Before you purchased your new home, you likely fell in love with more than a few model homes. Expertly designed, they looked warm, welcome, and tidy. If only your new home could look that way! While model home living may seem unattainable, you can still take steps to keep your new home looking its best. Use the tips below to keep your new home, and life, organized.
Get Rid of the Clutter
The first, and potentially hardest, step involves getting rid of the clutter. When moving, you likely performed some de-cluttering out of necessity. Now that you’re settled, it’s time to take it a step further. Many home organization professionals advocate the following de-cluttering strategy:
- Keep
- Throwaway
- Give to charity
Go through your new home room by room and divide your possessions into those three categories. Pay special attention to duplicate and underused items and then ask yourself if you should keep it, toss it, or give it to charity?
After you de-clutter your new home, make a rule concerning bringing new stuff into the home. If you buy something new, you must toss or giveaway something.
Invest in Good Organizers
Once you’ve de-cluttered, you’ll have more space to work with. Now it’s time to get organized. Remember the old adage, “a place for everything and everything in its place”? Everything in your new home needs a place. This includes clothing, dirty clothes, school backpacks, study materials, bills, incoming and outgoing mail, newspapers, recycling, keys, pet beds and toys, and so on.
At this point, it may make sense to invest in a few home organizer systems such as a closet organizer, hooks, pull-out kitchen shelves, or file cabinets. In order to be effective, organizer systems need to be accessible and user friendly. For example, stacking a bunch of plastic tubs with lids on top of each other may get the job done, but your stored items in the bottom-most tubs will be impossible to get to without unstacking the entire system.
In addition, your home organizers should be attractive and well built, especially if they’ll be visible. For example, if your new home has a stunning, solid wood gourmet kitchen, a cheap kitchen storage system will undermine the kitchen’s aesthetic.
Create a System
Finally, you’ve de-cluttered your new home and organized it using a system of good quality home organizers. The house looks great and you deserve a pat on the back for a job well done. However, your job isn’t over yet. To ensure lasting results, you need a system in place. Yes, this means regular cleaning, de-cluttering, and home organizing.
One approach is to break housecleaning and home organization duties down into days of the week. For example, your week might look something like this:
- Monday – Laundry, clean out refrigerator
- Tuesday – Grocery shopping, dusting
- Wednesday – Vacuum, clean and organize office
- Thursday – Clean bathrooms
- Friday – Clean and organize kitchen
- Saturday – Mow lawn
- Sunday – De-clutter
How your list looks is really up to you. The most important point is to create a home organization routine that is both doable and doesn’t overwhelm you. Stick to it and your home and life will be more organized as a result.
