From the Desk of Clearissa Coward’s Command Center – Divinely Organized
Seven Simple Habits to Keep Your Life Clutter-Free
If you are a Pinterest head or if you follow a lot of bloggers with the perfectly organized spaces like I do, then you have no doubt salivated over some of the perfect pantries and closets and thought that you could never have that. You have also found lots of websites offering to save you from your personal clutter and promising to miraculously provide you with a clutter-free life. And although a professional organizer, like myself, can come into your home or work with you remotely to help you declutter your life, you must also have the tools to maintain a clutter-free space.
I am a true believer that it is not the decluttering that is difficult but maintaining it is the hard part and organization is just as much mental and emotional as it is physical. So in this article, I challenge you to begin the process of decluttering your life slowly while taking the time to digest each step. I will provide you with five simple habits to keep your life clutter-free.
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How many times have you lost your keys, shoes or important papers because there is too much clutter in your home? Families everywhere are drowning in clutter that can cost time and money as well as cause frustration. Clearing the clutter from your home, and your life, will take some time and effort but the results will be well worth it.
Habits:
- Go through your home and make note of anything in your home that is out of place, items that are piling up or things that bother you. Start with what bothers you most and begin going through the items, getting rid of things you no longer need or want. The goal is to clear small areas, one at a time until you have cleaned the entire room. Go through each room until you have gotten rid of as much clutter as possible. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the thought of clearing out a whole room at one time, begin with a drawer and make a point of doing something in that for 3o-minutes each day until you complete that room before moving on to the next area.
- Create a cleaning and decluttering schedule. Include chores for each member of the family so one person does not have to do everything. If you work on cleaning a little bit each day, it will make keeping your home clean much easier.
- Rather than stacking mail and other papers all over the room, create a specific area to handle mail and pay bills. This could be a desk or a shelf with an inbox. Be sure to place a garbage can near your mail area so you can throw junk mail out as you go through the mail. Along with the inbox and garbage can, it would also be helpful to keep a family calendar in the area. When you see paperwork that has an appointment or important date, you can write the information directly into the calendar and toss the paper unless you need to return it.
- Place a coat rack or shelf with hooks and a basket or shelf for shoes, near the door you use most often. It is important to have everyone hang jackets and book bags and leave shoes here when they come into the home each day. By placing these items in the same place each day, your family will be less likely to lose thingsYou can use similar tactics to declutter your office or workspace. A clean work area can make your day more productive, which your boss will most likely appreciate. Develop a filing system so you can find important papers when you need them. I wrote a tutorial for a great filing system here.
- This habit is most important. You must learn to say “no”. Cut back on commitments. Part of having a cluttered life is having too many obligations each week. Families these days are busy – everyone is going in different directions with meetings, sports, band, volunteering or religious activities. Declutter your schedule by asking each person to give up all but one activity. This will reduce the amount of running and allow the family to eat together regularly and to spend more quality time together. Use that extra time wisely. Talk to each other, take walks, have a game night. Do thing that you can do together as a family that will connect you.
- Finally, if you are too overwhelmed with the amount of clutter in your life, give yourself permission to seek outside help. A professional organizer can recommend additional simple habits to keeping your life clutter free and will help you develop a routine that will work for your family. A good organizer will find a system that is created and tweaked to suit your personality and will help you introduce it into your lifestyle.
- I would love to hear from you if you try these suggestions.
Also, you can leave a message in the comments if you have further questions. I truly believe that if you trythese steps you will be on your way to an organized life.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy this one.
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Until next time…I remain in my Element!
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Really great points, Clearissa! I need to implement the cleaning schedule, otherwise I let blogging and everything else take over!
Hi Helen,
I understand. If I’m not careful, blogging can take over my entire life. I love it and so I don’t realize it when I am allowing it to devour my life. Sometimes hubs has to remind me that I’ve been in my office either crafting or blogging for almost an entire day. 🙂 So I totally understand. I have found that setting an alarm always helps me to stay on track.
Clutter and having an over-complicated life can be so frustrating! These are great ideas that I work on all the time. It takes diligence.
Love this list! It brings me such joy when I clean and organize my things, okay and everyone else’s things. Great post.
Hi Stacey, I couldn’t agree more. Living clutter-free is not a do it once and forget it sort of job. I am always conscious of what I bring into my space and how I am going to store it. Keep up the good work and keep in touch.
Hi Cindy and thank you. You and I must be related somewhere down the line because I get great joy from organizing mine and everybody else’s things as well. I can’t say it always brings my family joy, but it makes me happy. 🙂
Lots of good tips! Cutting back on commitments will probably be the hardest one to achieve. Shared on Fb, G+, Pn, and Tw ♥
Hi Dee. I agree. It is so difficult to let “no”. Become a complete sentence. 🙂 But I am working on it.
Great advice. I believe in the decluttering so much! Wish I could get my mother-in-law to listen. For one thing, I do not want my kids to ever have to deal with a house full of stuff to get rid of someday. Twice a year my husband and I get rid of things we do not use or need. It makes it easier to keep the house organized plus does some clearing out. It may not be a lot each time but I always feel better afterwards.
Hi Pamela,
Good for you and your hubs. I don’t want my child to be overwhelmed with stuff either. But clutter makes me nervous and stresses me out so I do a lot of it for selfish reasons. 🙂 I am happy you enjoyed and could relate to the article. 🙂
We are moving this year and I’ll be forced to declutter — wish we were moving closer to you. I do need to get organized. That is what I’m working on this year. I know it will be such a feeling of freedom.
Marisa, let me tell you, there is nothing like the feeling of know that all closets and drawers in your home are organized. That is my goal for this year. Closets, dresser drawers, kitchen drawers, storage spaces to include my shed. Keep your fingers crossed. I have 10 more months to get it all done. 🙂 Good luck with your move.
I am committed to decluttering my entire house and getting rid of things! I actually have to because we are retiring this summer and will be moving and downsizing! Thank you for your guidance in this area. I wish I could borrow you for about a month Clearissa!
Oh congratulations to you and your husband on your retirements. What an exciting time. And a great time to declutter as well. You can borrow me Teresa. I am here to help when and where I can. 🙂
Great tips! TFS!
Thank you Amy. It is my pleasure.
You are so right, Clearissa! The maintaining is the hard part!
Maintaining is definitely our biggest challenge. Recently, though, I’ve gotten better about purging before shopping, pressuring myself to get rid of something *before* purchasing a new one. This helps me decide if I really want the new item or what is already on hand. -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
Marci, the one in, one out method has worked great for me. I now think I getting hubs on board for that one. I do tend to stock up on canned goods and other items we use all the time, but I stick to only having as much as I have organized space for. Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Jean, Thank you for stopping by. Maintaining is hard but doable. Once you choose a system that is right for YOU, maintaining will become less stressful. Thank you for stopping by. 🙂
I’m committed to decluttering but what a process!
Hi Nancy and thank you. I am committed as well. 🙂