How to declutter your home: Tips for busy mums

How to declutter your home

Those of us with children often find keeping our homes tidy a never-ending struggle. It can be hard enough finding the time and motivation to tidy up after ourselves, never mind after our kids as well, so our home often becomes a cluttered place which can be stressful to live in. To help you get a head start on the spring cleaning and maintain a tidy home this year, here are our tips for decluttering your home.

Are you a minimalist person?

The first step towards a tidy and uncluttered living area is going through everything you own and being honest with how much of it you really need. As a rule, if you haven’t used or worn something in the last six months, and can’t see yourself doing so in the next six months, get rid of it. If you’re like most people, this will be a significant amount of stuff, much of which you’ve accumulated over the years and simply forgotten to get rid of. Be brutal at this stage — you’ll thank yourself for it when you have an uncluttered home which is a pleasure to live in. Try and recycle or donate as many items as you can, and then bin the rest.

 

How to declutter your home

When you’ve cut everything you own down to the things that you need, the next step is to find a new home for everything. At this stage, it might be a good idea to upgrade your storage options, as you can permanently increase the storage area of even the smallest home with a few clever solutions. For example, a bed with accessible drawers built in to it will dramatically increase the space available for keeping clothes and bedding. You can keep your kitchen uncluttered by attaching a magnet to the underside of your upper cabinets and using it to attach containers full of herbs and spices. In kids’ rooms you can use tote bags, such as these from Etsy, in place of toy bins and hang them on the back of the door, freeing up space in wardrobes and on the floor.

How to declutter your home – Boxes for decluttering

Clear plastic boxes are another effective storage solution, as they’re sturdy and durable, and you can see their contents at a glance. These can be particularly useful for children, as they’ll be able to find the toy they’re looking for without having to search through each box individually. Small plastic boxes also make great stationery holders for kids, as your children will be able to see at a glance the colour pen, pencil, or crayon they need and remove it without having to empty the entire pack. You can buy clear plastic boxes online at the Plastic Box Shop.

 

Decluttering stress

While decluttering your home, it’s important not to stress too much. Keep in mind that it’s a process that gets worse before it gets better, and that taking on too much at one time can be overwhelming. A good idea is to break up each room into sections, and then to move through the house tackling a section at a time. This is a much more manageable way of decluttering your home than trying to do it all over one weekend, which can lead to frayed nerves and arguments. Use a good planner, such as this one from Action Day, to plan when you’re going to declutter each area of your home, as well as to note down where you store different items so you can easily keep track of them.

Keep these tips in mind when decluttering your home, and you’ll have it done quickly and with the minimum of stress. You can then enjoy the permanent benefits of a tidy and organised house.

I hope you have found this post on How to declutter your home to be useful. You might also like my post on how to make money from decluttering

and how to have a clutter-free home

 

How to declutter your home is a featured post – you might also like my post on how to get kids to declutter