: Simple Decluttering :

How To Organize Your Master Closet

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:55:30 +0000

I have plenty of closet space in my apartment. However I wasn’t completely satisfied how they were organized. Especially my master closet was a mess. That’s why I decided to spend some time on organizing my master closet and write a small article about it. Doing this operation has benefits as your closet gets easier to use. Also, you get to free-up some space on other closets as well after doing this.

The less used stuff goes up

I have couple of mattresses and blankets in my master closet that I rarely use. Because of this, I decided to put those items on the top-level of my closet. It is the most difficult level to reach, but it doesn’t matter since those items are used less frequently. Also, it’s the most convenient place for them since they are big items and there is now more space for stuff that’s being used more frequently.

The more frequently used stuff is placed where it’s easy to reach

This is the stuff I might use on daily basis and which needs to have an easy access to. For example, I have a basket for storing temporarily all the empty bottles that go to recycling on weekly basis and it’s located on the floor of my master closet. There is also another basket, which contains recyclable newspapers and magazines and because it’s used almost on daily basis, it has to be easily reachable.

Clothing

There is one bar for clothing in my closet. I tend to store such clothes there, that I don’t use that often. Also, some seasonal clothing is stored there too. I used to have this stuff in my bedroom closet, but in order to free up some space there, I decided to those items to my master closet instead. Also, my backpacks found their way to master closet too so they won’t take space elsewhere.

I also store some of my shoes in my master closet. Few of them of them are on the floor and these are mainly outdoor shoes. I have also covered a floor under them with a cardboard, since they may carry sand and dust into my apartment. Rest of my shoes are in a special “six units shelve”, which can be attached to a bar. That’s the place where you can store your shoes vertically on top of each other.

Decoration

All the decoration is in one big box which is labeled as “Decoration”. By this way I can keep all the items in one place take them easily from there when needed.

Items related to hobbies

There is an area in my closet dedicated to my hobbies too. Whether it is a Gym Stick, yoga mat or sticks for Nordic Walking, they all have their place there. Some of the less used sports clothing are stored in a basket dedicated to them.

Suitcases

I used to store my suitcases in my bedroom closet. Not anymore! They took actually quite a lot of space there, so they are now located on the floor (under the lowest level of the shelf). Occasionally I might have some other bigger bags there too. Even if the place is not the easiest to reach, there is the same principle used as always – if the item is rarely used, it doesn’t matter if it’s bit more difficult to reach.

Conclusion

With these small organizational steps in my master closet I could free up some valuable storage place elsewhere. This is an important thing to do especially if you have limited storage space to use.

Tired Of Clutter? Do you want to have an organized home?

If you said yes to those questions, why not try DeClutter Fast?

This is an e-book that gives strategies on how to have an organized home, how to keep it organized and how to have a home that you can enjoy. Click here to check it out now!

How To Organize Your Bookshelf

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:19:12 +0000

Almost every home has a bookshelf. Although I have started to buy more and more e-books, there is still demand for a bookshelf. Unfortunately quite often is your bookshelf unorganized and in most cases it contains things that don’t belong in there. Therefore these tips can help you to organize your bookshelf to serve its purpose better.

Decide what stays and goes

Go through all your books and decide, what stays there, what you are going to keep (but not on the bookshelf), what goes for recycling or what you are going to sell. Have three different boxes for keepers (taken away from the shelf), recycling or selling.

Label the boxes by its purpose. The first box could have a label which simply says “Books for keeping”. Put those books there that you want to keep (but which are taken out of the bookshelf). The second box could be labeled as “Books for recycling” and you could actually have two ways of proceeding with it: First, you could offer your books to a local library. This is something that is possible in my home town (and I believe that it’s possible elsewhere too). If you still have books left in that box (“Books for Recycling”), take them to local recycling box in your area. However you may need to find out what’s the local policy on books recycling (as this may vary). The third box contains the books you want to sell. You can take your books to a local flea market and see if anyone is interested of buying them. You can also try to sell them online too.

