Does your car resemble a highly portable rubbish tip? I know your struggle. I used to struggle to keep my car neat and tidy and often shuddered with sheer embarrassment at the thought of having anyone looking into my car let alone entering it.
When everyone was arranging car pooling on a work lunch outing I would wait silently, hoping someone else would volunteer and save me the impending doom that awaited me once anyone saw the state of my commuting “situation”.
When other people would give me a lift I often marveled at the beauty or their organised back seat, not a thing out of place. I wanted this car sanctuary for myself. I wanted to walk into my car and feel relaxed knowing I could find everything I needed, when I needed it and take on unexpected passengers without ultimate fear of being judged.
After decluttering my home, I began to transfer the organisation habits I had developed in my home to my car. It was a space that I drove around in every day, and was visible to the world. I felt the need to bring it into alignment with my new-found love of organised spaces.
After implementing these small changes over time I have managed to keep my car tidy on a continual basis which allows me to stay unexpected passenger shame-free and enjoy a space that I spend on average 10 hours a week in.
Try these 12 Easy to Maintain Car Organisation Tips to keep your car organised that only take a small amount of planning and very little work week to week.
1.
Utilise Note pads
Keep a note pad and pen in your middle console to have handy for any quick notes you need to jot down. This will save you having random pieces of paper strewn around your car (and handbag).
2. Make a plan for loose coins
Keep a small coin purse (even a zip-lock sandwich bag will do) in your middle console for loose change. Whenever you get any change through the drive through etc, put it in this bag for handy change for next time or parking.
3. Get a bin for your car
Use a large cereal container for a bin. It will only need to be emptied once or twice a week and will keep your car looking much tidier than having rubbish thrown all over the floor. Each time you get to the petrol station or walk past your outdoor bins at home (ours are right next to the driveway) assess your car quickly for any rubbish and take it with you. It’ll only take 20 seconds and make a huge difference! Since becoming more involved in recycling I now generally empty my rubbish each day so I can recycle it if possible.
4. Get some compact reusable shopping bags
Ditch the large re-usable shopping bags for small fold-able ones that fit neatly in your glove compartment or boot and save valuable boot space!
5. Store loose items in a container
Keep a small container in your backseat to collate loose items like books, kids toys or jackets. Having them in a container is a lot more appealing and practical than having them fly around the seat and floor of your car.
6. Organise your returns
Keep a medium sized container in the boot to store any returns you need to take back to the store. It’s pretty amazing the number of times I’ve been at a store where I needed to return something and realised I had left it at home! This way when you are at a particular shop and you know you need to return something you can easily return it and grab it from your boot on the way in. This can also be helpful to store things that you need to give to a relative or friend and keeps it from cluttering up your home.
7. Keep your electronics together
Have a small cosmetic bag or similar to keep all USBs, cables and media that you have in your middle console or glove compartment. This will make them so much easier to locate and save tangled messes.
8. Prepare for unexpected passengers
Leave a microfibre cloth in your car for those last minute emergencies when you need to pick someone up and the car is looking a bit dingy. If you keep a small spray bottle of water handy for those unexpected lifts, most of the marks and dust will clean right up in a flash.
9. Go digital
Digitise your music collection or limit the number of CDs you keep in your car at a time. After buying a car which had no CD player (I somehow didn’t realise this until too late but have adapted ;)) I now keep all my music on USBs or copy them onto my phone to minimise the CDs that seemed to be strewn about the car previously. Before this I used to keep about 8 in my car and swap them out as I needed. You can also get CD wallets to help store extra CDs you want to have handy, whilst avoiding the mess.
10. Consider alternative organising solutions
Use back seat organisers for organising additional items such as car air fresheners, pocket tissues, kids snacks, stationery etc. Or consider repurposing a cleaning caddy to keep in your boot for longer trips and to keep pens etc tidy when not in use.
11. Limit what you store or leave in your car
Keep accessories to a minimum. By all means, have your Pop Character, bobbling head or stuffed toy on display but avoid cluttering up your vehicle with excess plush toys or trinkets. Aim to keep only what you need in your car, this will also help make it a lot easier to keep tidier and presentable. Don’t use your car as storage for your stuffed toy hoard.
