Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal — meaning there’s no time like the present to clear the clutter from your home!
Start small
There’s no doubt about it: staring down the barrel of a major home spring clean can be daunting. “If it all looks like too much, start with a small project you can definitely finish,” advises Susanne Thiebe from Sydney-based Less Mess Professional Organisers. “Did you know that it takes just eight minutes to organise and clean one drawer in the kitchen?”
Prioritise your home office
Have the things you use constantly at arm’s length, and then arrange the rest of your office like a car is set out. “The things you use less frequently are in the glove box,” Thiebe explains, so in an office setting, this means you may need to bend down to get it. To fill the car up with fuel you go to the petrol station, so in your office if you need more paper or stationery, “it’s fine to get off your seat and walk to a different end of the room.”
Clear closet clutter
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You’ve heard the 80/20 rule, right? Apparently we tend to wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time, so the majority of our closets are comprised of clothing clutter! “To weed out the ones you don’t wear, turn all of the hangers in your closet one way,” advises Aussie clutter expert, Peter Walsh. “After you wear an item, turn the hanger to face the other way — and get rid of the clothes on the hangers that haven’t been turned in the last year.”
Banish the bed bugs
Most of us use the space under our beds for extra storage, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it, Walsh says. “Drag everything under the bed into the middle of the room. If you need anything to stay there, place it in clear containers with lockable lids,” he says. Label each container and review the contents in 12 months time: if you haven’t used it, ditch it.
Create toy zones
It’s all too easy for your home to become completely overrun with toys and gadgets, so if you want to clear the soft-toy clutter, create “toy zones”. Have one chest or basket in each room dedicate solely to your kids’ fun and games, and then set a limit to how much your child can own. “When the bins are full, no more new toys are allowed until a toy of a similar size is removed and given to charity,” Walsh says. “This teaches them the joy in giving to others and to value what is important to them.”
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