I have tried to recycle my books as much as possible (thus it’s the only option of those I have used personally). Although the other options might be practical ones too, for me the recycling is the easiest one since I can do it quickly.

Turn them electronic

I tend to download e-books more and more every month. I find the delivery and storage method to be very convenient. I’m not saying that one should replace all the books from physical to electronic form. However in some situations e-books work better than traditional ones. For example, some titles may only be found as electronic ones and the speed of delivery is of course something that beats the traditional books hands down.

One of the biggest disadvantages of having a electronic book is it’s usability. Normally it’s a pain to read many pages through your computer screen, thus you are tied to a computer when reading an e-book. This may change in the future, when devices like Kindle (by Amazon) become more common. I haven’t tried one yet, but I have to admit that the idea is very compelling.

Turn them to audio

Amazon and other online marketplaces offer also audio versions of their books. By this way you can download the book in audio format and listen to it in your MP3 player. This once again saves space on your bookshelf.

Remove all the unessential ones

Keep only those books visible on your bookshelf that you find to be essential to you. That way your bookshelf doesn’t look overstuffed. Besides, you find those books you need much faster than in an overstuffed bookshelf.

Have an easy location for your bookshelf

Try to locate your bookshelf some place convenient, preferable somewhere where its location fits its purpose. For example my bookshelf is located in my work room and it contains all the titles that I may need in my work. My bookshelf is easily accessible and I can quickly access the book I want.

Magazines are allowed

Although the bookshelf is meant mainly for books, I may have magazines or reports there that I might occasionally need. The way I keep them organized is by buying them a separate magazine storage folders, which could be located for example at the bottom level of your bookshelf. You could also label your storage boxes to see quickly what’s in it (if it’s non-transparent).

Categorize them by usage

To make your bookshelf even easier to use, try to categorize you books. You could have different levels for different purposes (you could even label the levels by the category). If you happen to store books of different category on a same level, you could purchase book dividers to keep them apart. Also, it helps to have your books to be stored so that the one you most frequently use are the easiest to access.

Conclusion

You can organize your bookshelf by various ways. And no matter if electronic books become more and more common the traditional books are not going away. And because of that, there is still need for bookshelves for many years to come

Tired Of Clutter? Do you want to have an organized home?

If you said yes to those questions, why not try DeClutter Fast?

This is an e-book that gives strategies on how to have an organized home, how to keep it organized and how to have a home that you can enjoy. Click here to check it out now!

How To Organize Your Bills

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:34:31 +0000

I keep track of my bills by using these simple tips. Naturally when dealing with larger volumes of bills, they may require a different types of procedures to manage. These tips presented here work for me.

Reduce the amount of the incoming ones

To make this short – if possible, cut the unneeded magazine subscriptions. You might have magazines that you never have time to read and naturally as long as you stay as a subscriber, those magazines keep coming in. And so does the bill too. So if you think that you could let go of the subscription, then your money gets saved and there is one bills less coming in.

Change them to electronic ones

This one is my favorite. I want to receive my bills as much as possible in electronic form. For example, my bank used to send me lots of bills and their notifications by mail and I was able to cut down most of them by saying that I want to receive the electronically. Not only was this more nature friendly, but it also freed up my time handling and archiving the paper bills.

Have them in a designated (temporary) area for processing

Whenever I get a new bill, I put it to a temporary location, until I have the time to take care of it. For example, after receiving a bill, I put it to an inbox, that’s located on my desk in my work room. By that way I don’t have bills all over my home. Instead, they are in one central place waiting for further processing.

Take care of them the as soon as possible

I used to have a fixed schedule for handling my bills (on Sundays), but lately I have been processing the bills as soon as I can. There are both pros and cons to both of these ways, but for the latter one seems to work much better for me. As soon as I have processed the bill, I don’t have to worry over it anymore.

Pay your bills using your computer

This is obvious advice since online banking is much more widespread than it used to be some years ago. However in some countries this might not be possible at all. In my country (Finland) it is possible and I have been paying my bills through my bank’s online system since 1997. I just love the fact of taking care of the stuff myself when I want as opposed of going to the bank and perhaps waiting your turn in a queue for a long time.

