them. Head to paperbackswap.com and list the books you would be willing to swap. Once a book is requested, you simply mail it to the club member. In return, you can choose from more than 4 million available books to be mailed to you as well.
Expire Your Expiration Dates
One day each month, go through medications, cleaning supplies, cosmetics and food in the fridge to get rid of anything that has gone beyond its expiration date. This keeps your areas clutter free and healthy—there is nothing worse than having expired medicine or food in your home.
De-Clutter Your Tech
Clean out your email boxes on all your devices, unsubscribe to electronic newsletters you no longer read (head to unroll.me), organize your external hard drive and delete items you no longer need.
Talk to us: What tips do you have for managing the clutter in your home?
image courtesy of flickr/BY CC 2.0