When you own a home, likely the most important thing you can do to protect your investment and make sure that you’re leading a clean and healthy lifestyle is to organize your home. Clutter isn’t good for anyone. Regardless of what’s causing the clutter, a disorganized home will be less comfortable to live in, less appealing to friends and family who visit, and more likely to be the site of pest infestations.
Many homeowners choose to organize their homes to mitigate these issues and to make sure that they know where everything is. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re looking for a shirt or a favorite book just to find that the disorganized nature of your home is keeping you from locating these items quickly.
Among the most beneficial aspects of organizing your home is that getting rid of clutter will open up your home and give you more space that you can take advantage of. When your home is cluttered, it’s very difficult to spruce up the interiors of your home because of the lack of free space available to you.
When you want to organize your home, there are three R’s that you should use to help guide you through the process. First, reduce the things you have, which should simplify the organizing process. Next, you’ll want to be resourceful. Even though you now have fewer possessions, you can be more creative with what you have. Finally, you should be resilient. If you want something else for your home, don’t immediately go out to purchase the item, which only serves to add more clutter. Take your time to look at all of your belongings and determine if you really need the item in question. This guide takes you through six steps that should help you organize your home.
1. Take Everything Out of the Space
The first step in organizing your home involves taking everything out of the space, which is necessary if you want the organization process to be efficient and streamlined. By removing everything from the space that needs to be organized, you’re essentially creating a blank canvas, which means that you don’t need to work around anything when you start organizing. Once everything has been cleared out, you can gain a better understanding of all of the items you own and identify the exact amount of storage you have. Do this one room at a time to make sure that the process doesn’t become too daunting.
2. Clean!
Now that all of your items have been removed from the space, it’s time to clean the space, which should significantly enhance the appearance of the area. Cleaning this area shouldn’t be too difficult as long as you know what types of cleaning supplies you should use. First, it’s recommended that you wipe off any of the dusty or dirty surfaces in the space with a damp cloth. Make sure that you focus on mirrors, dressers, and any accessories in the area that are stationary.
You might also want to take the time to use a cotton mop to clean off the walls surrounding the space. The area should then be vacuumed if you want to get rid of the accumulated dust and dirt on the ground. There are plenty of effective stain removers that will help you get rid of unsightly stains. However, deeper-set stains may be difficult to remove from your flooring without causing damage. If the space is proving difficult to clean, consider requesting professional cleaning services from a reputable provider. The right company can make the space look brand new.
3. Purge Old Items
The next step in this process involves purging all of your old and outdated items that you’re no longer going to use in the future. While you definitely don’t want to make the mistake of throwing away the items in your possession that hold sentimental value, there’s a good chance that you’ve held onto items that you haven’t used in years. If you haven’t used something in recent years, don’t hesitate to donate it or throw it away. If some of your belongings are broken, toss them out immediately.
Any stained or worn-down items should also be discarded. By getting rid of as many items as possible, you should be able to substantially reduce how cluttered the space looks and feels. Many homeowners make the mistake of believing that they will use an item someday in the future. If you haven’t used the item recently, it’s likely that you won’t any time soon.
4. Combine Like Items
Once you’ve rid yourself of all belongings that you won’t use in the future, you should then combine like items, which will help you when it comes time to organize them. Let’s say that you’re organizing your pantry. While everything is still out of the pantry, separate the items into like items.
For instance, all of your baking items should be put together. The same is true with your canned goods and your spices. Once you have divided these items into different categories, you should be able to determine the space requirements for each category, which will make organizing your pantry more efficient. Make sure that the most important items are easy to access.
5. Buy Your Organization Bins
Nothing helps the organizational process more than having access to organization bins, which are any type of container that can be used to store specific items. While you can always go out and purchase some bins for your home, there’s a good chance that you have some lying around. Even old shoe boxes can be used as organizational bins to store some smaller items that you’re having problems finding space for.
If you don’t have enough bins at your disposal, there are some fantastic ones that you can buy for hardly any money. The right bins can even improve the aesthetics of the space by matching your interior decor. You can find some great containers at Amazon.com, Target, IKEA, and similar home goods stores.
6. Label Items
Even if you position like items next to one another when you organize a space, it can still be difficult to identify where certain items are. You can simplify this process and better organize the space by labeling items wherever possible. There are several ways you can label your items. You could create and print a basic tag with Microsoft Word or use a label maker to design a more professional label.
If you’re an artist who happens to have a cutting machine like the Silhouette Cameo, these machines can also be very handy when you’re trying to design some stylish and visually appealing labels or tags. Labels can be particularly helpful at identifying what types of items have been placed in storage bins.
Different Types of Spaces
The method you use to organize a space depends on the size of the space that you’re organizing. There are four separate types of spaces that you should be aware of before you begin to organize, each of which comes with its own guidelines. While you can organize your home in any way you see fit, the guidelines for each space should facilitate a more streamlined process. These four spaces include storage space, a shared space, a personal space, and a small space.
The first spaces you should focus on when organizing your entire home are storage spaces. It’s important to organize these spaces before any others since they can be used to store additional items later on in the organizational process. For larger storage spaces, it’s highly recommended that you divide these areas into smaller zones. Storage bins and closet organizers can help you with this.
You should then focus on organizing the shared spaces in your home, which include the bathroom, kitchen, and living room. These are easily the most trafficked spaces in your home, which is why they should be organized sooner rather than later. Ask your family members or roommates to help you during this stage of the organizational process. When organizing these areas, the main goal should be to declutter and get rid of any unused items. Any items that are used by multiple members of your household should be placed in these shared spaces.
Once you’ve organized any shared spaces in your home, it’s time to organize the personal spaces, which include closets, home offices, and bedrooms. Consider tending to your closets before anything else. Because your personal spaces aren’t going to be used by other members of the household, you can organize them however you like. Regardless of how you want to organize these spaces, one thing you should do is donate or get rid of any items that only serve to clutter these areas and create messes.
The final stage of the organizational process involves organizing the smaller spaces in your home, which include the guest room, laundry room, and linen closet. These areas shouldn’t be too difficult to organize. It’s also important to note that a small amount of clutter in these spaces shouldn’t affect your day-to-day life. On the other hand, organizing these areas and removing any clutter will help you lead a more efficient and structured lifestyle. By keeping your guest room organized, you’ll always be prepared when friends or family come to visit.
Organizing your entire home may seem daunting at the beginning of the process. However, the structured outline above should make this process more streamlined and help you avoid making any time-wasting mistakes.