Mark them after you have processed them

After paying the bill, I mark it so that I can see when it was taken care of. I draw a rectangle around the amount I paid and then write a date when it was processed.

Have your files easily accessible

After you have taken care of the bill, you need to move it to your filing system. Whatever type of system you have, it should be easily accessible. Mine is in the same room where my computer is (I pay my bills using my computer). I’m using document folders which are located in the closet behind my back. They are easy to reach and I can put all the documents there very quickly.

Have your personal archive more usable

Categorize your personal filing archives by a type. Since I’m using document folders, for example one part is dedicated to taxes, one is dedicated to credit card bills, another is dedicated to various subscriptions (magazines, cable tv …)

Organize you bills in your filing system

I go through my bills every year to see if there is anything I could take out and get rid of. This is however something that depends of the type of your bill. For example bills/documents related to your taxation might have very strict rules for how many years you should keep them. The safest thing to do is to consult the authority in question (bank, tax authorities …) and ask their opinion first before getting rid of the document that you might needed sometime later. If I decide to get rid of certain documents, I destroy them by using a shredder.

Then there are some documents that I don’t throw away at all. These documents are for example everything related to my apartment. Because those documents are very important and I want to access them quickly, I have stored them in a separate document folder. It also contains other documents related to my apartment too.

Conclusion

The process I use for handling my bills is quite simple: As soon as I have opened the envelope where the bill is, I put it to my inbox on my workroom’s table. Then I take care of it as soon as I can by paying it using my bank’s online system. After that I mark it with a date when it was paid (by pen) and put it to my document folder, which I have divided into different categories. I go through my document folders every year to see if there is anything that can thrown away.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

How To Organize Your Paper Files

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:38:34 +0000

Even though the paperless office has been a dream for years, there is actually more and more paper floating around in our offices every day. Often we also find that our own filing system is overloaded with documents we might not even need. And when that is the case, it’s time to take action to reduce the paper clutter and make the filing easier to achieve.

Don’t print it if not necessary

The first step is to stop printing if not absolutely necessary. Sure, there are times when you need to print an important document, but printing every single email message is not a right way to go. It increases paper clutter and there is a bigger risk that the paper keeps floating around on your desk even if you don’t need it.

Get rid of the papers you don’t need

Go through your files and decide what is safe to throw away. There are some documents you are required to keep (for example mortgage papers, taxation documents, insurance documents …), but there also may be documents that are not that important. In order to know if it’s safe to get rid of certain document, you should consult the authority in question (or the party who sent/gave you the document in the first place) about the document and what to do with it.

Have a filing system

It helps if you have a way to centralize your documents (for easier access). This means you could buy a filing cabinet or some document folders to do this. Both of these have pros and cons.

If you decide to buy a filing cabinet, you have a clear central location for all your files. However you might have to find a space for it and cabinets might be expensive too.

Document folders take a lot less space and are less expensive than filing cabinets. However it is very easy to overstuff it with too many papers, thus you might need couple of separate ones to deal with all your documents.

Depending if you want to buy a filing cabinet or just deal with document folders is really dependable of your space, budget and filing needs. I’m using document folders since I have been able to reduce the amount of papers I’m storing there.

Have an easy access to your files

In order to keep your files organized and your desk clean, have your filing system somewhere easily accessible. For example, I pay all my bills using online banking system, so after I have taken care of my bills, I have a document folder in the closet behind my back. I used to have the folder on the upper level of that closet, but I found out that it was much harder to take it down from there, put the processed documents back in and lift it back there. Eventually I decided to put it on lower level so that I had one step less to do when paying my bills. This was a very simple improvement, but works much better than the earlier setup I had.

Easier the access is, less there is danger of leaving the bills or other important papers on your desk.

Categorize

Have a categorization system for all your documents. Some use alphabetical order (I haven’t tested this though), but I have been using some generic categories and I have been able to manage my files that way. I have divided my document folder to use categories like Bank, Taxes, Apartment, Credit Cards, Misc, Computer, Travel and Certificates.

