By / San Diego Moving

Household Decluttering Tips and Tricks

Many would agree, there is nothing more stressful than trying to move a cluttered, disorganized home. And let’s face it – if you’re busy or don’t have time for organizing and cleaning, things can get out of control quite easily. Especially if you’ve been living in the same home for many years, things tend to pile up over time. And even if you’ve recently had a smooth relocation, finding a place for everything isn’t always easy, and can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Don’t worry though – we’re here to help. With our household decluttering tips, you’ll learn how to put an end to chaos in your home. Just follow the easy steps below!

It’s Cleaning Time

Once you start going through everything, you’re bound to make a big mess. As you continue through your decluttering and organizing rampage it’ll be wise to have cleaning supplies on hand. A broom/vacuum, microfiber rags, all-purpose cleaner (non-toxic if you’ve got kids or pets), boxes, and trash bags are good to have on hand. Use this opportunity to get to those hard-to-reach places and clean them up a bit now that you’re in the process of moving everything around.

The Five Bin system

Of course, when you start household decluttering, your goal here is to find a practical, logical spot that won’t be hard to reach, for things you use all the time. However, in this process, one thing is inevitable – you’re bound to realize that you don’t regularly use a large amount of your stuff. And at that point, it’s time to utilize our five bin system, to donate or dispose of everything easily and without much thought:

• Keeping – The star of the Netflix show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, Marie says “If it sparks joy, keep it.” This television series is jam packed with a lot of valuable home organization tips. Marie also suggests that you keep what you need and find useful even if it doesn’t spark a whole lot of joy.
• Recycling – Plastic, paper and glass can be recycled, so go ahead and make a conscious effort to help keep our planet healthy.
• Needs fixing – A lot of your items may not be usable at the moment. But if a little cleaning or small repairs could change that, why throw them away? Instead, fixing these may be a nice DIY project for beginners. Keep in mind though, if you have a track record of never actually getting around to the DIY projects, it’s probably best to trash or donate the items.
• Garbage – At the end of the day, there are things that you definitely don’t need and neither would anyone else. So just put them in the designated trash bag/bin.
• Donating – There may be things that you have no use for, but you can still donate them and make someone else very happy. Be sure to put these in a box or bag marked for donations so they don’t get thrown out with the trash.

Decluttering Common Places

There aren’t many spaces in your home that attract clutter as much as your hallways, especially your foyer or entryway. This is the place where any surface can be covered with keys, coins, and other smaller things people pull out of their pockets and throw on the first available counter. Which is why you want to have a surface, preferably with small containers, so you can keep these things in an orderly fashion. Also, while you’re doing this, you can check your locks and make extra sets of keys, especially if you’ve just moved into a new home – maintaining security is important.

Bathroom Organization

During your household decluttering project – you need to pay special attention to your bathroom. This is a place that typically has many products and can easily become disorganized. Pull everything out of the medicine cabinets and drawers, and proceed to inspect the expiration dates. There are bound to be some things that aren’t usable anymore, so throw them out. Arrange any toiletries, makeup, medication and skincareproducts in groups.

Store them so that the products you use most often are directly available

Functional Kitchen

The kitchen can be a big organizing project but if you break it up into sections it won’t feel overwhelming. We recommend doing this in a very systematic way. If you are able to, empty the cabinets and drawers one section at a time. Then, categorize all of the items into groups, like bakeware, holiday essentials, or glassware. Find a new space for each category putting frequently used items in easily accessible areas and putting seasonal items in high cabinets or even storing in the garage or shed if those are available to you. In the end, your goal should be to have a functional, efficient kitchen with a clean feel with decluttered countertops.

Conclusion

While household decluttering projects can seem like a big undertaking, you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish if you just get started. You can apply the principles we’ve mentioned here to all rooms. The key is to have an organized, systematic way of doing things. In the end, this will help you have a more orderly home, less stress – and future cleaning and decluttering will become second nature.

Thank you to our guest author Lisa Roberts at usmovingexperts.com If you are still searching for a quality mover, be sure to check out our friends over at Verified Movers for a list of verified movers near you.