4 Tips to Keeping it Tidy
Clutter can creep into all areas of our home, it becomes most apparent in the kitchen, family room and bathrooms – the areas we are in most often. When the entire family uses these spaces they become magnets for everyone’s clutter, from the book you left unfinished, your kid’s dirty socks, or the junk mail your husband may want to see before it is recycled. We all have it – the question is how to deal with it! Here are a few tips to reduce your clutter:
1. Label, Label, Label
You may know where everything goes, howeveryour familymay not always remember. Unloading the dishwasher is an easy task if you know where to put the dishes. Help others by placing labels in drawers and on shelves to guide with chores. Items get left on counters when people do not know what to do with them – creating a labeling system will help decrease the unknown.
2. Make Tidying Part of Your Routine
Set a daily timer before bed, but after dinner to have “family tidy time”. Make it short (no more than 15 minutes), do it together and keep moving. The length of time should reflect the age of your kids, the younger ones may only be able to do 5 minutes. Togetherness makes the work go faster and keeps everyone on task. Do one room at a time – start with the family room. Have each family member take their own belongings back to their spaces, laundry rooms or bookshelves. Add music to make it more fun. Keep moving, don’t get distracted by mail or unfinished books.
3. Have Tidying Tools Accessible
Create spaces for shared interests in common rooms. If you have a family of bookworms, then have a book shelf or book basket in multiple rooms. In the kitchen be sure to have cleaning supplies like dustpans, rags and wipes handy for people to tidy up after themselves – label to keep the items in their space after use.
4. Organized Garbage
Garbage and recycling can be a daunting task for many people because they don’t know what can and can’t go in which bin. Even when they’ve been told, this information is not always consistent with what happens at school, work or other public spaces and therefore forgotten. Label your garbage, create clear distinctions between what goes where and have your local waste disposal brochure in an accessible place for family members to access regularly.
These are a few suggestions to keep clutter out of the common areas of your home! Contact me at ClutterLessLivingNow@gmail.com to discuss how I can help you label and sort through your active living areas.
About the Author: Randeep St. Jacques is a Certified KonMari Consultant on the North Shore and a member of the Professional Organizers of Canada. She is passionate about organizing for clients that are looking to reduce their clutter and organize their lives.