Conclusion

I’m keeping my documents and papers organized using these tips I just described. Naturally the needs may be different in your situation, however these tips work for me, since the volume of paper is not that big.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

Organize Basement

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:55:39 +0000

Basement organization can be a very big project. This is especially true if you have stored items there for years without doing any organization at all. However once you got the basement organized, you should do frequent checks so that the clutter won’t find its way there again.

Take care of all the extra stuff first

The first step as in any other organizing operation is to get rid of the stuff you don’t need. For many people, basement is a place to dump stuff that they don’t use anymore or think that they might need someday.

When starting the organization, have four different plastic bags for taking care of your basement. First one is for junk that you are actually going to throw away. You should categorize that stuff too so that items that go for recycling are in a separate bag. You might even find something worthwhile selling if it’s in good condition, so have a third bag for those items. And fourth bag is for things you want to donate. Naturally in some cases you might use boxes too, since some items might be too big for plastic bags.

For bigger things (and especially if you have lots of it), it’s a good idea to order a dumpster for them. Once again, you may need to categorize what to put there. In some cases some stuff may not be suitable for just throwing away and therefore you need to find out (by asking your city’s/town’s environment authorities) how to deal with that kind of stuff in general.

Clean the floor

Before you can start putting things into their places, it’s a good idea to clean the floor first. Get rid of the dust declutter and if your basement has windows, open them up for some fresh air.

Put things to shelves and categorize them

My basement is actually very small, so I have to take advantage of all the space there is. If possible, I try to store as much stuff possible on the shelves. However that might not be possible all the time. There are numerous reports on water flooding on the floors for example on extreme weather conditions and if you have stuff on the floors, it may ruin those items there completely.

So, try to put as much stuff on the shelves. You might want to put stuff to storage boxes and label them what they contain. Insert the boxes so that the items you need the most are easiest to reach.

Don’t store everything there

There are times when certain items are not very good for storing in the basement. This may be for example CDs, records, books or clothes. Moisture and insects are perhaps one of the most common enemies for those kinds of items.

Take time to do it

Organizing your basement may be a very big project (depending of the size of course), so you might want to dedicate some time for it (for example on weekends). After completing this, you realize how much new free space there is available and you start to figure out how you can take most out it.

Conclusion

After decluttering and organizing my basement, it went from being an overstuffed space to easy to use storage place where all the stuff that I need is easy to reach and use. It takes some effort to do the organization, but once you do it in small sprints (as I did), you eventually see it organized and feel good about that.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

How To Organize Your Magazines And Newspapers

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:10:02 +0000

I have been subscribing to various magazines as long as I can remember. These magazines have been related to my work or my hobbies. If you have bunch of magazines all over your home (like I did) and you want to organize them, here you can find some tips how to do it.

Get rid of the ones you don’t read first

I kept saving old magazines in my basement and closets and eventually my magazine stacks started to be quite big. So I took a good look at them and threw most of the magazines out. By throwing them out I mean recycling them. This saves the nature and your old magazines can be reused for something else. This same information applies to newspapers too.

Turn them electronic

In some cases it’s possible to turn your magazine or newspaper subscriptions to electronic ones and read them on your computer. This way you don’t have to handle them physically at all. The downside is that you need to start-up your computer to read them, thus the reading experience is not as good as in the paper version. However, electronic subscriptions are very powerful way of decreasing the paper clutter.

Unsubscribe the ones you don’t need

Take a good look at your subscriptions and decide if there is anything you can unsubscribe. At some point I had five different magazine subscriptions and I realized that I never really had time to read them through. So I decided to unsubscribe most of them and I haven’t missed those at all.

Stack them into magazine storage boxes

There might be some magazines or even newspapers that you would like to keep. The easiest way to handle them is to buy magazine storage boxes and put them there. Naturally you could also put a label the boxes by mentioning the name of the magazine and the year range too. That way you can find your magazines easily if you need them.

