It may not be time for spring cleaning yet, but getting started with cleaning up clutter could improve your overall emotional, physical, and mental well-being. The beginning of the year is actually the best time to start cleaning because it gives you a clear mental and physical space for 2017. If you’re ready to start cleaning up the clutter for the year, here are some easy tips to prepare your home. .
15 minute rule
It is important to take the time to clean up the clutter. Don’t think about wasting an entire day cleaning or spending hours in a room in your house. Instead, lock in 15-minute time slots to clean up and focus on accomplishing as much as you can in those time slots. You can do it 15 minutes an hour, 15 minutes a day, or 15 minutes a week. The most important thing is to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Start small
Trying to tackle everything and jump from room to room is a quick way to get frustrated and quit. Instead, start with a small space of your choice and work only in that space until it is complete. Don’t try to take on the whole house in one go.
Clutter-free zone
Once you’ve cleared a small area for yourself, designate it as the clutter-free zone. Whatever happens, don’t allow clutter to enter that space. This space can start as small as a corner of a room or as large as an entire floor of your home. As you clean, make your area larger and larger until your entire home is a clutter-free area.
Battery system
A great way to get organized is to sort your items into four piles: save, throw away, donate, and maybe. If you’re having trouble making decisions about which pile to put items in, you can use a maybe pile, but make sure at the end of the day everything in the maybe pile has been moved to keep, trash, or donate. Some useful things to consider when making decisions about what to drop are how functional the item is, how much storage space it is taking up, and why you want to keep it.
Eliminate clutter
If you are using the battery system, you will start to fill up the trash and donate batteries. Place these items in boxes or bags and once you fill a bag, immediately take it out of the house. Put it in the garbage container or take it to the donation center immediately. This will keep you from having self-doubt and checking and deleting things. If you keep reconsidering your decisions, you will end up organizing the same things multiple times.
Set goals
We often get discouraged while cleaning up the mess, especially if we’ve worked really hard and can’t see a noticeable difference, so it’s important to set small goals to feel a sense of accomplishment. Make sure you keep your goals manageable. For example, make cleaning a countertop a goal. This is usually something you can accomplish in one session, and by doing so, you will feel much more positive about cleaning the next day.
Hopefully, these tips will get you back on track for 2017. If you have a reasonable amount of clutter, your house should be clean in no time, but if you have more clutter than you can handle, you may need help. professional. .