Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to clean out over-congested closets, downsize your family’s belongings and simplify all of the stuff in your home? As we wind down the first 30 days of the New Year are you feeling overwhelmed on where to start your de-cluttering mission and already feeling defeated from this never-ending home project? As stacks of your kids’ school projects continue to pile up and holiday gifts stay scattered throughout your house, don’t give up now on trying to accomplish a clean and neat home. Instead, clear the clutter one step and one day at a time with the following easy-to-execute home de-cluttering tips.
Tip One: Dedicate One Bag Per Week to Donate
To help manage the abundance of stuff that builds up throughout your home after the holidays, focus on one area of your home at a time to clean out and de-clutter. Whether it’s your children’s toy boxes, a hall closet or laundry room shelves, pick one thing at a time to organize and designate one trash bag or box per week to collect all of the items that are ready for donation. Your goal should be to fill at least one donation bag each week, as you really can only start organizing your home after you purge everything that is no longer used or needed in your household.
Tip Two: Adopt the One In, One Out Policy
To manage the influx of gifts and goods that are brought into your house throughout the year, it’s important to set up a “One In, One Out” policy for your household. For every new book, toy, stuffed animal or pair of shoes that comes into the door, one existing counterpart must be sent to the donation pile. This system helps eliminate the tendency for old toys, clothes and equipment to pile up in the corners around your home, yard and garage.
Tip Three: Tackle Your Pantry One Shelf at a Time
A large pantry can be a huge asset when it comes to the marketability of your home. But, when you are living in your home day-to-day, a pantry can quickly turn into overstuffed shelves stocked with everything from canned goods to screw drivers. To help manage the mayhem of an overflowing pantry, designate the space for kitchen-only items such as dry goods, seldom used appliances and paper goods. Label each shelf in your pantry with the items that belong there and add baskets or bins to collect small items. It also can be helpful and economical to organize food items by expiration dates so you use the oldest canned vegetables from the shelf first, minimizing the waste of expired goods.
Tip Four: Stick to Only What You Need
When items go on sale or you shop at discount warehouses like Costco or Sam’s Club, it can be really tempting to pick up five pounds of lettuce, a 100 pack of batteries or 24 pairs of athletic socks. At face value, you may really be getting a deal when buying in bulk. But, if you don’t have an organized place to store all of your items or you can’t possibly eat the amount of food you bought before it expires, you end up losing track of items like batteries in the junk drawer, throwing away half of the lettuce that wilts before it’s eaten and mix matching your socks while doing laundry. At the end of the day, it’s better for your bank account and your home’s state of organization to just stick with regular weekly shopping trips where you buy only what your family can consume in the shorter amount of time.
Tip Five: Start Dedicating Time Today a Clutter-Free Home
If your home is still in a state of despair after the holiday season has been long gone, it is time to start taking some organization action by cleansing your house of last year’s clutter. Today is the day to start making room for all of the new things you received and kicking off the New Year enjoying your living space once again. By breaking down your tasks into one step, one room and one week at a time, you can more easily manage your home de-cluttering project and start seeing progress a lot more quickly.
Keeping your home clutter-free going forward also can help minimize the stress down the road when you are ready to prepare your home for sale. When you’re ready to downsize into a downtown Denver condo or loft or upsize into a larger Suburban home to accommodate your growing family, give the Denver metro area real estate experts at New Era Group a call. We can help you find the perfect home with all of the storage and space you need to live a clutter-free and organized lifestyle.
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