12. Do a stock-take of your car regularly
Clearing out your car on a regular basis can go a long way to keeping your car organisation in check. Remove your gym clothes from your last session or the clothes you got changed out of on Saturday night at the end of the week. Ask yourself do I need three jackets and 2 pairs of shoes in the car or would one of each be enough to save you in an emergency. Don’t let your car turn into a closet or laundry basket. If it has started to look like that it’s time to clear out the excess!
What tips do you have to keep your car organised? Share them in the comments below! Please share this article if you found value in it 🙂
Sometimes even the things we are passionate about and love can be difficult to complete in times of lacking motivation. As I write this I have been sitting on my comfy lounge, under the warmth of our heater and was more than tempted to just grab a hot chocolate and put on Netflix and put the stuff I needed to off for another day. But as a busy gal I know that I have to push through this temporary rut and get on with what I have to do.
I’m reminded of a quote I first heard from Joshua from the Minimalists “Drudge through the drudgery”, where Joshua Field Millburn suggests that in order to succeed at your passion you must be “willing to drudge through the drudgery to find the joy on the other side”. Since hearing it, I try and keep this in mind for those occasions where my motivation is lacking but I know that I must stay focused and push through any desire to postpone goals I have set myself.
Here are 9 Effective Tips to Help You Stay Motivated and Focused on Achieving Your Goals
9 Effective Tips to Help You Stay Motivated and Focused on Achieving Your Goals
1. Stay positive
Whenever I am feeling particularly overwhelmed, unproductive and lacking motivation I acknowledge the things I have achieved that day or in recent times. By doing this I more often than not, realise that I have been more successful in achieving my goals than I may have acknowledged. Don’t be too hard on yourself, keeping a positive mind frame goes a long way to getting you back on track.
Instead of saying negative self-defeating commentary to yourself like; I am so far behind this is useless, I’m not cut out for this and similar negative assumptions about your talents and abilities, go for a more positive train of thought. Try repeating positive encouraging statements at these times of self-doubt; I’ve got this, I got a little off track but I know I can reach this goal with a little bit of effort, this is my passion and I am going to show the world that I can do this! After a while, this will become a habit that will help you achieve your goals.
2. Have a shower and get dressed
Whenever I am feeling lethargic and not wanting to get out of bed or off the lounge or do anything much I get up and have a shower and get dressed. I find that no matter the time of day, this helps me to reset my energy levels and put me in a frame of mind to get back to business. Before I know it I’ve already come up with an idea for what I am working on and am recharged and ready to get back to the task at hand.
3. Give yourself a break
If you don’t want to start that assignment or that pile of washing just yet that is okay! Give yourself a small break allowance to do something you want to do and then get cracking once that time is up. I will allow myself one Netflix episode for example or watch a couple of Youtube videos I wanted to catch up with and as soon as it is finished I turn it off and get started. If you have been studying for hours on end take some time for you.
Grab something to eat, read something completely unrelated to what you are studying and give yourself a chance to rest your brain for a moment so you can get back to it refreshed in a little while.
4. Write your specific goals down
It’s hard to stay motivated when there are random undefined goals in your head. Get them on paper! It is much easier to tackle and prioritise tasks when they are written down in front of you and you can knock them off one by one. Be sure to tick them off when you are down for that extra rewarding jolt that comes from a crossed off to-do list item.
Be sure to list specific goals. You’ll have a much better chance of completing a task with spelled our tasks such as; fill out new superannuation account application, get stamp and mail off application, inform work of new superannuation account details etc, as opposed to a less specific goal of change super accounts.
5. Start with smaller-sized goals
Following on from the above tip, don’t try and overwhelm yourself by tackling things in large chunks that can be unmanageable and stop you from achieving your goals. So what if your whole bedroom isn’t organised completely if you have purged your wardrobe that is a huge achievement! Next time you can get to the drawers or your jewellery collection.
Don’t beat yourself up for not sticking to your new budget 100%.
Working to reduce one expense category at a time can still get you to your end goal and might even be more successful than aiming for 100% on the first attempt. Acknowledge the amazing progress you have made so far no matter how small it may seem. Every step taken is a step forward no matter how small that may seem.
