Decluttering: Methods to Organise and Clean Up Your Home
We’ve all had that sinking feeling of knowing what we need to do but not knowing how to go about doing it. I am referring to the act of decluttering the home to create a more harmonious, balanced, and less stressful living space. During this psychological impasse, the weeks and months just seem to roll on by and those awkward feelings just don’t seem to ease, instead they just get worse!
Over time, with heavy work schedules and busy lives, including managing day-to-day family life, the home becomes the perfect place to accumulate clutter. Your once neat and tidy cupboards and drawers become untidy and overflowing with clothes and other items that no longer have a place. The hallway, bannister, and staircase become places where everything from shoes, trainers, coats, and everything miscellaneous is dumped. Kitchen tops become the place to hoard a range of items that don’t belong there. What’s frustrating about this build-up is that nobody can find anything they’re looking for anymore, and this creates even more stress in an already busy and demanding household.
THE OBSTACLES THAT GET IN THE WAY OF DECLUTTERING THE HOME
TIME
Sometimes it’s the lack of or perceived lack of time available that will prevent you from scheduling this important task into your diary. This may serve as a convenient reason for you to just ignore the task and push it further into the long grass, or it could genuinely be a time issue. Whatever the reason, it’s worth committing to a diary date to get the job done to reap the benefits of a well-organised home.
MINDSET
Getting yourself into the right headspace is essential to carry out the task of decluttering your home. A positive mindset will keep you going and it will also maintain your motivation levels throughout the task.
LIMITED PHYSICAL SPACE
The more you hoard and build up clutter, the less living space you’ll have within your home. It’s that simple! With this in mind; and as a thought to motivate you, the more clutter you remove and reorganise, the bigger living space there will be for you and all who live in your home!
NOT KNOWING WHERE TO START
The task of decluttering your home can seem overwhelming but it can have a range of benefits. It can reduce anxiety levels which in turn can improve overall mental health and general mood. It can also free up more living space for all to enjoy thus improving quality of life.
Understanding how to go about organising your home is, therefore, key to achieving your objectives and goals.
METHODS OF DECLUTTERING
There is a vast range of self-help articles on the topic of decluttering and organising your home out there to access and read that are both interesting and helpful to get you started. We recommend choosing a method that suits you and one that is compatible with your lifestyle in order for it to be successful!
We have listed below some popular methods of decluttering and offer our view on each.
THE KONDO DECLUTTERING METHOD
This method essentially focuses on only keeping household items that are important to you and ones you have an emotional attachment to. Other items get put into different piles.
To begin with, items are gathered into piles and then you are invited to think about which items you couldn’t do without. The items you wish to keep remain in your home while the other items you have no connection with are thrown away. This process of selection is continued throughout the home, going from room to room. The objective of this exercise is to be left with items that are relevant to you in a meaningful way and reflect your personality and lifestyle.
OUR VIEW
This orthodox method of decluttering a home has strict rules with no wriggle room. The rules are one size fits all with no room for flexibility. Household items are either important, bearing a special connection or emotional attachment with the owner, or they don’t! This approach may work for some, however, it may just be too rigid for others as it doesn’t take into account differing values, lifestyles, and even budgets.
THE TWENTY MINUTE METHOD
This method promotes the notion of dedicating at least 20 minutes, each day, per session, to organising your home. When defined areas of work are planned out, the less likely it is that you will become overwhelmed by the larger task at hand.
Using this method and starting on bite-size, small areas at a time, the task of decluttering begins and ends within a 20-minute designated time frame. After this time has passed, it’s time to evaluate your progress. After each session, your confidence should be boosted, which should provide an incentive to keep up the good work. This process is repeated daily until a desired outcome is reached.
OUR VIEW
This method is great for relatively small areas of the home you wish to organise. It is also a lot less rigid than the rules governing the Kondo method. Its flexibility means that you don’t have to stop working when you reach 20 minutes. If you want to continue for another 20 minutes then you can, that’s up to you, as this method doesn’t place restrictions on your time nor does it thwart your enthusiasm or motivation to continue with the task. This method tends to work best on small, defined areas, however, some might benefit from having more time and scope when tackling larger areas.
THE 12-12-12 DECLUTTERING METHOD.
This is a quick-fire method of decluttering your home that can get you hooked and can also be very satisfying to do. It doesn’t promote sentimentality, emotional attachment, or any hang-ups towards any particular items you own in the home. It’s about locating and then choosing 12 items to discard and place in the dustbin, 12 items to donate to charity, and 12 items to keep hold of and place back into the home setting in their correct place.
OUR VIEW
This method is fun to do with the whole family, but you need to know what you are doing as the last thing you would want is for the different piles of items to get mixed up. Disagreements and differing opinions may make deciding on what items should go in which piles, more of a challenge. The trick to using this method is not to get distracted or sidetracked whilst moving through different rooms.
When done well, this method can leave the home relatively clutter-free with items placed back in their correct place, unwanted items thrown away, and other unwanted items donated to charity.
THE NINETY NINETY DECLUTTERING METHOD
This method was invented by Joshua Millburn and Nicodemus. It is underpinned by a minimalist objective that promotes only keeping items you have either used or will use within a ninety-day time frame. This method leaves little room for sentimentality, to the contrary, it is a ruthless, not for the faint-hearted, approach to all you own in your home. This approach will ensure that you’re left only with the things you need.
OUR VIEW
This method is a gutsy approach to decluttering the home, taking no items as prisoners. Decisions about whether to keep or bin household items are based on whether you have used or are going to use an item within a ninety-day time frame. For some this method is appropriate but for others, it is simply too ruthless.
THE FOUR BOX METHOD OF DECLUTTERING
This method is perhaps one of the easiest to work with. It requires that you source four big boxes that need to be labelled. For example, you are likely to use labels entitled: RUBBISH, DONATE, KEEP, and STORE. It’s not important what names you allocate each box as the concept remains simple and to the point. This method is free of any time restrictions, and so to this extent, it is a more relaxed and less rigid approach to decluttering. But for this method to work and to be a success, the mindset is all important. It’s crucial to remain focused and on point and to keep your mind on the overall objective, with the goal being to achieve a well-organised and efficient home.
OUR VIEW
This method is a great way to get you motivated to tackle the task of decluttering your home. It offers a simple, non-ridged, and unlimited timescale to achieve your aims and goals. For some, this popular, tried and tested method, works very well. However, as this method has no timescale attached to it, the results may take a long time to achieve.
We hope you find this contact on decluttering and organising your home interesting, useful and helpful! Pressed not Stressed provides a one- stop range of services to tackle all your Laundry, Ironing and Cleaning needs.
