Everything You Need to Know About Clutter & How to Get Rid of It
Clutter is the worst enemy of tidy homes for busy parents and professionals. It usually starts with one or two hotspots that somehow always seem to attract mess before moving on to other areas of your home. In some households, it’s the chair in the entryway or foyer, while in others it’s the kitchen table, TV stand, or hallway sideboard.
If left unaddressed, clutter builds and builds until you start having trouble moving around, locating the things you need, and finding a place to sit. Before you know it, your home comfort is gone, nothing is convenient, and you may even feel like it’s easier to just throw it all away than to take care of the mess. But don’t worry, things probably look much worse than they really are!
There are so many questions people keep asking about clutter, its causes, effects, and how to get rid of it. In today’s article, we reach out to Cleaning Concepts and delve into all things clutter to help you demystify this modern phenomenon and help you get rid of it once and for all!
Why am I so overwhelmed by clutter?
Watching all that clutter around the house, people often find it hard to relax even after a long day’s work. This is because our brains have a natural aversion to mess and disorder. Clutter keeps us tense and edgy which becomes tiring after a while. Our nervous system is constantly bombarded with signals that our living environment needs tidying and that we have unfinished business. If this persists, we may start feeling stressed, anxious, and even depressed so it’s important to fight back and get down to the nitty-gritty before clutter starts piling up on our mental well-being!
What is the golden rule of decluttering?
Be consistent and take it slowly. Ideally, you’d want to keep it simple in your everyday routine and avoid overburdening one area of your home with too much stuff. You should work one room at a time to prevent fatigue and tedium. It’s much easier to do a 5-minute decluttering session every day than to lose the weekend taking care of your entire home.
Which room to declutter first?
Always tackle the messiest room or area of your home first. It’s a psychologically rewarding approach because once you get rid of the hotspots, the tension will subside and everything else will feel much more doable. In a lot of homes, this usually means the closet but it can easily be the living room or bedroom.
How to do a quick declutter?
As mentioned earlier, clutter can be annoying so it’s better to work in 5 to 15-minute spells. A couple of quick decluttering sessions are better than one punishing spree. Prepare a large trash bag and one box for things you want to donate or sell. Take a walkthrough around the house to get a clear picture of the task at hand and locate the hotspots, including:
Entryway chairs and tables that serve as a dumping ground for clothes, unopened mail, and keys
Hallway sideboards where we leave our sunglasses, newspapers, and various knick-knacks
Kitchen countertops that are cluttered with shopping bags, coffee cups, and paper piles and documents
Living room TV stands that are overflowing with magazines, empty glasses, and other whatnots
Bedroom nightstands, dressers, and chairs where people tend to discard their clothes and leave them there instead of putting them in the closet or laundry
How do I stop being overwhelmed by clutter?
Unlike dust, clutter doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It’s usually the result of a busy lifestyle and established daily routines. While it always helps to buy only the stuff you need and use, clutter is a behavioral issue. However, getting rid of clutter doesn’t mean changing your life from scratch. All you have to do is slightly tweak your habits to disrupt the pattern. Here are a few tricks that can help you avoid clutter and lead a more organized and convenient lifestyle:
Never buy things you are going to use once
Don’t buy a new item until you’ve gotten rid of the old one
Decide what each area of the home is used for and stick to your decision
Be smart when it comes to storage to avoid too many items cluttering your living space
If things start piling up, don’t wait, deal with the buildup ASAP
Get your loved ones involved because if only one person sticks to new anti-clutter rules, things are bound to get messy in more ways than one!