Have a baskets for daily newspapers and for recycling

Instead of piling stuff on your coffee or kitchen table, you might want to have a basket instead, where you put all your daily magazines and newspapers (that you are going to process later).

For recycling purposes you could also have a separate basket (a bigger one) for all the magazines or papers that have come to your home during the week. What I do is that I empty the smaller basket from the magazines or news papers I have read on daily basis to this bigger one. At the end of the week I take all the papers and magazines in my recycling basket to a nearest recycling point. By this way you prevent those baskets to have reasonable amount of paper in them and the amount of clutter won’t grow too big.

Conclusion

After reading a newspaper or magazine, I put it to a basket that’s in my kitchen. Just before going to bed in evening, I take those magazines and newspapers I have read to a separate basket (in my master closet). I empty that basket on weekly basis and all of that paper there goes to recycling. This is the way that helps me to keep the amount of magazine and newspaper clutter to the minimum. Also, cut down all the subscriptions that you don’t really need. This action alone helped me tremendously when fighting against the newspaper and magazine clutter.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

Organize Your Clothes

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:31:15 +0000

Your clothing needs organization too. Even with some small steps you can manage your clothing easier and by that way your home looks better too. Thus, you get rid of all the stuff that you don’t really need and save some space too.

Develop a “Do I need this?” mindset

When purchasing something new, decide if you need it in the first place. Is this an impulse buy or is it really something you need? I used to buy clothes which I didn’t wear that much after all. That’s why I nowadays decide very carefully when buying new clothing. I might not have the trendiest or latest clothing, but something that I find comfortable and I can wear for years.

Plan before starting – take some time to do the organization operation

Planning phase is very important part of the whole organization. Here you actually take some time to do the organization operation. Most of us have time to do it on the weekends, so reserve a certain time block for this task and for nothing else. The amount of time is really dependable of you and your overall timetable. I like to do things in a small chunks, but occasionally when I get the ball rolling, I might spend couple of hours of organizing stuff before I quit for the day.

Be aware that this task may be very tedious, so you might want to take breaks (when spending a lot of time organizing), or listen to some music while doing it.

Get some tools ready

Organizing your clothing doesn’t have to be a difficult operation. I have organized my clothing by using these tools:

Shoe rack (inside the hall closet)
“Six units shelve” for storing the shoes vertically (for master closet)
Enough clothing hangers (I prefer wooden ones)
Empty boxes (for your socks and other small items)
Label maker (for labeling those boxes and plastic bags)
Plastic bags/boxes (bigger sized) for doing the initial cleanup in the beginning

This is just a start but you can get more creative by visiting various web sites or local stores (or supermarkets) to see what kinds of utilities they got for clothing organization and organization in general.

First steps in organizing your clothes

Ok, so now you are actually starting the whole organization operation. The first part is the similar than in any other organization operation: Sell it, trash it, donate it or recycle it. You may have separate plastic bags or boxes for each of these categories. Whatever the way is, you want to label them, so you remember what type of clothing you have in your boxes or bags.

Once this first part of the organization is done, you should have only the stuff that you want to keep. The next thing you need to do is to process the plastic bags/boxes you just labeled. I rarely need to put clothing to trash, since for the most of the time they are in good condition for donating them. But sometimes the only option is to trash them.

If you decide to donate or sell your stuff, it would be preferable if you have a plan before doing this (where and when to sell). Personally I have sold any of my clothing and I prefer to donate my stuff if it is in good condition.

Recycling is an option too if you have an access to a recycling box or center near to your area.

Separate space for separate clothing within a closet

I have reserved separate areas in my closet for different types of clothing. For example all my socks are in one box which is labeled as “Socks”. In order to remember which sock belongs to which pair, I have stuffed my socks inside each other. My jeans are stored in a completely separate section in my closet where they can be easily found and to reach. Also, I have my suit in a different closet than the rest of the everyday clothing I have.

Conclusion

With these tips you can get your clothing organization started. I have used these steps to organize my own clothes.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

Living Room Organization

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:25:54 +0000

When I think of living room, two things come in to my mind instantly: entertainment and guest.