6. Prioritise your goals by importance
I’ve often found things on my to-do list that seem to keep getting pushed off to the next week and then next. After doing this for a few weeks I usually come to a decision of either; this is a priority and I need to action it now or this isn’t a priority and remove it or put it on a longer-term goal list. We will always have things on our to-do list that seem to be equally important. If you take the time to assess what is truly valuable and prioritise that, you can help ensure you get what needs to be done and delegate or remove what isn’t so imperative.
Sometimes asking for help can make all the difference. If you are drowning in to-dos see if there is someone that can help you. Can your partner order the groceries for you this week? Can your family bring a dish each so you have less to cook for the family dinner? You don’t always have to do everything on your list. Get others to help out so you can get on top of things.
7. Pick three goals each day to achieve
As a lover of to-do lists, I know how easily they can blow out and end up being an endless list of fun-killing activities. Sometimes it’s easier to motivate ourselves to accomplish a few things rather than a long drawn-out list.
If you get those first three tasks done in a day and have the motivation and time to do more – that’s great. If not then keep it on the list for tomorrow.
When you only have three goals to pick you will by default pick the most pressing ones and allow the not-so-urgent ones to be completed at a later date.
As someone who hates mess, I find that I can’t be productive when I am surrounded by dirty dishes and mess. Never have I been more motivated to clean my room or home than when I was studying at university and for my CPA.
I find that a quick five-minute cleanup helps take my mind off the mess and excess around me so that I can focus on what is important, my task at hand.
If time is limited I don’t necessarily recommend going all out and cleaning the whole house, just focus on the space you are working in. Ensuring that your work area is a clean and calming environment can help you avoid distraction and procrastination. If you can’t work in your ideal work environment find anywhere else in your home, or a cafe or library where you can work.
When you do have the time clearing the clutter can be a great way to help reduce stress and increase focus. Having less stuff can reduce anxiety and create more time. Check out how minimalism can help you claw back some of your time so you can redirect your time to work on more important things like achieving your goals.
9. Share your goals with others
Sometimes having others keep us accountable can help us stay motivated to achieve our goals. This could be on social media, with a close friend, a partner, a group you see on a regular basis or a coach.
Perhaps your goal is a financial goal such as to pay off your debt once and for all. By talking to a friend who has a similar goal, or hiring a coach they can help keep you focused on your goal over the long-term. Sometimes we need others to support us to stay motivated and help keep us on track to completing what we set out.
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How do you stay motivated when you are tempted to give up on something or procrastinate? Comment with your tips and what has worked for you below!
For some time I’ve been experimenting with different organisation solutions in my home. Our home is not quite a storage haven. Our linen closet is two small shelves in our laundry and what we can fit in our single bathroom vanity (which thankfully is a decent size!). Our kitchen is probably the most challenging for storage so we have had to be creating with our storage tool to make the most of the space that we have. Over the last six years living in our home I have come across some great organisation solutions to make our small space work for us. Check out these 13 Budget-Friendly Organisation Solutions for Your Home!
Over the door racks
These can be picked up from around $10 and have some great uses. Use them to store dressing gowns when they are not in use to keep them from taking up valuable space in your wardrobe. These hooks are also great for storing your re-wearable clothes until you can wear them again keeping your clean clothes from ending up on the floor or in your laundry baskets prematurely. They also make for great storage of hang bags! I have one in my bathroom and bedroom which helps to free up valuable storage space in those rooms.
2. Boxes
Boxes are great organisation solution for organising and hiding your stuff to give a more uniform, neat look. Even better, sometimes you can find what you need in your own home saving you having to buy anything! Repurpose Gift boxes for storing jewellery and stationery. Old watch containers can be used to store small items like SD cards and USBs. Tissue boxes can be hacked and use as small storage containers. Shoe boxes can be wrapped or contacted in your favourite colours or patterns and used as storage containers.
