How to Declutter Your Living Room

Your living room area is an important part of your house since it is the place that you turn to for relaxation when you arrive home from work.

Learn how to declutter your living room quickly to create a nice ambiance by applying the following tips.

The “Top to Bottom” Approach

Most people work their way cleaning and organizing items off the floor. Just for a bit of variety, let’s start with cleaning the top of your living room area.

Dust the Walls and Remove all those Cobwebs

Buy yourself an expandable cobweb duster to reach all those hard to reach areas in the corners and tops of your ceiling. Look for one with a long handle, or you can also buy one with a multi stage telepole.

If you have ceiling fans in your rooms, give them a good brush down with the cobweb duster.

You can also purchase special ceiling fan duster brushes that are specially designed to help you easily clean all sides of your fan blades.  The gentle bristles are designed to clean surfaces without damaging the paint.

Wipe down Appliances

Take the time to wipe down the surface of your appliances with a clean cloth or rag.

Your TV, stereo cabinet and other appliances in your living area will all need a good wipe down to clean off dust and remove fingerprints.

Use micro fibre cloth to clean your appliances, to avoid scratching appliance surfaces.

Clean Your Leather Furniture

If you have a leather lounge furniture, take the time to purchase a leather care kit, to ensure that you don’t damage the leather when cleaning.

Use a natural soap blend to avoid damage from harsh chemicals or that damages the color of your furniture.

Wipe Down the Window Sills

Window sills accumulate dust and dirt from outside. Give them a good clean when you set up about to declutter your home living area.

Clean Your Curtains or Blinds

Curtains and blinds are often neglected items when it comes time to declutter your living room. Take down your curtains and get them professionally cleaned. Blinds can be cleaned using a bucket of water and some detergent.

Clean your Lounge Suite

Remove your lounge cushions and give them a good shake outside. This will help to remove a lot of dust that has accumulated over the years in the crevices.

Remove Misplaced Items

Somehow items accumulate in our living area that don’t really belong. Items such as shoes, toys, laundry, paperwork come to mind.

Do a quick sweep across your living area to remove these unwanted items and return them to their correct locations. Return shoes to your shoe cupboard, toys back to the children’s play room, and paperwork returned to your study for filing.

Look around to see whether you have completed your chores for the day.

Make a note of any outstanding items for future sessions to declutter your home.

Declutter at All Levels

The top to bottom approach works well to effectively declutter your home, because it makes you focus to declutter and clean your living area at different levels.

Spend time to declutter your living area – it should be a haven in your clutter free home for some well deserved rest and recreation.


It’s Time to Clear Clutter in your Basement

Basements are a common area of your house which can easily fill up with junk and clutter over the years. Perhaps it’s high time to clear clutter in your basement to get rid of all that junk, and to create extra storage for other items.

Here are some useful decluttering tips to help clear clutter and organize your basement.

Review your Basement

Take a bird’s eye view of your basement. Look at all that junk – it’s probably stuff that has been accumulating for some months, or even for some years now.

Tackle your basement clearing a little at a time. If you have lots of stuff to clear, it may be a project that needs to be broken down into manageable chunks.

Clear a Large Area

The first step to get organized for your clutter clearing session is to clear a large area in your basement. This will be used as your area for sorting items, to decide whether to throw out or keep them.

Sort through Items – “Frequent” versus “Seasonal” Use

Sort your items into two categories: frequent use and seasonal use. For example, you might use your bike on a frequent basis each week, whilst Christmas ornaments and decorations are pulled out once a year during the festive season.

Use Appropriate Storage Methods

Store the less frequently used items in the upper areas of your basement. Whilst, items that are more frequently used should be kept within easy reach. Store them in easily accessible drawers of cabinets where they can be located easily. Take the time to label the drawers so that you are able to locate items easily at a moment’s glance.

Utilize Storage Space Efficiently

With certain items, you can save precious storage space by installing some hooks on the walls, for example to store your bikes, and large sporting gear items. Also try to keep the area organized by making use of stackable storage containers that are durable and long lasting.

Basement Storage Conditions

Moisture, dampness and mustiness are a few of the common problems that can occur in basements. Try not to store items that will attract these problems.

Use plastic storage containers which are water resistant to protect your items. Avoid using cupboard boxes which are not durable and are easily susceptible to water damage.

Plastic is also a better material to safeguard against mice, cockroaches and surprise visitors.

Install some Good Lighting

Ever had the experience of stumbling around in your basement trying to locate an item with poor lighting conditions?

