Effortless Ways to Keep Your Home Clutter-Free

Today's guest post is by Emma Hamilton on keeping your home clutter free!

Maintaining a neat, cozy and well-organized living environment is one of the first steps towards a stress-free, healthier lifestyle. According to Dr. Charisse Ward, clutter is among the top-five culprits causing stress, which has a negative impact on one's mindset and greatly reduces their creativity and productivity. Many people share the common misconception clutter is just physical stuff. This couldn't be further from the truth. Clutter represents all those old ideas, intentions, bad habits and relationships, we find it difficult to let go of. Follow our advice and take some measures to de-clutter your living space right away. Here are a few helpful tips to get you started. 

Learn to Let Go

This is the first step towards a clutter-free lifestyle. We all have items in our lives that we feel emotionally attached to, despite the fact they no longer serve their purpose. The truth of the matter is sentimental clutter is the worst kind to dispose of. If you don't feel ready yet to throw away certain items, you can start by removing them from plain sight. Place the articles in boxes, label their contents and stash them in your garage. Soon your emotional attachment will wane off and you will be able to dispose of the stuff without feeling guilty about it.

Clean up Systematically

Carpet Cleaning West London guarantees it is better to take ten minutes each day to collect dirty laundry and toys from the floor than spend your entire weekend, cleaning up the mess that has accumulated throughout the week. Another option is to use the same amount of time each day to purge or arrange the items in different areas of your living space. For instance, on Monday you can arrange the items in your desk drawers, on Tuesday - arrange the clothes in your closet and so on. At the end of the week, you will be left with a neat home and plenty of time to enjoy various recreational activities that don't involve cleaning. Sounds good, doesn't it?


Optimize Storage Space

Optimizing storage space is an absolute must if you insist on living in a cozy, clutter-free home. To free some space on the floor, for example, you can arrange some of the items you possess in boxes and store them vertically, one on top of the other. You can stick labels with the boxes' content to avoid rummaging at random. The same applies to shelves and drawers – place seasonal items you resort to on rare occasions on the highest shelves, while those, you use on a regular basis should be placed in drawers or shelves that can be reached easily.

Contain Clutter by Using Trays or Bowls

This is an excellent idea, especially for teenage girls as they are the ones in possession of a vast range of hair accessories and make-up articles. These often end up on top of the girls' desks, mingled with other items like keys, cell phones etc. Use an old tray to store your rubber bands and hair pins in. Arrange your eye shades, lip glosses and eye-liners in a small box. The same is applicable for jewelry – if you, like me, experience difficulties in counting the pairs of earrings you possess, you can craft a small stand to hang the pieces of jewelry on. This will allow you to quickly find exactly what you are looking for.

Slow Down on Your Purchases

You will never manage to contain clutter if you keep buying new stuff each and every week. Before you make yet another online purchase, take the time to consider whether or not you really do need this particular t-shirt, for example. If the answer is no, don't bother wasting your money, the tee would most likely end up stuffed in a corner of your closet or under your bed. Each time you buy a new piece of clothing or jewelry, throw one of the old pieces away. This, however, doesn't mean you should resort to disposing of items just so you can buy new ones. If you have enough clothes that are good to wear, why waste your money on buying more in the first place? 

As you can see, containing clutter in your living space is not necessarily a easy task. It takes little time and efforts as long as you manage to successfully incorporate it in your daily schedule. This will not only make your life easier, but will leave you plenty of time to enjoy more pleasant activities, like going out for a walk in the park or spending your Sundays, curled up on your clutter-free couch with a good book in hand.


Emma Hamilton works in a small company in London. She often writes for different blogs on organizing and cleaning topics.