Kick Clutter to the Curb! 10 Easy Tips to avoid clutter from building up in your home

Hi. I have 10 proven tips on how you can remain clutter free. Let's go. The first place to start is to make sure everyone in the house understands what the expectations are. Make sure they know that you don't want to see clutter building up in particular areas. Make sure they understand how you expect things to look. And it's good to get others involved in the house. And then remember, even the littlest ones can be part of keeping your house nice and tidy and clutter free. The places that seem to get clutter the most are flat surfaces. So it's really important that you put processes and systems in place to keep those clear. Things that tend to gather on flat surfaces will be mail. When you bring in your mail, make sure that you bring it in the house and that you immediately deal with it, that you take it. You open up what you want to open and you get it ready to be filed if you need to keep it. You recycle anything that can be recycled, you shred anything that can be shredded, and you have a designated place to store anything that's worth keeping. That's very important. Purses, keys, backpacks. Those are things that tend to build up in places. So make sure that they all have designated places if you want them in a hall closet, in an entryway, you know, wherever you want those things stored. Make sure the family understands and you provide a place for them to go. So if you need to put up hooks, if you need to have bins, whatever you need to know, whatever you need to have, make sure that you put that and that when people come in the door, they know exactly where to put their things. Similar to with the mail, if you have any papers that come in the house, try to take action on the paper before you set it down. So look at it, decide do you want to keep it? If you want to keep it, where does it need to be stored long term? Or if you need it to be put in a place that you need to take action, put it in that place where you know where to find it. But don't just set it down on a counter. And anything again that needs to be trashed, put in the recycle or shredded, take care of that immediately. Don't let these piles pile up. I am the worst when it comes to magazines. I have the best intentions, but I never actually read them. So I have a system. I'm allowed to have five magazines and that's it. So if a new magazine comes in the house, that means I have to go to my pile of five and I have to pull one out and recycle it or give it to someone else to read before I can add to it. So I will never go over five and that's important. And make sure that when you put rules in place and systems in place that you honor them. Because otherwise if I didn't, I'd have a stack of 30 and I'll never get to them that get out of date and someone else can make use of them. So put systems in place and honor them. So for me, five magazines, that's it. Most importantly, take note along the way during your day or during your week on where you tend to have clutter pile up because it's important for you to later put a system in place that will help stop the pile. One thing that helps a lot of families is to have a put away basket. And basically what it is is a basket that's designated as, okay, I don't have time to put something away, so I'm going to put it in this basket. But I'm committed that by the end of the day, the end of the week, whatever your commitment is that you're going to actually put it away. So make sure you get a basket that is of size that you think is acceptable and that if, you know, you pick up a jacket that's not, that's your kids or somebody else, as you put it in there, everyone knows that it's where things go that need to be put away, but you don't quite have the time in the moment to put it away. That way it doesn't pile up on your counters and your dining room table or your entryway and it gets put into a designated place for you to later take action on. One tip is if you have a big family and you have a lot of clutter and you have the room to store it, have a bin for each person. You know, if you have, you know, three kids, have a different colored bin for each kid. And if, if one leaves their jacket, you put it there. If they leave a notebook or a toy, you put it their bin. And then they know at the end of the day or the end of the week that they have to empty it out, put it where it belongs. This works really well for very busy households and it helps keep their clutter in check. Don't leave a room empty handed. If you're walking out of a room, make sure before walking past something that's where it doesn't belong. Pick it up and put it where it goes. If it's only going to take you 30, 60 seconds, do it right then and there. Don't let it just sit there. These little small things that you do during the day will help immensely in keeping the clutter. And it's a great habit to have. You can do this in your bedroom, your bathroom, in your kitchen, in your living area, everywhere in your home. You can do this. You can even do this in your car, right? You don't want that to get cluttered as well. So if it's something you could take quick action on, grab it and put it where it belongs. Or worst case, grab it and put it in the basket you designated for putting away later. But this is one of the most important fundamental things in staying clutter free. We've all heard the one in, one out rule, but how many of us actually put it into practice? Do you. One in, one out means if you buy a new jacket, you take a jacket out of the house, you either donate it or give it to a friend, whatever you want to do. But you don't bring something into the house unless you're ready to pull something