If your basement is too dim, consider installing some good lighting in your basement. That way, the next time you visit your basement, you will be able to easily find what you are looking for.

Assuming that everything is well organized, off course!

Last but not least, your clutter clearing session will involve parting with some dearly beloved items. Do a good deed and try to find these items a good home.

Have fun with organizing your basement clutter.


Four Life Saving Decluttering Tips

Here are my four favorite decluttering tips that you can swear by to help keep clutter out of your life.

“Buy One, Throw Away Two”

Do you know of any friends and family who tell you regularly about their latest acquisition from the shopping mall?

You get the feeling they go shopping very frequently, usually with some sort of rationale that a sale was on, and that they just couldn’t resist picking up some great bargains to bring home.

Does this sound familiar?

By the time the year is up,they might easily have purchased a couple of hundred new items for their house.

A good rule to apply is that for at least every two items that you throw away or donate, then, only then, should you even consider buying any new items for your house.

Off course, it might be preferable not to bring home any new stuff at all if you are trying to clear clutter in your home!

Only If You Need It

The “Only If You Need It” rule can come in very handy whenever you go shopping.

When you go shopping, resist the urge to buy on impulse. Let things cool off for a day or even a week, before you make a purchasing decision.

This is especially useful for big ticket items where you could be out of pocket by a few hundred or a few thousand dollars.

If the urge is strong to buy “stuff” from the shops, and you really have a strong desire to purchase the item, then by all means, purchase the item.

Identifying “Needs” vs “Wants“

Another good tip to help reduce your consumption of items, and not bring home unnecessary clutter is to assess whether the item is a “need” or “want”.

Most items usually fall in the “want’ category. They are not essential items, but we just like to buy them.

“Need” items are items that are essential in nature. It would be difficult to do without them, as they are a necessary part of our daily lives.

Be Thankful for all Your Current Possessions

Rather than buying more stuff, be thankful for all the possessions that you currently own.

Look around your house. I think you will be surprised how many nice items you own.

Ask yourself whether you need to buy any more items to bring home.

A well organized and home is one that is clutter free.

Strive to take action to declutter a little at a time.

Staying organized is a way of life, and it takes time to develop good habits.

Get your free mini-course if you want to take action to declutter your home and get organized.

Just enter your first name and e-mail address in the form below, and we’ll email you your first lesson right now.



Five Good Reasons to Organize Your Closet

You can organize your closet easily and effectively, and most of us know how to.

But there are some complex underlying reasons why we don’t get around to reducing clutter in our homes.

I recommend trying to identify what these reasons might be that are holding you back from creating a well organized home.

Here are some of the top reasons I’ve come across which may reveal why you don’t have the time or inclination to organize your closet.

Emotional Clutter

We hang on to a lot of stuff based on our complex set of emotions and emotive reasoning. Each item in your closet will probably bring a fond memory or two to mind. You recall that fun day when you had a mad shopping spree with your girlfriend, and bought lots of great matching outfits. Or how about that lovely blouse that your friend from overseas gave you.

Learning to part with clothing items that no longer fit your requirements is healthy. You can still have fond memories about events and things, yet at the same time remove the clutter from your house.

Hidden Clutter

Hidden clutter consists of any items that are hidden away in your house. On the surface, these items may not appear to be clutter, but they still constitute clutter, because they are usually surplus to our requirements.

The clever “clutter bug” has their hoarding down to a fine art. They squirrel and hide away items anywhere they can, cupboards and closets are a couple of the popular choices. This means that items can be hoarded but are out of mind, and out of sight.

Till that big day looms when you decide to organize your closet, and discover all that hidden clutter.

Make Time and Save Time

Finding time to organize your closet can be an issue. There is no way out of this problem, but to be firm with yourself and allocate a specific time for this task. Make a date with yourself, and tackle it in manageable chunks. It shouldn’t take too long if you approach the task in a systematical fashion.

Once you organize your closet properly, it will save you a lot of time in the future, because you will always be able to find what you need quickly and easily.

Consider purchasing different closet organizing systems such as a simple hanging closet organizer or a customized solution to meet your storage requirements.

Decide to Simplify Your Life

In order to simplify your life, be decisive about what you want to keep in your closet, and what you wish to throw away. Unfortunately, there is no time for sitting on the fence here. There are only two choices to make about each clothing item in your closet. Either throw away or keep it.

Beat Procrastination

Indecision often leads to procrastination. If decision making becomes too difficult, you may decide to put the task in the “too hard” basket. And you will still be left with all that clutter in your closets.

So pick today as the day to take action to organize your closet.

