Tag: do-able chunks

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10 places you can declutter in 10 minutes

Can you find a spare 10 minutes in your day? Then you can declutter or tidy somewhere in your home, quickly and easily. This post lists 10 places you can declutter in just 10 minutes.

You can make a big difference in 10 minutes. Do it regularly and you’ll be making big strides forward before you know! Set the stopwatch and off you go!

Vintage stopwatch helping you with places to declutter
Photo credit: Ansgar Koreng (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Get started

  1. A quick tidy up is simple and makes a big difference. Take 10 minutes to clear the decks and stop clutter building up. Set the timer and work through each room, clearing the surfaces and putting stuff where it should go – junk mail in the recycling, clothes in the laundry basket, crockery in the sink or dishwasher. You can get quite a bit done in 10 minutes and you’ll feel much better about how things look.

Places you can declutter in the bathroom

  1. Declutter those small bottles of bubble bath, hand and body lotion and soap from hotels where you’ve stayed. Yes, they remind you of holidays past but you’ve probably got photos. Toiletries do go off, you know, and they also collect dust and grime in the bathroom. Have a clean sweep. You deserve it!
  1. Declutter medication that is past its expiry date, medication you’re no longer taking, and empty packets. Take it back to any pharmacy and they will destroy it safely. No charge.

Places you can declutter in the kitchen

  1. Do you actually like all those mugs you’ve got in your cupboard? Are there simply too many of them? Are there some that you never, ever use because they’re chipped or downright embarrassing? Wave bye-bye to mugs you don’t like and say hello to space in the kitchen.

    An assortment of mugs. Places to declutter
    Photo credit: Ewen Roberts (CC BY 2.0)
  1. Herbs and spices don’t last forever, you know, and fresh ones make your food taste so much better than stale ones. Go through your collection and throw away those with little or no smell, and those that are past their best by or use by date. Invest in new herbs and spices and taste the difference!
  1. If you haven’t used those small packets of sugar and condiments from takeaways by now, then you probably don’t need them. Fish them out, chuck them in the bin and wipe the shelf or drawer clean. Trust me, you aren’t going to miss your mini soy sauce collection.

More places you can  declutter quickly

  1. Let’s face it: you don’t really need those old biros, bits of crayon, broken pencils and feeble felt pens. Crank up the music, sit down at the table with some scrap paper and find out what works and what doesn’t. Tip: include those pencils that will never sharpen properly because their lead is broken all the way down.

    Many pens and pencils in a jar. Places to declutter
    Photo credit: stu_spivack (CC BY-SA 2.0)
  1. Is there any house without a bag of bags, often bags for life? Probably very few. Use the bags for your charity shop donations or just hand them straight over to smaller local charity shops which don’t have their own branded bags.
  1. Declutter the bedside table so you can find things in the dark without spilling your glass of water. Give the table a dust and polish and you’ll have a much better night’s sleep.
  1. If you love growing plants, as I do, your collection of plant pots seems to grow as well and soon becomes clutter. Luckily, more and more garden centres are recycling them. Get rid of pots which are broken, very small or an odd size or shape.

Great work!

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How to organise your home / making a start

From overwhelmed to organised

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by chaos at home, this is a good place for you. In this post I’m going to talk about how you can start to organise things at home and get things running more smoothly. I’ll look at small steps you can take towards having a home where you can relax.

Take small steps and you will soon move from overwhelmed to organised. You’ll feel much better overall, and you’ll have a sense of calm.

organise your home

Two recommendations for organising your house

First of all, focus on just one area at a time, such as one room or one drawer or one shelf. Make the area quite small because then you won’t be overwhelmed. In other words, don’t bite off more than you can chew!

Don’t be distracted. Focus on just one area at a time and you will see good progress quite quickly.

Secondly, most of us are busy people without much time. Fit in just 20-30 minutes of decluttering and organising every day and you’ll soon see a difference. Set the timer if you like!

Woman setting sports watch. Organise your home

Decide on your goal

It’s tempting to have a huge and ambitious goal like ‘I want to sort out everything in the house, the garden, the car and the children – oh and work too! As soon as possible and definitely by the end of next month!’

It’s a great goal but, realistically, decluttering and organising a house takes time. Let’s break the big goal down into do-able chunks. That means that you won’t be disheartened, you’ll be able to keep going and you’ll make steady progress.

Do-able chunks

The size of your do-able chunks will vary, depending on how much time and energy you’ve got. One drawer or one shelf at a time is absolutely fine.

Many people start with organising the area that annoys them the most. It might be shoes all over the place, for example, or piles of paperwork.

Make a note of the problem areas that really niggle you. Also make a note of  any ideas you’ve got about why these areas are problems.

Choose whichever area makes sense to you, set the timer and get started!

Get started

Make a big difference straightaway by putting all the obvious rubbish in the recycling or the bin. Great!

woman with large cardboard box. Organise your home
This is a good big box
Photo by bruce mars from Pexels

Next, use four boxes to sort items into:

  • Things you want to keep but which belong somewhere else in the house. Try to keep similar things together because it will help you to decide what to keep and how to organise them.
  • Things to be mended
  • Things to give to people or organisations who would appreciate them and make good use of them
  • Any recycling or rubbish you’ve overlooked.

As soon as possible, get the recycling and the donations out of the house. Go round the house to deliver those things that should be elsewhere.

Great work! This is a good start!

Now on to organising

Here are a few questions about different places and spaces in your home. Take your time to think about the best answer for you. You could try a few things out until it feels right.

Q. Are your items in the best place?

Do you keep things near where they are used? For example, is the bread knife near the bread and bread board? Are cups and mugs near the kettle?

Grouping things together with other similar items makes sense. You will probably have to rethink where you keep some things as you work through organising your home.

Q. Does some things have no permanent home at all?

That could be why they keep going walkabout. Keys, for example, seem very keen to disappear. Some people swear by always putting their keys in a bowl near the front door. That’s a  good place – if there is somewhere to keep the bowl. Where would make sense for something like this in your house?

Q. Does this area of your home do what you want it to?

If it does, that’s terrific. If it doesn’t, can you change things around or compromise a little? I know that sometimes it’s just not possible, though, because space is limited. It’s often difficult to fit in a drum kit, for example! Time to do what you can and be creative!

To label or not to label

Some people are mad keen on labelling as part of organising the home. Others? Well, they are not so keen. I think there’s a happy medium somewhere between.

Labelling certainly helps in bringing groups of things together, such as all the Christmas cards ready for next year, the spices, the medication or the batteries. And grouping items together helps you know what you’ve actually got. That means you don’t waste time trying to find things, or buying duplicates.

Secondly, labels distinguish between similar items such as keys.

Key labelled 'health'. Organise your home

Labelling also helps other people in the household or visitors to find what they are looking for. And maybe to put things back after they’ve used them!

Whether you use a label maker or make your own labels is your choice!

Learn from other people

Remember how you made a note about particular problem areas? You’re definitely not alone here!  Keep your eyes open for how other people have met similar problems because their answers might work for you.

Shoes in the hallway? Would an over-the-door organiser work? What about more shelves?

Plastic lids that keep falling out of the cupboard? Does each one have its own container and would a box keep them all under control?

Finally, could a professional organiser help you to organise your home?

If you’re overwhelmed with stuff, short of time and can’t see the way through, Uncluttered or another professional organiser would be pleased to help you. Getting professional help is a great step to take. That’s because we’ll help you to decide exactly what you’re aiming for, and we’ll work with you to get there. It makes it all do-able. (And we won’t be shocked or judge you.)