Keeping a house tidy is not easy. There will always be daily clutter, especially if you live with other people. And YOU are probably the person who has to tidy it away.
Note: Daily clutter is anything that's part of the daily routine in your home.
Lunch boxes, snack plates, hairbands, socks, mail... that kind of thing.
If it's been there for longer than a week then it's a different kind of clutter.
Even with the most thoughtful family or flatmates things are going to be left where they don’t belong. Here’s a secret I’m going to share with you… most of the people in your house really don’t have a tidy home high on their priority list. It’s simply not important to them.
The Make-It-Easy Method ~ Keeping Your Decluttered Home Clutter-Free.
In a perfect world your whole household would work as a team, getting everything tidied away every day. Or, you’d have a full time live-in housekeeper! But just in case you’re the Chief Tidier and Keeper Of The House, here’s a few suggestions for keeping daily clutter under control.
The Daily Tidy
Little and often. The task of taking the many, many, daily clutter things from the wrong place to the right place (yay!) can be made a lot easier if you can tidy a little bit every day. Gather together – all the daily clutter things that don’t belong where they are – and make one trip to put them back where they do belong. That trip will probably have a few stops along the way.
- Find yourself a gathering container. It can be a beautiful woven bowl, a washing basket, a tote bag, whatever makes you happy to look at and is easy to use.
- Once a day sweep each living space. Put anything that doesn’t belong there in your basket. Clearing a room may take a couple of trips, or a bigger basket.
- Just do what you can, but do it regularly. If you only have 5 minutes, grab what you can and do a little bit more tomorrow.
- You may need more than one basket: one for toys and one for everything else.
- If you have stairs in your home you might like to have one basket upstairs and one downstairs. When you walk up or down, take a full basket with you and an empty one on your return trip.
- If you have children, make a basket for each one. Choosing a colour or making a name label can be a great way to get your kids involved in the idea.
- Assign a spot for gathering baskets where they are easily accessible or visible. Pretty baskets or bags are a good idea here, you can make them a part of your decor.
- If you have more than one, hanging soft gathering baskets or bags on sturdy wall hooks keeps them out of the way.
- If you have an item in your hand and you don’t have time to put it away in another room use your basket as a temporary holding place. Note: Temporary.
- Make it part of your schedule to gather things into the basket and take a little trip around your house to empty the basket.
- If you have a shed or separate garage you might also like to assign a box or basket for transporting things that belong there.
- Ask everyone who lives in your house to be part of your daily tiding, they can use their own pretty gathering basket or Transport Truck/Digger.
If a tidy house makes you happy, get stuck in, every day. Even if it’s just a quick dash. It’ll make it easier to find things, easier to clean, and you’ll feel less overwhelmed.
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