Entertainment is essential part of every living room because of the television, DVD player, digital set-top box or stereo equipment. In majority of homes these devices exist there and we like to entertain ourselves for example by watching television, movies or listening to music. Also, your guests are going to be sitting in your living room couch for the most of the time during their visit, since it’s one of the most convenient places (in addition to kitchen) to have a conversation and have a great time.

Then there is also education, which may also be part of your living room – at least it is part of mine. I for sure like to read and I have found living room to be one of the best places for that activity.

Keep it simple

The ideal living room is very simple but functional. Sofas and chairs are located so, that it’s easy for guests to discuss with each other and have a good time. Television, DVD player, digital set-top box or stereos are located so, that they are easy to reach, use and see.

Remove all the extra stuff

I try to keep all the CDs or DVDs away from tables. At some point I had a special rack for their storage, but nowadays they are located in a drawer (in my TV stand). That’s the place where I put them after using them as soon as possible.

I like to keep my coffee table clear out of anything extra. I used to have books, reports and magazines there, but I realized, that their place is somewhere else. Put the books to a bookshelf and magazines to a magazine racks. If you have CDs, try to get a CD storage container for easy storage. Naturally you want to make sure, that the cd’s are inside their covers first. By that way they don’t gather dust and stay in good condition much longer. You might even want to buy a box for CDs which can be then located in a drawer or someplace else out of the sight.

Sometimes old family furniture can be a good thing when it comes organizing your living room. There is a very old coffin in one corner of the room, which acts not only as decoration but also as a storage place for board games.

If you like to read in your living room (as I do) you might want to have a basket for magazines or books that in progress. Put them there after each reading session.

Remember its purpose

I try to keep the living room the way it is intended to. This means for example, that if you feel hungry, try to eat in the kitchen instead of living room. Not only does that increase the risk of food clutter but also the chance of leaving your dirty dishes there too.

Show the essentials only

It’s tempting to keep all the possible family pictures and every other memorable goods visible. Whether it’s just the most important prizes you won in your sports hobbies or the cutest pictures of your god children, try to choose ones which means the most to you. This is the way I have organized my living room and it helps me to enjoy the pictures and other even more.

Conclusion

It’s important to remember your living room’s purpose and organize it so that it is relaxing place to entertain your quests and yourself too. This article described some simple ways I have organized my living room.

Organizing your home the easy way!

Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

11 House Cleaning Tips For Easier Cleaning Experience – Part 2

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:47:39 +0000

Do it together

Do you have a family? Do you live in a relationship with someone else? Why not assigning tasks for everyone to get involved? By that way everyone can do their part, home gets cleaner much faster and everyone can feel good about clean and organized home.

Hire some help

If possible, do you dream about letting some else do the work for you so that you can concentrate too much more meaningful and important tasks? Why not hiring some professional help to do the job? Let others clean your home for you! This of course means spending some money rather than doing it yourself. But there are benefits too: You are freeing up your own time but also you get to employ someone too. It’s a win-win situation!

Make it more enjoyable with music

Make the tedious task a bit more enjoyable by listening to some music while you are cleaning. Pick your favourite artist, load it into your MP3 player and start cleaning. Quite soon you realize, that time goes faster this way and cleaning is done!

Take a break

Cleaning is very physical work so don’t overload yourself too much with it. If you have a big home, proceed by taking breaks during the cleaning. By this way you can complete the task easier. Taking breaks is ok even if you have a smaller home too

Proceed Logically (Up to down, categorize)

You can do the cleaning the easy way or the hard way. Doing it the hard way would be when you start out in a certain room by cleaning the floor a bit, then jumping to declutter your desk and then back to cleaning the floor. Instead, enter the room, declutter it first, then clean the levels or floors at once, and proceed to another room. Also when cleaning the stairs or windows, it much easier to start on the top first. Start from top and then move down. Remember, make it easier for yourself!

Reward yourself

After you have done the cleaning, it’s time to reward yourself for the good work. You accomplished one of the most tedious tasks in you household. Take a cup of coffee, watch a movie … you have earned it

Organizing your home the easy way! Want to organize your home without exhausting yourself? Have you tried Home Organization For Busy People?

