Living a minimalist life is about removing things that are not essential in order to live a more meaningful life. When our possessions become time-consuming and drain our energy it takes away from precious time. Even if you’ve pared down your belongings, clutter is still something that gets created everyday in our homes. By implementing a few everyday routines, you can reduce clutter… and hopefully eliminate the need to waste an entire Saturday cleaning your house!
Here are 5 clutter-clearing tips that can ideally become habit so that you can live free of clutter in your space!
1. Deal with paper clutter as soon as it enters the house.
When you pick up the mail, do a quick read-through and recycle all flyers, envelopes, or unneeded mail immediately. (One step better would be to unsubscribe to any unwanted mail.) It’s best if picking up the mail is at a time in the day when you can take 5 minutes to glance at everything and decide what is important to keep. File all necessary documents right away, and if you need to wait to pay bills or reply, then make a clear space for an ‘inbox’ in your home with only these items.
2. Create a specific place for coats and shoes.
Make a home for your coats, shoes, backpacks/and or purse. Whenever you come in the door, let there be a clear place for these items instead of dropping them on the floor or on a chair. Note how when the closet is less cluttered, it is easier to put away your things! My kids each have one hook on the wall, and they know that as soon as they come in the door, the backpack goes on the hook. Inside the closet they each have a box (labelled with their name) for their shoes, and one for their coats. By making it within their reach they are able to learn to put away their own things when we come home.
3. Place dirty clothes in the laundry basket.
This one seems simple, but it really helps- especially when it’s multiplied by every person in your home. Keep a laundry basket handy near the bedrooms/bathroom or somewhere that makes sense for your home, and put dirty laundry in the basket as soon as it comes off. This will stop dirty laundry piles from forming in the bedrooms or bathrooms.
4. Reduce clutter instantly: put something away after using it.
If it only takes 2 min to put something away… then put it away now. These small ‘to do’s’ don’t take long, but become clutter and cumbersome when left for ‘later’. Reduce clutter and take care of it now. When you’re done using something… put it away before moving on to the next thing.
5. 15 minute clean up at the end of the day.
This could be a quick pick-up around the house, or you can choose an area that gets a lot of use during the day. Perhaps this is your living room, entryway, or kitchen (or all of these rooms!). For me this usually means cleaning the kitchen, starting the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, and clearing counters to make sure the kitchen is ready for the morning. I am not a morning person and this helps me be ready for the morning and eliminates the chaos of walking into a cluttered kitchen while getting ready for work and school in the morning.
Looking for more ways to reduce the clutter-chaos and simplify? Check out 5 MORE Everyday Routines To Reduce Clutter.