3.Command hooks
These work so well for so many things and are a great organisation solution for your home. I use these in my home to hang up small containers to hold cleaning supplies like microfibre clothes. Another great use for these is to hang up your kitchen gloves to dry after use, simply hang a bulldog clip off the command hook and attach to your gloves. They can also be used to hang up brooms and mops to stop them from sliding around, hide unsightly cables as well as holding your bin bag in place. I have one under our kitchen sink to dry our microfibre cloths before putting them in the microfibre cloth cleaning bin so they don’t sit in the container wet. Such a great organisation solution to have in the home!
4. Over-door Shoe Organiser
These are a great and affordable way to store large amounts of shoes and utilise some extra unused space in your home. The great thing about these is they can be used for anything from shoes, to underwear, craft supplies, scarves, toys, stationery, make up, hair and beauty accessories – use your imagination! I use one in my home to store excess cleaning supplies on the back of our laundry door. Out of sight and freeing up valuable storage space in our under sink cabinet!
5. Over the door basket
These over the door baskets are great for utilising space on the inside of your cupboard doors particularly the bathroom, laundry and under the kitchen sink. I have one to store our spare plastic bags (that I am slowly dwindling down :)) and another in the laundry to hold our additional laundry supplies like fabric softener and stain remover. This keeps the cupboard floor free for other storage needs and helps to stop if from being too cluttered.
6. Magazine Files
Use magazine file organisers for more than your stationery needs. They can be attached to your pantry door to hold foil and cling wrap and sandwich bags or used for storing vegies like potatoes, tomatoes and onions. I’ve seen people use them to organise their families drink bottles, hair tools and even as shelving for coffee and tea stations. .
7. Drawer dividers and cutlery trays
Drawer dividers can help bring order to a chaotic utensil drawer. They come in packs of two which gives you three storage compartments to sort your different utensils into for different uses. Cutlery trays are another option for organising your utensils by category. If you want to save some cash create your own versions from cardboard or DIY felt drawer organisers.
These are handy for your fridge and freezer, particularly for narrow shelves where you need to reach into the back. Simply store your condiments, fruits, oils etc in these trays so you can easily slide them out and grab what you need or carry the whole container out with you if you need multiple items to save you continually going back to the fridge or pantry. They are great for keeping like items together so you can easily locate them and keep your pantry or fridge looking nice and tidy with no effort required at all 🙂
9. Reuse old Jars
Clean out old candle or food jars to keep for pantry ingredient storage or for other storage in your home. They can be great for storing baking good like sprinkles and chocolate melts, buttons, loose coins and make up and other beauty products. They can also be used to create some DIY decor such as utensil holders, wedding or home decorations or even for DIY beauty gifts.
10. Pantry stackable shelves
I recently bought two three tier stackable shelves for storing our cans from Kmart. I couldn’t be happier with them. Not only do they look amazing, but they make it easy to see what you do and don’t have in the pantry. It gives you a limit on what you can repurchase so you can save money on groceries by not overfilling your pantry. Just buy what is needed to fill up the racks and wait for your next shop to buy any extras. Alternatively stackable shelves allow you to store your dry goods on two levels which helps increase the storage in your pantry and take advantage of any unused height.
11. Shower curtain hooks
These can be placed on a coat hanger for storing singlets, scarves, caps, bags and jewellery saving valuable drawer and cupboard space and keep your collection together.
12. IKEASkubb boxes for drawers
I bought these from IKEA and love them for organising different clothes in our drawers. There are different sizes that can be mixed and matched to fit your drawer dimensions. Great for organising socks and underwear and the like. Alternatively you can make some DIY ones with some spare cardboard or by repurposing old shoe boxes.
13. Laundry hamper on wheels
This has to be by far the best organisation solution I have in my home. It has allowed me to simplify our laundry by avoiding the tedious task of sorting our washing as it is already done. Even better I no longer have to lug around a heavy basket across the house, I can simply grab one of the bags and carry it or roll the hamper to the laundry room. It has helped simplify my laundry routine and cut out the sorting which is a task I am more than happy to do without 🙂
What are your favourite organisation solution in your home? Do you use any of the above 13 in your home? Comment below with what has helped you stay organised.
