The thrill of a clean and beautiful home is incomparable, and we all know that too well. For one, an organized and clean home plays a major role in our mental health and overall wellbeing – for a more positive mood. A cluttered live space can subconsciously affect our overall wellbeing and make us sad. A tidy space, on the other hand, can bring smiles to our faces and lessen the stress associated with untidiness. Even the act of cleaning itself works up a sweat, causing the release of good endorphins.

While staying in a tidy area is enjoyable for anyone, tidying up itself can be challenging and can easily fall very low on our daily list of priorities in our already busy lives. Eventually, however, we’ll have no option but to “declutter” these spaces, especially when we begin to lose stuff in our piles of clothes, our beds get buried under mounds of clothing or when we no longer find little spaces to pile our used dishes on our kitchen cabinet.

It shouldn’t be so, a cluttered home is the last thing you want for a clutter-free frame of mind. You want to live mindfully, and clutter impedes that both physically and psychologically.

In this article, we’ll outline some suggestions for creating a clutter-free home and mind.

Start at the Very Beginning

To properly “declutter”, getting organized is the very first step. Get the essentials ready; this way, you will not have to go back and forth searching for bin bags or the bleach. Now, this needs to be allocated a specific time slot, so you’re not overwhelmed. When you know it will only be for a couple of hours; you’ll be motivated to go on.

Also, understand that with decluttering, it could get worse before getting better, so you may want to do some quick tidy ups before anything, so you’re not placing old mess on top of fresh breakfast dishes, for example. Categorize everything; if you’re starting with the clothes, you can separate them into workwear and home wear or into tops, trousers, skirts, or dresses and then decide on every item.

If you do this, you should notice that your categories emerge, and your tempo increases. So, to avoid becoming overwhelmed with all the decisions that have to go into decluttering an area, organize and keep each activity to a strict time limit.

Create a Breathing Area

Create a space you would enjoy being in instead of feeling like you’re crowded with so much stuff. Design the space for nothing other than breathing. It will be a complete fortress from the chaos of the clutter. When you do this, your home will feel a lot more uplifting when you walk in.

Enjoy Every Bit

Focusing excessively on loads of junk you have to discard, and the pile of clothes to put in their place will keep you from doing it. You’ll only end up dreading the task ahead and postponing it every time. Instead of focusing on how arduous the job will be, anticipate the joy you’ll derive from clearing your living area of accumulated piles of garbage, unwashed dishes, or clothes. Visualize it as a load lifted off your shoulders, not just your living space.

Sentimental Items?

Often, we fill valuable spaces with pieces that would probably mean little or nothing to another but worth a lot to us. They could be drawings by a grandchild, the top worn on a first dinner date. Over time, we get attached to these things because of the memories that accompany them but at the expense of valuable space in our home.

While you can’t discard everything, you can dedicate a memory box or two to every person in the house to place the things they hold dear. Now, this does not make the boxes a free-for-all; make sure they really deserve to get a place in the box before including them. If you are only lukewarm about a possession, it probably shouldn’t have a place in the memory box.

Repurpose

Just cleared out a chest of drawers but undecided on what to do with it? Try repurposing it! However, if you have no genuine need for it, don’t try to find an excuse to keep it. You should let it go and believe it; when the sentiments die down after you discard it, you’ll love how liberated you feel.

Take Those Shoes Off the Floor

You can trust your pairs of shoes to take up valuable closet or door entrance spaces. Left that way, they can easily make the area look really cluttered and the closet challenging to navigate.

To create space, get a simple shoe rack or a hanging shoe holder and watch as you “magically” create a space from nowhere. Also, discard damaged shoes you’ve never bothered fixing or the ones you’ve not worn in years. You probably will never wear them again, so let them go.

The Three-Year Rule

This rule applies to clothing, kitchen gadgets, tools, and some stuff you pile in the basement – if you haven’t used it at all in three years, it may not be worth your space, and you probably should get rid of it.

Beautify Those Cleared Out Areas

Beautifying cleared out areas could be a game-changer. With a cool framed art or any other unique decoration, you’ll give it a second thought before you pile it up with junk again.

Learn and Practice Good Habits

The goal of organizing our living areas is, so we’re not burdened with tidying up often. An organized space helps us get ahead of clutter and, in return, boosts our cleaning pace. Clean up the mess the moment you make it. Just finished with the blender? Clean and replace accordingly. Done with the vacuum cleaner? Why wait till tomorrow? Return immediately! Don’t leave things for Saturdays; you’ll only end up accumulating more stuff before then.

Final Words

You’re only human, you use things, and piling or storing them is normal. Don’t beat yourself up when you wade through the pile of junk you have to deal with. Take your time, live in the moment, even while at it. Laugh and sing if you want as you work your way into a clutter-free mind.