Tips for a Clutter-Free Home: Inside and Out

Using a few tips for a clutter-free home and yard will get the counters cleared and the yard ready for relaxing. Once you finish one area, it will inspire you to start the next one. The goal is then to keep everything under control. Let’s look at some ideas to make that happen.

Everything in Its Place

A place for everything and everything in its place. As it turns out, that cliché is correct. Before organizing can happen, everything needs a place to go. The good news is that places to go include the trash.

Start with one area, either outside or inside your home, and focus on it until you finish. Clean out obvious trash, then begin making piles. Include these three piles: trash, donate, keep. Every object gets a pile. If the things you’re keeping don’t have a place to go, you’ve got to create a place.

Containers and Labels

We don’t suggest you become the crazy label person, labeling everything in your path. However, we do suggest you label when it’s useful. Labels encourage our family members and us to put things back where they belong. It’s easy to put an item away when the container is labeled with the item’s name.

Grab all kinds of containers, boxes, and bins when tackling a decluttering project. They always come in handy for storage, which is the only way to tame clutter.

Room by Room

As we mentioned, take it an area at a time. Here’s a list of rooms and what to look out for in each:

• Bathrooms: towel storage, empty containers, unused toiletries and cosmetics.
• Kitchen: empty spice jars, decorations that aren’t useful, small appliances never used, unorganized drawers.
• Living room: remotes, DVDs no longer watched, unnecessary pillows, cords in the way, tables covered in clutter.
• Home office: clear off the desk, recycle papers, file what you need to keep.

Choose which rooms bother you the most and start there. Don’t let anything sit around without a purpose.

Get Outside

Don’t let the outside of your home get away with remaining a cluttered mess while the inside is organized. You have a yard so you can enjoy it. Here are some suggestions for creating a clutter-free yard:

Garden Hose

Install a holder for the garden hose and roll it back up after every use. When the colder weather comes, pack the hose away in the garage.

Fire Pit

Enjoy the fire pit all year by using steel logs instead of wood. Steel logs offer many benefits, including less mess. There’s no cleaning up of ashes necessary, and even better, there’s no need to store wood. Storing wood gets messy. This quick change relieves mess and clutter quickly.

Contain the Cushions

There’s still time to enjoy sitting outside during these crisp autumn nights. Keep outdoor furniture cushions in excellent shape by placing a container on the deck to store them all. It keeps everything neat and tidy and protects the cushions.

We hope our tips for a clutter-free home encourage you to get those decluttering projects started and keep your home clutter-free, inside and out.

image credit: Adobe Stock