As a full-time worker and blogger, with a busy social life you can imagine how much time I have left for chores like laundry. Not much. And frankly there are a million other things I would rather be doing with my time than washing! I have made it a goal of mine to get my weekly laundry done as quickly and efficiently as possible over the years. The less I spend washing, folding and the like the more time I have for more important things. And so over the years I have come up with some laundry hacks to get me in and out of the laundry as quick as possible.
Here are 6 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time that I have implemented in my household in order to simplify our weekly washing routine and claw back hours of our lives.
6 Laundry Hacks to Save You Time
Sort your laundry with separate hampers.
Purchasing a multiple compartment hamper on wheels has been the greatest $30 I have possible ever spent. I used to dread coming home on a Friday night to start my weekend off with a pile of laundry to sort and disliked lugging the heavy baskets across the house even more. I realised how silly it was to spend precious minutes sorting something when it would be so much easier to just sort our clothing from the get go.
I purchased a three compartment laundry hamper (I got mine from Kmart but as they no longer stock them check out this hamper for an idea. Anything similar will do. We use ours for two separate dark loads (we wear a lot of black :P) and the one in the middle is for whites. This is kept in our bathroom, keep yours where your family gets dressed most frequently.
As we only have two in our household the three compartments are plenty for us. If you have 3 or more in your household, having a hamper or twin compartment hamper for lights and darks in each bedroom can work just as well. Simply coach your family on what to put in what compartment of the hamper, add signs to the baskets if necessary, and soon enough you’ll have your whole family sorting their own laundry!
Wasting 15 or more minutes each weekend sorting through our clothes baskets is now a thing of the past. I simply grab one of the bags which is already sorted into darks, whites or towels, put its contents into the washing machine and return the empty bag to the hamper rack. If you don’t want to lug the hamper around you can just roll it to where ever you need. Seriously the best organisational tool in our home!
2.Downsize your wardrobe.
By having a large, overflowing wardrobe you can guarantee you will have a substantial amount of washing to do. This usually means you (or your family that doesn’t have to do the laundry) will end up wearing a significant number of clothes before you get around to your washing pile. Of course by then your laundry pile will most likely be a mountain high.
If you are not one to wash and fold regularly, that pile is going to get out of hand, fast! If you limit your wardrobe to a reasonable number of clothes, you can have a direct reduction in your laundry. Since implementing my own capsule wardrobe I have found it much easier to stay on top of washing. Check out How to build a Capsule Wardrobe: A Beginners Guide for ideas on how you can reduce your wardrobe. When you have less to wear you have less to wash and can go back to having more free time and less time spend in the laundry!
3. Think ahead with your washing to reduce the need for ironing
Have I mentioned I hate ironing and avoid it at all costs? Seriously – who has time for ironing? If I had to fit ironing into my schedule I would probably start binning a lot of clothes fast! Due to my lack of joy for this task I have found ways to work around it. My tricks are these:
Where possible avoid buying clothes that need ironing. I’ve been doing this for years and don’t miss my buttoned blouses that never seemed to get worn because I never seemed to have the time to iron them regularly. I am lucky that I work in an office with a smart casual clothing policy and we are free to wear more casual clothes like office polos. If your workplace is more strict, this won’t work for you but wherever possible, if you can get away with not wearing business shirts and the like this will cut your laundry time down.
Hang your clothes out on the line or a coat hanger as soon as the wash load or dryer is finished to help reduce any clothes from getting wrinkled whilst sitting there.
When you take your clothes off the line, ask yourself am I going to put these away right now or are they going to sit around for the next days or so until I can get to them? If you can’t do them straight away no biggie, this is my trick. I put all the socks and underwear in first along with PJs. Anything that can get wrinkled without it being a big deal. Then with the other clothing items like shirts and pants I loosely fold them so they lay in the basket neatly, rather than screwed up slowly getting to the point of needing ironing. The folding takes a second or two per item and saves you having to iron them.
If you are really stuck or in a rush to get something ironed, chucking your clothes in the dryer for 10 or so minutes can help remove any wrinkles in your clothes. Leaving your clothes in a bathroom with stream can also help remove wrinkles.
For those items that do need to be ironed at least you have managed to reduce the time you will need to spend ironing them and other items by carrying out the above. Hopefully this will help reduce the final pile!
