Decluttering your home: quick and easy tips to follow right away

Do you dream of a more organized home?

Do you wish you could zip through your home and quickly tidy up?

Once you get your home organized and set up a system, it takes 15 minutes or less to decluttering your home.

Would you like that?

Why not give these top tips to decluttering your home a try. Grab a java, put on your favorite tunes and set the timer.
You will not need much time to quickly declutter your home if you follow these simple tips.

Living Room: The top of your coffee table should be 75% clear. Clear off and recycle the old newspapers and magazines. Put any unopened mail in a “to do” basket or file. Clear off anything else that is not related to the living room or to the coffee table.

Save only the last 2 issues of magazines. If you must keep an article from a magazine, tear it out and file it. Better yet, can you find that information on Google when you need it?

Keep all remotes in one basket or decorative box.

Ottomans not only act as great storage they are comfy to sit on. I like the look of a tray on top of the ottoman. This acts as a surface to put your drinks and snacks on.

Downsize the number of area rugs you have. This can make your home look smaller and cluttered. Not to mention the amount of dust that can accumulate in them.

Be mindful of your bookshelves. Are the books falling off the shelf? Are they crammed in there so tight you cannot get them out even if you did want to re-read them? Did you know that most people do not re-read their books even though they have the best of intentions to? Keep at least 10% of each book shelf bare. Have no more than 3 non-book items on any given shelf. For example a glass vase that you got on one of your vacations or as a wedding gift.

Displaying photos in similar frames is a more cohesive look. It helps to keep your eye on the photo not on the frame.

Have a place at your front entrance for shoes. Nothing looks decluttered more than a pile of shoes. It is the first thing you see when you walk in your home. It can be a trip zone as well.

Kids Zone: Keep kids toys in baskets. Keep to the same size, shape and colour of baskets. One basket can be for all red toys or cars. One basket can be for all blue toys or dolls, etc. This helps with clean up as it is easy to ask your child to take a basket and go pick up all their red toys for example.

decluttering your home

Install pantry sliders helps to keep your kitchen organized.

Kitchen: Keep no more than 10-12 plastic storage containers in your kitchen drawer or cupboard. If you eat yogurt you are always bringing more plastic containers into your home.

Say goodbye to junk drawers. What is in yours? When was the last time you looked in there? Are the take out menus still applicable or have the restaurants gone out of business?

Take out recycling every day or every other day. Piles of recycling can look disorganized.

Have one place for keys and one place only. For safety purposes do not have your keys hanging on a hook which can be seen from the outside of your home. For example by your back door window. Keep a spare set of keys to each vehicle and each door of your home in a secondary spot. For example in the kitchen drawer. (Not the junk drawer as you will no longer have one!!)

Paper: Use the 2 F’s rule when it comes to paper. Can you file it (bills, bank statements) I say go paperless on this one? Or frame it (for example, kids artwork)?

Kiss junk mail goodbye by signing up for www.reddotchampainge.com

Visit catalogues online to avoid extra paper products coming into your home.

Shred, shred and shred some more. This is the perfect task to delegate to age appropriate children.

Check out this video on decluttering your home for a bonus tip:

Bathroom: Keep cosmetics in a nice cosmetic bag or basket on bathroom counter. Better yet, slip it under the sink after each use. Have a basket for your blow dryer, hot iron and all other hair products.

Keep only one shampoo, one conditioner and one body wash in your shower stall at all times. All those unused bottles need to be used up and recycled.

Bedroom: A well made bed says hello to being clutter free.

Hang up clothes as soon as you take them off. This will save you so much time when it comes to decluttering your home.

What is one decluttering rule you make sure and do every day? For some it is a clean kitchen sink, for others it is a made bed. Please leave your comments in the box below.

 

By |2020-06-07T20:52:43+00:00May 27th, 2013|Home Organization, Organizer|2 Comments

How To Be More “Green” – Part Two

Hope you enjoyed all the tips from

Part One of How To Be More Green

. I’ll bet you are already applying some of the tips. The more I looked into this subject the more I realized there was a need for Part Two.

Please check out this short video on how to be more green and enjoy some more of Getting it Together’s Top Tips.

Have you found that the more environmentally friendly you become it is forcing you to become more organized?

Have you found that you are getting into some good habits?

Tip # 11: Clean all your produce at one shot. Fill your sink with lemon water. Wash all your fresh vegetables before putting them away in the fridge. Think of the water you will save. Think of how organized you will be by having healthy snacks ready to go.

Tip # 12: Hang your clothes as soon as you take them off. This will also save on washing them unnecessarily. It will save on electricity because you will not need to iron them. It will save on the longevity of your clothes as they will not be getting wrecked by being stepped on. Your bedroom will look neat and organized.

Tip # 13: Walking your kids to school. You need to be very organized in order to leave enough time to walk instead of drive but just think of how green you will be. Not to mention healthy.

Tip # 14: Car pool. Have to get your kids to soccer practice? Get a list of all the players and their emails. Plan in advance who will car pool and when. Your environment will love you for this one.

Tip #15: Pack a lunch. Taking your lunch to work will save on packaging, save on gas if your need to drive to get something to eat, and save on energy because someone else will not be doing the cooking. Not to mention it will save on your health.

Tip # 16: Buy consignment first. When at all possible buy children’s clothing, baby items such as strollers, furniture and household items at your local consignment store. This will save on packaging and the price. You will need to be a little more organized as you might not find what you are looking for right away. Give yourself some time to shop around.

Tip # 17: Reusable water bottles. Did you know the US consumes 1500 plastic water bottles every second? Did you know that out of every 50 billion water bottles 80% of them end up in the landfill? Please be organized and take your own water bottle with you even when you travel.

Tip # 18: Use reusable containers to store food. Instead of grabbing a plastic Ziploc bag please grab a reusable container to put your food items in. I have two or three that are the perfect size for my lunch bag. I put cut up veggies in one, cheese and crackers in the other and some nuts in the third one. Our landfill will love us for this one. Did you know it takes up to 50 years for a plastic bag to break down?

Tip # 19: Reusing paper.  As mentioned in the video this is a green task we can all do. By being organized you can reuse paper in your printer, you can reuse paper for note pads and for any kid’s art projects. Each piece of paper has two sides. Let’s all work together to use both of them as much as we can.

Together we can all make a difference.

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