It’s time to make time to organize your closet!

If you are ready to eliminate clutter from your life, check out my Ebook “Stop the Clutter Bug!” at the following link:

Stop Being a Clutter Bug! – Easy Tips to Declutter and Simplify Your Life


Four Favorite Clutter Clearing Tips

Baskets and Lids

Baskets and lids are a couple of my favorite items to help keep possessions organized. Visit your favorite organizing stores to purchase a few stack and storage baskets. These are absolute lifesavers for storing clothes, toys, and just about anything that you want to keep in a separate area. It will really do wonders to help keep your possessions under control.

Containers

In the kitchen, use pull out baskets or drawers to hold all your plastic lids and containers. This will help contain the mess in your cupboards and allow you to easily get to your containers. If you really like to be well organized, as you place the containers back into the cupboards, make sure that each container is put away with its corresponding lid. This will save you the trouble of battling through all that plastic ware when you are just looking for one container to keep leftovers from the night’s dinner.

Better still, try to reduce the overall number of containers stored in your kitchen cupboards. Plastic containers somehow have a bad habit of breeding in your kitchen cupboards. Reduce containers by throwing away any broken containers, and any without matching lids.

Plastic Bags with Zip Locks

Plastic zip lock bags are one of the best inventions, don’t you think? Store small items in one spot in a plastic zip lock bag to save you from hunting high and low for those little kitchen knick-knacks.

Store small items such as rubber bands and other little kitchen necessities in old bottles or containers, so that you can access them easily when working in your kitchen.

Labeling

Once you have your storage containers in place, label containers to make life easier when locating items. If every basket is clearly labeled, and every item is returned to its proper place, it will be much easier to locate things when you need them.

Help get the kids organized by getting them to label their own possessions. Make labeling a fun activity, they could even color and design their own labels. The kids should start at an early age to learn good life organization skills. Teach them how to label one container for their toys, another one for all their gadgets, and another one for all their books.

It’s time to reduce clutter in your home today.

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If you are ready to eliminate clutter from your life, check out my Ebook “Stop the Clutter Bug!” at the following link:

Stop Being a Clutter Bug! – Easy Tips to Declutter and Simplify Your Life


Declutter Your Home with these Easy Steps

Have you been procrastinating over tidying up your house?

If you have, it’s time to overcome procrastination and take action to declutter your home today. Many clutter bugs identify procrastination and lack of time as key reasons why they can’t attend to the task of organizing their home.

Here are some easy steps to follow that will help you to beat procrastination and organize your home in no time at all.

Acknowledge your Clutter Problem

Acknowledge that you have a problem with organizing your home and seek solutions. If need be, hire a professional organizer to help kickstart you into action.

Manage your Time Wisely

You only have so many hours in the day, and still less hours in the week to organize your home. So it is essential to apply some good time management techniques in order to manage your time effectively.

List your Home Organization Projects

List the projects that you are going to tackle, and estimate the amount of time that it will take to tackle each of the tasks for that specific home organization project.

It’s important to estimate the time that it will take to complete the project for task allocation purposes.

Don’t forget to apply the best home organization tips so that you can move forward to successfully complete various projects around the house.

Breakdown Projects into “Chunks”

Break each project down further into manageable chunks. For example, your project might be to clean the bathroom. The tasks that fall within this project may include cleaning the shower area, sweeping the bathroom floor, and cleaning out the medicine cabinet.

Earmark a few tasks to be done today, and identify a few more tasks for completion tomorrow.

Allocate Declutter Tasks

Allocate tasks based on your knowledge and experience of how long a task should take to complete. If you have a spare half hour during the day, select tasks from the list that you made earlier that can be easily completed within 30 minutes.

Avoid Project Creep

Don’t start a big project that will take several days unless you have the time to complete it. Project creep often happens as we begin a project. We start to think about all those “nice to have” things that we should do that are also relevant to the project.

Somehow your project scope gets bigger and bigger, with no hope of completion in sight. Define the tasks, and complete the tasks satisfactorily, before you set more tasks for yourself. It’s much more satisfying to complete projects one at a time, then to start several projects and leave them uncompleted.

Reward Yourself for Completed Projects

Reward yourself for each individual task that you manage to complete. You will soon see the fruits of your labor when your home is transformed from a messy state to a well organized one.

Isn’t it time you overcame procrastination to declutter your home?

If you are ready to eliminate clutter from your life, check out my Ebook “Stop the Clutter Bug!” at the following link:

Stop Being a Clutter Bug! – Easy Tips to Declutter and Simplify Your Life