4. Identify your clean, dirty and re-wearable clothing.
Identify an area in your home for each family member to store worn but re-wearable clothing. Pants and jackets and other outerwear can be worn more than once if they are clean. Allocate a spare drawer to these items in each bedroom or a hook in the bathroom. Even laying them out on a chair can do the trick.
This will help reduce your laundry load as you will now know what you can wear again and reduce washing clothing that can be re-worn. This is particularly handy for kids that like to change their clothes multiple times a day and create excess washing for you. It’s an easy way to keep the clean, re-wearable clothing items from getting mixed in the hamper with the dirty items. Check out this amusing blog from Melanie Dale on Rules for Re-Wearing Clothes.
Don’t forget the towels! Whilst you are there request that they each hang up their towel after use to dry so they can reuse it. You don’t need to use a fresh towel every time you shower. This could help half the number of towels you are washing each week.
5. Ask for help and Delegate.
Get your family to help with washing with age appropriate chores. Kids from age 3 can do small tasks to help with laundry. Make sure everyone at least is putting their dirty clothes in the correct washing hamper compartment. On wash day they can carry their basket to the laundry as well as folding and putting away clothes. If your kids are tall enough or you’ve got an adjustable clothes line they can also help hang out clothes and take them off the line. Get your partner and kids to help out on a regular basis. If they don’t know how to do the laundry, or how they can help, take the time to explain the process to them. Give them a few weeks and soon enough you’ll have a lot more help and a lot less time trying to keep up with a households laundry needs on your own. So many parents wait until kids move out of home to teach them basic skills that should be esta
6. Do washing loads by person.
Consider washing a load for each person rather than mixing the washing all together only to have to work out when folding what socks and the like belong to whom. The less time spent sorting and matching the quicker you can get back to more important tasks. Washing one full load of one kids clothing means that they, if they are old enough, can then be responsible for folding or putting away their own items. To make this easier, use a laundry bag to keep socks together and help avoid the mysterious lost sock dilemma. If there is not enough for a full load for one family members washing, add two together and use the laundry bags to separate the socks and undies to avoid sorting confusion when it comes to folding them.
What laundry tips to you have to save time in your home? Please share your hacks in the comments below 🙂
If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂
A few years back I was in a bit of a cleaning and organisation rut. It seemed as though I could never get on top of anything but it was really only because I hadn’t implemented daily habits for a tidy home. I wasn’t failing at adulting, I just hadn’t quite figured out the “hacks” and habits to keep on top of everything.
The dishes would pile up on all of our extremely limited bench space. We would fish out our clean, now wrinkled clothes each morning from the bottom of the basket as there never seemed to be time to put them away. Just hoping that what we were looking for had been washed that weekend. If we had guests coming over it was a huge ordeal getting the house into guest-ready status. We were convinced we needed a bigger home. One with more bench space and bigger area to wash up, a larger laundry room and more cupboard space. It would surely solve everything.
I quickly realised that more space was not the answer (in fact more space = more cleaning and work!) and seeing as we were hoping to own our home sooner than later up-sizing was not going to be an option either. I had to find a way to make what we had work. Coming home to mess, attempting to cook and make dinner with dishes everywhere and trying to use what scrap of bench space I could find could not go on. Life wasn’t meant to be this hard, surely!
Let me tell you it is not! There is a way to get on top of things before they get out of control. The key is to not let is get out of control in the first place and to do a little bit each day. A small amount goes a long way. And it doesn’t take hours and hours! Read on for 4 Habits For a Tidy Home Now!
4 Daily Habits for a Tidy Home
Do a general tidy daily
Let’s not build cleaning up to be more difficult than it is. Sure vacuuming and mopping and the rest take a lot of time but we don’t need to have show homes 24/7. A daily habit of doing a general tidy up is good enough. Spend five minutes a day doing a general tidy of the main areas of your home. You’re not going to be able to clean every space, surface, crevice but you will make your home look much more tidy with a small amount of effort.
Set your timer. I use the one on our oven so I know when to stop. During your general tidy go to each area of your home and pick up what doesn’t belong. A clothes basket can work great so you can chuck everything in there and move a lot of things quickly.
