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If you are anything like me, a cluttered house must be bothersome to you, and you might oscillate between procrastinating and wanting to have a clean, organized home—A LOT. I get instantly jealous when I visit other people’s houses that are SO well organized. I want to live this dream too!
To be honest, making sure your home is clutter-free and organized doesn’t take up much time—it’s a lot less than you think it will. We just have to tune into the slightly smart and sensible version of ourselves; and then it becomes clear that home organization only calls for a few changes in your daily lifestyle. Although it may seem time-consuming and dreadful from a distance, it is really, REALLY simple.
And that is why I’m here to guide you so that you don’t have to waste time and stress about it! Here are 13 simple habits that you can include in your daily routine to become THE person with an extremely well-organized home, at all times (it’s your turn to make your visitors jealous):
13 Habits of People with Homes that Are Always Organized
1. Everything Must Have a Home Within Your Home (Hominception?)
People who keep their spaces clean and orderly have this one major habit—they keep everything back in place after using it, and this is applicable to EVERYTHING. Not doing this is what creates clutter and mess.
Always take out 10 minutes at the end of the day to put things back where they belong. You can either do it throughout the day as you go to different rooms or all at once before going to bed. This is the one habit that will change your life—if you do this right, 70% of your work is already done.
2. No Hoarding
Not holding on to useless stuff also helps in keeping your home clean and organized. Whether it is an old tv set, clothes you’ve outgrown, moldy furniture, or even your sexy slider phone from the 2000s—get rid of them all! They do nothing but take up a LOT of space bit by bit. Donate them, sell them, basically, get rid of them if you don’t need them.
The 6-month rule comes in very handy here—if you haven’t used something in 6 months, it has to go. You can alternatively increase this time span for seasonal items like Christmas decorations or sweaters; give them at least 2 years before you decide their fate.
3. Get Rid of Trash (AND Paper)
The saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is true, but only for the previous point—because here we are talking about actual TRASH. That is, paid bills, packaging, paper waste, used notebooks, newspapers, magazines, e-waste, etc. Anything and everything lying around your place that can be thrown away and/or recycled is trash. We never realize how much of space these things take up until they are disposed of.
4. Selective Buying
You have to be able to distinguish between a NEED and a WANT —so that you can avoid buying stuff you won’t end up using. Do you really need another costly pair of boots that’ll you’ll only wear on special occasions? Don’t you already have four? That is because you WANT them, not because you NEED them. Sure, if you’d like to donate the already existing pairs because you don’t like them anymore, go ahead and buy that new flashy pair—but not before you MAKE space for them.
So, the next time you go shopping, eliminate the items you want but don’t actually need at the moment. It can be groceries, clothes, daily household items, or even decorations.
5. Keep Cleaning Supplies Handy
ALWAYS keep a set of cleaning supplies organized at one spot that is reachable at all times, so that you don’t have to go looking for them all over the house. Create a separate basket and put in gloves, a cleaning cloth, cleaning sprays, etc. This way, whenever there’s a spill or your pet’s piss on the floor, you can clean it up right away. Make a point of tending to such things IMMEDIATELY.
6. Always Make Your Bed After Getting Up
We know that it’s extremely hard for everyone to make their bed as soon as they get up. Pffft, who does that?! But the bitter truth is, you GOTTA. If you really think about it, it hardly takes 2 minutes, and you’re done for the day! So, remember to fold the blanket and tidy the bed for a better-organized home.
7. Put Away the Groceries As Soon As You Enter the House
As soon as you get back from the store, put away all the things you bought away in their respective places. This is much like making the bed after getting up—if you don’t do it right away, you’ll keep on procrastinating and it’ll create a mess.
8. Divide the Work
If you live alone, that’s well and good. But, if you have a roommate or your family living with you, it’s better to assign specific cleaning tasks to each one of them so that they can individually add to keeping the house well-organized.
9. Place a Table Right Next to the Door
Keeping an entryway table solves a lot of problems. You can keep your car keys/wallet/sunglasses there as soon as you enter the house. You also wouldn’t have to turn the whole place upside down searching for them whenever you go out. The best part about this is there’s a visual cue, it will become a habit, and you WILL look at the table every time you leave. You’ll never leave behind stuff again!
10. Make Use of Labels
Label everything that needs to be labeled. If you end up having a habit of mistaking baking powder for baking soda, label them. If your stationery drawers have different things in each one of them, label them.
Labeling makes things so much easier and saves a lot of time. You won’t have to open 5 similar looking boxes every time you need chips if you just label the one with chips. Consider putting a label on ALL those things which you often spend a lot of time searching for.
11. Do the Dishes, Right Away
The worst kind of morning is when you wake up to a sink full of dirty dishes. Do the dishes before bed, or, if you have a dishwasher, load all the utensils in it the night before. A clean home never has dirty dishes in the sink for long, have you ever noticed that?
12. Laundry
Just like the dishes, a pile of dirty laundry is another thing you need to tend to as soon as possible, in fact, immediately. Never leave piles of dirty laundry lying around, WASH them. Do the hard work. You will thank us (and yourself) later.
13. To-Do Lists
Making a schedule of what chores need to be taken care of throughout the day is really (unlike this listing) the FIRST and FOREMOST step to keeping your house organized. If you know what you (and others) have to do, write it down and stick it on the fridge. Whenever people come into the kitchen, they’ll see their names and the tasks assigned to them, and so will you. This makes the operation so much easier. Remember – A family that stays together, cleans together.
We have reached the end of the article which covered some really simple ways through which you can keep your home tidy and organized. Now that we’ve done our part, go do yours! And don’t forget to thank us later 🙂