This e-book gives strategies and tips on how to have organize your home in small and easy steps! Click here to check Home Organization For Busy People now!

House Cleaning Tips For Easier Cleaning Experience

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:44:34 +0000

I don’t know about you but for me cleaning my home is definitely one of the most boring and tedious tasks I know. I would rather use my time for something more pleasant and for a quite long time I avoided the cleaning task in the first place. Needless to tell you, that wasn’t a good decision! Finally I realized that since this task has to be done frequently, why not try to make it a little bit easier for myself. So here are some tips that make the cleaning itself a little bit more enjoyable and faster to complete.

Set a fixed schedule

This is a very important part, since it creates consistency and prepares you mentally for your task. Depending on how often you want to clean your home is definitely up to you, but nevertheless, setting a fixed schedule for it is a good thing to do. For example, you might decide that you will clean your home every Saturday. Or, every two weeks (or whatever suits you the best). The key here is to set a fixed schedule so you know what is coming at some point of the week.

For me it is helpful to have this kind of schedule, since it helps me to prepare mentally for the upcoming task. One thing to note here: don’t make your fixed schedule too frigid. For example if I’m sick or otherwise just too tired to do the cleaning, I’ll postpone it the next day. Cleaning is not the most lightest tasks there is, so you want to feel good before you start doing it.

So now you have set the fixed schedule for your cleaning, it’s time to tweak you schedule even more …

Do it as soon as possible

Let’s say that you decided that you are going to do the cleaning on Saturdays. That’s good but remember what I said about the task being the most boring ones I can imagine (at least for me it is ). I have noticed that in many cases – whether the task is cleaning or something else and especially if it’s a boring one – it helps quite a bit to do as soon as possible. Perhaps event the first thing in the morning. Naturally I’m not talking about doing as soon as you wake up, but for example after the breakfast (or as soon as it fits to your schedule). After doing it the first thing in the morning, you know that it’s done and that’s all there is to it! You can enjoy the rest of the day with other activities. I have noticed, that if I postpone this task for later, I might not do it at all and then you are more likely to decide that you’ll do it the next day and if you happen to postpone it even then … You know what I mean. Do it as soon as it fits to your schedule. Do not procrastinate!

Declutter first

When I’m cleaning (for example vacuum cleaning), I like to do that and nothing else. I really find it irritating to stop vacuuming because I have found an item that I have to remove first in order to proceed. In order to prevent this kind of thing happening, go through every room and clean every item not belonging there (clothes on the floor, magazines all over the coffee table on the living room …) After doing this you can concentrate on cleaning the floors without interruptions, then all the levels without the interruptions and so on. The decluttering part itself is important too, because during that process, you can rid of stuff that you don’t need. And oh, it truly helps to keep decluttering every day, so the clutter problem isn’t that big when you start to clean your home.

Start with the nastiest places first

This is sort of like an extension to second section of this article (Do it as soon as possible) but I like to do the nastiest cleaning first. For me that is toilets and bathrooms. This is something you have to do whether you want it or not, so why not do it first thing so that it’s done then and you can move on. Other places which I find difficult to clean are the floors under the beds or sofas. I clean them first when entering the room and then finish the rest of the room after that.

Take small bites at a time

I used to clean my home in three parts. On day one was floors, on day two I cleaned the levels and on day three I cleaned the toilets and sinks. By doing this I didn’t have to spend too much time on daily basis on cleaning and had time for something else too. Besides, I knew that after cleaning the floors on day one, I had started the cleaning operation in the first place and I felt good about it. I wasn’t postponing it or procrastinating on it. I took action! Whether this way of cleaning works or not is dependable of what kind of schedule you have and if you are willing to split the task for several days in the first place.

Conclusion

Yes – cleaning is a tedious task that we have to do frequently. However using certain simple principles makes this task easier to accomplish. Doing certain things first and taking small steps at a time, helps you to clean your home easier and faster.

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