THINGS I DO IN MY GENERAL TIDY
Hang up the towels in the bathroom and clear the vanity counter.
Straighten up the couch cushions and fold the throw.
Pick up any clothes on the floor and either throw them in the hamper or hang them up again.
Put anything away that’s lying around.
Bin any water bottles
Move any cups or plates to the kitchen
Pick up mess from the floor
If you just do five minutes a day or even just as often as you can, you will be amazed at how much tidier your home will look. If your spouse or kids can help out you will make even more progress. Everyone living in your home adds to the mess- get them involved, delegate!
If after your five minute general tidy is up and you are on a roll then keep going. You’re better off tidying when you feel like it or have the time than to leave it for a day where you just rather not move from the couch.
2. Clean as you go
This is such an important tool for keeping your home tidy. Get in the daily habit of cleaning up as you go. When you are finished with something in the bathroom of a morning, put it back in the drawer or vanity. When you are walking from one room to the next take a second to look around and see what doesn’t belong and grab it to take with you on your way. Are you going out to the car? Grab that bag of donations you’ve had sitting at the door for the past week.
If you want to save time on cleaning and getting back to more enjoyable tasks think ahead and find ways to be more efficient with your time. Are you waiting for the microwave for five minutes? Go and clean up the mess from your meal prep or empty your dishwasher. Utilise what little time you have! Once you get used to this daily habit it will become part of your routine.
>> If you are interested in getting organised you might find value in
For me, cleaning the kitchen was the one daily habit that drastically changed my cleaning habits and stress levels. I used to feel completely overwhelmed with dirty dishes and marks on our bench tops that had hardened and become difficult to clean. I would struggle to cook and prep dinner with our limited bench space covered with last nights dishes that I just had not got around to yet. And try cooking anything when your sink is over flowing. It’s just going to make your daily life much harder than it needs to be.
A chaotic kitchen can add so much unnecessary stress and being the hub of the home, it’s rare that you can ever walk past without seeing the mess piling up. Set yourself a new daily habit of tidying the kitchen. I used to put this off as it would get so out of hand that I would need a good half hour to get it back in order but now i set the time for 7-10 minutes and knock it out as fast as I can. I find it a challenge to work against the clock and love how efficiently I can clean my kitchen with a bit of forethought.
ALLOCATE YOUR TIME
Work out a time each day where you can spend 10 minutes on your kitchen. Whether it be in the morning, when you get home from work, or before you go to bed. Whenever is most convenient for you. The key is doing it every day so there is no mass of dishes you have to sift through. Set the timer and get started.
MY KITCHEN CLEANING METHOD:
Grab all your dirty dishes from wherever they may be (save yourself some time and effort insist on a rule after meals all dishes and cups are returned to the kitchen!). Soak any in hot soapy water that you need to wash.
Spray all surfaces with an All Purpose Cleaner so that can break down your stains whilst you get onto the dishes.
If you have a dishwasher quickly unload it (if you unload it in the mornings and load in the afternoon this will make like easier :)) and put all your dirty dishes in. If you don’t have one, quickly arrange your dishes into plates, cups, cutlery and bigger items like pots and start washing.
I let my dishes dry on a drying rack and put them away when they are dry (hey ,we’re trying to save time and make life easier here, let’s not do things that we don’t have to ;)).
4. Then wipe all surface areas. The stains should easily come off after being broken down by your All Purpose Cleaner.
Hopefully you’ll be done before your timer goes off. If not I promise you it won’t be more than a few extra minutes and the next morning when you see your beautifully clean kitchen and when you go to cook the next night you will not regret the effort 🙂
4. Don’t let your laundry pile up
I’ve never really understood why people have wash days and tackle their entire laundry pile in one horrible sounding day. I like to plan ahead for my washing. I certainly don’t wash everyday (thank you Minimalism!) but I prefer to do it in manageable chunks.
Make it a daily habit to do your washing. Now I personally don’t have enough washing to wash daily, but it’s certainly a daily habit to check if I do or don’t. I normally throw on a load of washing on Friday before I go to work and hang it out in the afternoon (Love that timer function!). By Friday I have a full load of darks so hold off until I have a full load.
