Tips to Keep Your Home Clutter Free

Clutter is perhaps one of the worst "enemies" we have at home. We leave one thing here, another thing there and pretty soon, we've cluttered every inch of space we have. If you want to fight clutter, first you'll have to change some attitudes you have - why do you clutter? Are you too busy to pick up after yourself? Or perhaps you just don't have a place for your things. If it's the second reason, than you can easily remedy this by making a few simple changes.

Get Rid of Excess

First thing's first, if you can't find a place for your stuff because you've got too much of it, then it's time to minimize. Get rid of the things that you don't need. Do a sweep around the house and get rid of all the excess. Put everything in piles - one to keep, one to throw and one to give away or sell. Be ruthless. If you haven't used something in a year, then get rid of it. If you have broken items that you want to get around to fixing "some day" then chances are you'll never get to it anytime soon (or at all.) If you could do with it taking up space around the house and not working, then you could do without it.

Everything In Its Place

If you have a place for everything and make it simple for you to put it there, then you can easily train yourself to become clutter-free. Every single thing should have its place - use your drawers, cabinets and shelves. Get some tabletop organizers for mails, keys, even gadgets so you don't just leave them on any surface.

Keep the items you use the most accessible to you, so you wont' be tempted to leave them on tables or counters "just in case."

Maintain It

Many people have a cleaning schedule, once a week or once a month. However, so many things can interrupt our schedule and we may forget to clean until it's to late. The trick is to just straighten up a little everyday. It doesn't have to take the entire day. Just clean up after yourself as you go along. After you do laundry, put away the laundry baskets and the detergents. If you drop some used dryer sheets, don't wait until your cleaning day to pick it up and throw it in the trash.

Maintaining your clutter free home doesn't just mean cleaning up after yourself or moving stuff around, but it's also changing the behaviors that lead you to clutter in the first place. Stop buying things you don't need. If you can't use it immediately, then don't buy it and fix things if you can instead of buying something new. Follow the "one in, one out" rule. If you buy one new thing, then you should get rid of something else to balance it out.