Often times, we joke about our pets living in our homes without paying rent. Oh, the lives they live! Free rent, free food, free attention, free rubs- but at least they pay us back with love, which makes it all worth it. There is another entity however, that lives in our homes for free, but does not return the favor with anything. This creature is called clutter- the uninvited, unwanted, unappreciative guest who spreads out freely in every room and gives us nothing but stress and anxiety back in return. Let's look at how to make your home clutter free with some of couchpotatoes.com storage solutions. You can check out some other ideas here Click Here.
Life moves so fast, and as such, the clutter in our home grows just as fast. We are constantly working, seeing friends, taking care of children, spending time with family, walking our dogs, preparing meals- it’s no wonder the clutter monster becomes a hazard- constantly around and growing, if we are not careful to pay him some attention once in a while. A lot of clutter means we may not have much time on our hands, or we have simply become too overwhelmed to deal with it.
Let’s get started with some strategies on how to get rid of our unwanted clutter so we can be more relaxed at home and focus our time and attention on better things.
Two Ways to Get Rid of Clutter Fast: Hide It or Toss It
Hide Your Clutter
My favorite (albeit cheating) way of getting rid of clutter fast is to simply hide it. Then, you can tackle it little by little over time. Here is what I do: gather a bunch of empty shopping bags together, walk around the house, and throw anything you see out of place into those bags.
This will not take no time at all. (Be careful to pay close attention to what you are throwing in those bags as you may throw something important in there you need on hand soon). Then, take all of those bags and hide them. Hide them anywhere where they are out of your sight- in the basement or attic, the garage, or a closet.
Next, pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back on your brand new Lady Bird Leather sofa, take a deep breathe, and look around your house.
You will be amazed at how much calmer and relaxed you feel, not looking at piles of papers and objects you know you need to find a place for, but just haven’t found the time to do so. Enormous tasks like this cause anxiety we may not even be aware we are feeling. If you're feeling inspired, take a look at this video which digs deeper into the decluttering process.
Now you can take your time dealing with those bags full of clutter. You can even just choose to tackle only one shopping bag a weekend to go through. The point is- the project of getting clutter out of your home and life will not seem so daunting if you don’t have to look at all of it at once.
Toss Your Clutter
The next technique is simply to throw things away. Believe me, if you follow these steps, you will not miss these items or remember you even had them to begin with because you probably don’t use them! An easy place to start to rid your life and home of clutter is in your refrigerator. It’s so easy for us to continually buy things at the supermarket we don’t realize we already have at home. Then we have two of each item- and we may not realize it, but the first one is usually expired. Go through your refrigerator quickly like a robot, pick up every item you know you haven’t bought recently, check the expiration date, keep the garbage can next to you- and just toss, toss, toss- you won’t believe how many expired food items you kept in your fridge and how much room you will now have in there. Organize your coffee mugs and open up counter space, put up those cutting boards, all those used items we need to throw away every day like old mail.
Examples of Clutter Items That Are Easy to Toss Fast
As a rule, toss any item that is stained, broken, ripped, expired, or outdated. Here are some examples:
- Old make up you haven’t used in years
- Old hair products you haven’t used in years
- Receipts that aren't tax deductible
- Broken electronics, games, toys, and appliances
- Broken jewelry you don’t really care about fixing
- Ripped or stained clothing and linens
- Cassettes or CD’s you haven’t listened to in years and know you will never get around to digitizing or playing
- Organize your kitchen spices using spice racks!
For clothing- a rule of thumb is to toss any item you have not worn for one year. Of course, donating instead of tossing would be a better idea in this case.
Cluttered Home? Get Organized With Stylish Storage Solutions!
One reason the clutter monster seems to grow endlessly, is because we have not given the monster who doesn’t pay rent a place to live in your home! Invest in clever storage options that can hold and hide your clutter at the same time.
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Pick up some storage boxes that fit inside the storage cabinet and label each box so each category of clutter has a designated place to live. For example, one box could be full of receipts, one full of mail, another full of random items you need time to go through.
Here is another piece of beautiful furniture that would help you hide your clutter and stay organized:
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If you just don’t have the room for new pieces of furniture, switch up what you do have, and replace that piece with one that includes space for storage, for example a clever coffee table with a big area for hidden storage.
How to Get Rid of Sentimental and Paper Clutter
With today’s technology, it is easy to get rid of a lot of physical items which add to your clutter. Let’s take a look at old photos: you can photograph each photo so you have them on your phone, or you can scan each one and put them on your computer. Now, instead of having to see the photos scattered all over your house, or deal with moving around boxes and boxes full of them, they are all in one place and take up no room. If this seems like too daunting of a task- take one storage box, mark it as “photos,” gather every photo you find around your house, and throw it in that one box.
