Organise Your Home with These 10 Smart Tips

Asha Bogenfuerst Asha Bogenfuerst
SQUARE, リノクラフト株式会社 リノクラフト株式会社 Eclectic style study/office Wood Wood effect
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Maintaining an organised home is not easy, especially if you have a busy lifestyle and children, but there are some steps you can take to ensure your house does not end up in a disastrous state. The trick is not to wait for the house to be really messy to start tidying up, because the thing with clutter is it's very sneaky, it creeps up on you slowly, accumulating at snail space sometimes, and then suddenly before you know it, your house looks like it's just been through a tornado. And then because the mess is so overwhelming, you start procrastinating cleaning up and it gets even worse. Finally, when you have no choice but to tidy up, you have a really big job to do which leaves you so tired you don't want to think about cleaning up anymore, at least not for one week or two, and that is how the vicious cycle of clutter and mess persists. 

So today we've come up with 10 simple ideas to organise your home. We hope this ideabook will help you make your home a place that you love to come home to, because nobody likes to come back to a house full of clutter, not even messy people, it's just not very relaxing and comfy when the house is untidy. Now, let's not waste anymore time and get to the theory of de-cluttering your home for a start at least! 

Organize the wardrobe

If there's one thing most of us have too much of, it's clothes, and many times unused clothes just take up more space in our wardrobe closets and cause a big mess, especially when you have nothing to wear! So what you need to do is take out every single piece of clothing from your wardrobe and only put it back in the closet if you are really going to wear it again.

Create a to-do list

Create a list of spaces or rooms in the house which need tidying up, this will help you keep check of what you need to do to have a clutter-free home. Taking one step at a time, complete each of the tasks and cross them off the list. We recommend making this list every two weeks at least. 

Baby steps

Juggling work, home and your personal life can seem overwhelming at times, but just calm down, take a deep breath and take baby steps. Dedicate ten minutes to one task everyday and you will find that it's actually not that much work to keep the house tidy if you just consistently tidy up everyday. 

Three boxes for each room

Firstly, get yourself a bunch of cardboard boxes, the kind people use when they're moving houses. You will need 3 boxes for every room in your home, depending on how much stuff you have. Label the boxes keep, donate and throw away. We highly recommend not having a maybe box as it never works, sometimes decisions need to be made so don't encourage your hoarding habits. 

The 'one in, one out' rule

Just follow the 'one in, one out' rule and your house will be a tidier place in no time. The rule basically dictates that for every new item you buy, and old one has to be thrown out. Make it a habit to throw away things that you don't use or can't repair right away in order to prevent unnecessary clutter at home.  

Problem areas

Pay more attention to spaces and rooms of the house which tend to get cluttered easily, like the bathroom or the kitchen. Dedicate storage spaces specifically for toiletries in the bathroom in order to avoid a mess in the bathroom, and adequate storage cabinets in the kitchen so that stuff is basically hidden out of sight. For more inspiration, here are 6 colourful bathroom storage ideas

Temporary storage basket

Keep a basket handy at home, by the stairs, at the entrance of your home or anywhere where a mess tends to accumulate. Sometimes you just don't have the time to put everything back in it's place, especially when you've just come home but have to rush out the door again, so having a temporary storage basket can help you keep the home tidy. However, make sure you sort out the stuff in the temporary storage basket before it's full and put the items back where they belong because that's the whole idea. 

Paperwork

When you really need a piece of paper urgently, you will know how important it is to have all your paperwork organised. Dedicate a shelf or shelves to file all your bills, taxes, certificates and other important official documents. It will make life easier for you in the long run. 

For more inspiration, here are 11 simple ways to add shelves in your home.

Wall hooks

Little things like keys, scarves and bags often accumulate in random places and can make an area untidy and cluttered. The best way to avoid this is with wall hooks. They may be small, but they can make a big difference. Pictured here, we see some vintage wall hooks, which can also make your home more trendy. 

Memory box

Some things you just don't want to throw away, for sentimental reasons, like your children's drawings or letters from loved ones. However, if you just leave them lying around the house, chances are that one day you might not be able to find them anymore. So get organised and make a personalised memory box to store all those treasured items neatly away. 

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