out. That way the amount of stuff you have doesn't grow. So, for example, if I get a new pair of shoes, well, if I've already said I'm going to have 10 pairs of shoes and this is number 11, I need to give one up. So I will donate it or give it to a friend. Same could be true for clothing, for pots and pans in your kitchen, it could be, maybe even for books, right? If you don't want your book collection to pile up too much, maybe you put that same rule in place. But this is a great rule. It is not easy to honor, but if you do, you'll be really happy with how your house is maintained. This is a tip that I put in place about a year ago and it's really helped out our family. Have a donation bin handy in several rooms in your house. For example, in my master closet, I have a bin and I even created a pretty bin, right? A bin. And it has a label on it that says donate. And I'm able to if I'm taking some clothes and I'm done or I'm trying something on and I don't like it. I could put it in that bin and I can donate it or give it to somebody else who can make better use of it. But I don't put it back in my closet. I don't put it in the dirty laundry and it's actioned at that time. This is such a game changer. This works in many rooms. This can work in your kids playroom, this can work in a child's room. You know, if they're growing out of their clothes and you know you don't want to keep storing them, you just put them in the donation bin that you have in that room. And then as time goes on, you go and collect all the things that are in the different bins and take it to the donation center. This works so well. I highly recommend it. Labeling labels have secret powers. And you know why I say that? Because if you label things, things magically get put in the right place. Don't underestimate, you know, how much easier it makes cleaning up and for your family to try to put things where you want them. If you label things, it makes such a difference. Have a 15 minute pickup at the end of every evening and whether you do 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes is up to you. But don't underestimate a small amount of time and what it can do for you. Imagine waking up in the morning and your counters are clean, your dishes are done, the laundry's in bins, you picked up toys, all the things are where they're supposed to be. So each night, you know, just take a quick sweep through the house, get the dishes in the dishwasher, start the dishwasher, pick up any clothes or things that are laying around, put them in the bins where they need to be put, or put them in the laundry room. Pick up some toys so that your toy area and your kids play area is nice and clean when they enter it. And it overall it just makes, makes everything easy and it's just a small amount of time. So try it. And the nice thing is if you get everyone in the family doing this, number one, it makes a huge difference. So everybody just has to do five minutes. If you do that as well as it creates a habit that they'll have for the rest of their lives so that they'll constantly be doing this as well and they won't have clutter building up. If you lack on some of these tips and tricks and things start to pile up and get out of hand, it's okay, don't beat yourself up, just start again. So what you want to do is if things piled up in a particular room, grab all the trash, get it in the trash, get any recycle, put in, recycle. If you have anything that can be donated, put it in your nearby donation bin and then start to sort things out and figure out room by room where things need to go. And don't worry, this happens to everyone. The important thing is catching it before it gets too far out of control. Don't wait for spring to clean. That is one thing. We definitely forget that saying altogether. We want to make sure that managing and cleaning and being tidy all year long so that it makes it easy. We don't have this huge ginormous task to take care of in the spring. So make sure you're staying on top of things and as you're going through your day to day life, make note of areas that need extra attention. So what I'd like to do is get the notes app on my phone. I'll just open it up and go, you know what? I need to find a solution for shoe storage in my entryway. And I did that one day, maybe two weeks later. I had time on the weekend and I said I'm going to put a system in place place to help with this clutter because it's driving me crazy. So I put a solution in place and now shoes are no longer a problem. Everybody knows where they need to go and they go there. And I absolutely love the solution. So I'll do that with everything. If I find that maybe the silverware drawer, it's out of control. We have way too many forks or knives or spoons or something like that. Or there's nowhere to put straw, reusable straws or something. I'll put it in my notepad. If I don't have time to deal with it then, and then on the weekend I'll try to take care of one or two things on my list. I do this so that it helps put systems in place and things run smoother. But know that even the tidiest house needs to have some focus on a particular area every once in a while. So just keep track of what you want to work on and just work on one or two things at a time and you'll be amazed on what a difference it makes. I hope some of these tips and tricks were helpful. If you have any others that I didn't bring up today, put them in the comments and maybe it'll help somebody else and I can maybe even feature you in an upcoming video. So anyhow, I hope that you know you have less clutter in your home. You, you free up your mind, you don't have to worry about it and you enjoy your space more and I'll see you next time. Stay tid.