With the ongoing pandemic, you’re still probably spending more time at home than ever before. While this has offered abundant time to relax and enjoy quality time with family, there’s one surefire way to sabotage your domestic bliss: a messy home.
Stacks of papers, cluttered counters, and overstuffed rooms can put a big damper on your mood, but there are a few
home organization
products and strategies that can help you conquer the chaos and take back your peaceful abode:
Organize one room at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed.
Choose items that help you tame trouble areas.
Maximize your best storage spaces.
Purge anything that’s nonessential, broken, or no longer in use.
Incorporate items that keep your home organized.
Keep reading to see how these valuable tips can make everything under your roof neater and run smoother.
Tackle One Room at a Time
If you’re trying to organize a messy home, you need to get some easy wins under your belt. Focus on
one small area or room at a time
to see some progress and avoid getting overwhelmed. You may have a lot of work on your hands, so
Better Homes & Gardens
notes several ways you can see quick results by expanding your storage options and cutting down on clutter:
Stow loose items in stylish wood or wicker containers that offer an opportunity to enhance your home’s style.
Use trays and containers for your office and other areas with small items.
Consider fixed and hidden storage options, like ottomans, storage beds, and flip-top benches, that neatly tuck away items in their interior storage spaces.
It’s also important to reconsider items found in the room you’re organizing to ensure everything belongs. You may find items taking up space in one room and realize they go better somewhere else, particularly if you’re short on storage space.
Choose Items That Help Tame Trouble Areas
Some areas of your home tend to become disorganized quicker, and nowhere is that more true than your
kitchen
. As one of the most used rooms in your home, your kitchen can quickly turn into a jungle of countertop appliances without a home, overstuffed drawers, and stacks of cookware.
A cluttered, inefficient kitchen isn’t just an ugly eyesore, though. It can be a hazard when you’re dealing with open flames, high temperatures, sharp utensils, and heavy items. Fortunately,
House & Home
notes some creative ways to tame kitchen clutter while upgrading the look and feel of this space:
Install slide-out shelves that allow you to effortlessly reach the back of any storage space.
Use clear jars to conveniently store cooking items such as sugar, flour, and even baked goods.
Consider vertical slide-out drawers to store hard-to-fit cooking tools.
Install drawer dividers for those clusters of utensils that are a nightmare to dig through.
Glamour
notes that clear dividers can help give some boundaries to unstructured shelves and cabinets where items may be spilling all over each other.
If you’re low on cabinet storage, consider "freestanding storage" furniture, such as a glass-front cabinet.
Other common areas of the home that seem to attract messes are closets and garages. These spaces are out of the way and don’t get as much foot traffic, so it’s very common for homeowners to fill these areas with an overflow of items. Common culprits include holiday decorations, appliances, and tools.
Maximize Your Best Storage Spaces
Regardless of the size of your home, you can quickly run out of storage space. Particularly if you have a large family, you may find yourself running low on places to keep household items.
The
Spruce
explains that the most valuable storage space, your “prime real estate,” are the drawers, cupboards, shelves, and racks that are easily accessible.
This is where you'll want to place your most frequently used items. If you are planning on using vertical space above your head for storage, invest in a quality step ladder.
Also, purchase sturdy plastic totes with snapping lids so items don’t fall out onto you as they are taken down. The last thing you want to do is place cardboard boxes filled with heavy books in your attic or on top shelves. Generally, you should plan on putting lighter items up higher and keep heavier things closer to the floor.
Purge Any Unused, Broken, or Non-Essential Items
When it comes to clearing out unnecessary items in your home and getting organized, closets are often the first place to look. Again, because they’re off the beaten path, they can quickly fill up with unnecessary items without you even realizing it. To avoid a complete disaster, you can incorporate some storage items and organizational rules to keep the clutter at bay:
Avoid overstuffing clothing rods: Regularly place any clothing items that don’t fit into a stylish storage bin before you donate or sell them.
Don’t air out your dirty laundry: Particularly in custom closets, there are a number of hidden hamper options that can keep soiled clothes out of sight.
Throw out mismatched hangers: Invest in a matching set of streamlined hangers to fit more of your clothes, stay more organized and upgrade your closet’s appearance.
Another place in your home that may need some attention is your
home office
. Particularly if you work out of it, this utilitarian space can quickly get bogged down in a mess of clutter. Have a stylish trash bin, matching receptacle, and a good quality shredder nearby to eliminate all unnecessary mail, packaging, and documents that seem to stack up.
Incorporate Items to Make it Easy to Keep Your Home Organized
One of the hardest parts about organizing a home is keeping it that way. If you have a big family, it will probably be a team effort where everyone contributes. Fortunately, there are a number of products that can ensure full participation:
To keep responsibilities straight, consider incorporating a chalkboard into your decor to list out tasks and assign them to each family member.
Place a small bin or tray at your front door’s drop zone. This defined space will corral keys, wallets, and other items, keeping them from spilling out onto the surface and getting lost.
Set up stylish mail holders where you can keep and sort all those incoming letters, bills, and advertisements before they have a chance to cover your coffee table.
A dry-erase or chalkboard also works great in the kitchen so you can immediately mark down items for your upcoming shopping trip and avoid unnecessary purchases.
Make it easy to store sensitive documents by purchasing accordion folders that have separate dividers for simple filing.
Use colored tabs to label drawers with folders and keep bills, receipts, and other types of documents straight.
Conclusion
The simpler you make it for your family to stay organized, the more likely it will be that you can maintain a neat, clean home. If you’re like most homeowners today who continue to spend more time around the house, the mess can significantly impact your mood. Fortunately, there are many essential home organization products that can make it much easier to maintain a space you love coming home to (or never leaving).
Sources
https://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/organization-basics/must-have-storage-essentials/
https://www.glamour.com/gallery/storage-and-organization-essentials
https://houseandhome.com/gallery/best-home-organization-tips/#image-1
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-create-storage-space-2648314