Saturday morning I’ll then wash and hang out another and set another load to go before I head out for the day. Sunday is then just a catch up day for towels, sheets and anything else that needs to go in. Again get someone to help out if that is possible. My husband and I both do washing. I work full-time and have more important things to do than spend hours each week washing.
BONUS TIP
Consider decluttering your wardrobe! If you have 50 shirts to wear and 10 pairs of jeans you are going to be washing 50 shirts and 10 pairs of jeans in a never ending pile of washing. Set yourself a more realistic laundry limit and wash regularly.
Don’t let that pile get a mile high whether that be washed or unwashed, as it will just be so much harder to tackle and get motivated.
If you chip away at your washing, load by load, and make it a daily habit to at least check your clothes baskets to see if you have enough for a load, you will save yourself the stress of endless baskets in your laundry and waiting to be folded.
These are the four daily habits for a tidy home I have implemented in my routine and I have never felt more on top of things in my home.
What are your top daily habits for a tidy home that you have implemented and that help you keep on top of mess and clutter in your home? Let me know in the comments!
If you found value in this post I would be super appreciative if you could share it with others who might also find value in it 🙂
Sometimes it can be hard to know where to start with decluttering, particularly when there are so many decluttering methods available and so many different forms of clutter. It can be difficult to know which decluttering method is going to be the most useful to you on your decluttering journey. And more often than not, you probably don’t have the time or patience to research or try them all out.
A couple of years ago I too was frustrated with the amount of stuff that had accumulated in my humble sized home. Every cupboard, drawer, shelf, the countertop was filled with stuff and added stress to everyday life. Trying to cook dinner was a chore with piles of stuff on our small kitchen island that was hard enough to prepare meals with. It was a fight every time I tried to open a cupboard to get a set of sheets or towel out. Getting dressed often involved pulling out endless clothes only to realise that nothing went together, no longer fit, or had a button missing.
I knew something had to change and so I set out decluttering every area of my home that I could think of. Not a single drawer, shelf or cupboard was safe. It was a slow process I carried out in my spare time day-to-day over a period of 2 years. Lucky for me I found it therapeutic and it became something I am really passionate about.
Of course, that isn’t the case for everyone – some people find the process tiresome and tedious and may just not have the time to dedicate to decluttering or researching different decluttering methods. so I am here to save you the trouble (at least some of it)!
Since starting my decluttering journey, I have researched and tried and tested many decluttering methods so keep reading for a brief introduction to some decluttering methods from some amazing minimalism bloggers like The Minimalists and Courtney Carver at Be More With Less.
Here are 9 Top Decluttering Methods to Declutter Your Home that I believe on their own or in unison, can help you get on your way to a more decluttered home that you love!
9 Methods to Declutter Your Home
1. The Konmari Methid – Organising by category
The Konmari method of decluttering was created by organising expert Marie Kondo and is based on identifying what you want to keep, rather than what to get rid of. The decision on whether to keep each item is decided by asking if the item sparks joy. If the answer is yes, it goes in the keep pile. If no, it goes in the donate or trash pile.
The approach to this method is to declutter by one category at a time, rather than location. If you have books in different rooms, you are to move all of them into one location and sort all of them at once. This allows you to see the vast amount of stuff you have of one category and helps you to avoid keeping multiples of things you might not have known you had, if they were kept in separate locations.
Take clothes for example, if you have some in your drawers, cupboard in the hall closet and have some in the laundry you may not realise how many clothes you really have until they are piled up on your bed in a clothing mountain.
The Konmari method sets out the order for decluttering which is based on perfecting your decluttering skills before you move onto the harder items like sentimental items.
Marie Kondo suggests the order of decluttering your home is: clothes, books, papers, komono (miscellaneous household items like valuables, craft supplies, stuff for hobbies, office supplies, electronics and kitchen items) and finally, sentimental items.
Pros: This decluttering method focuses on identifying what you love rather than what you don’t. Over time it allows you to be more aware of what you do love and what you don’t. It also encourages us to be thankful for what we do have and appreciate our things as we say thank you to each parted item. Part of decluttering is to learn to be grateful for what we do have so the Konmari method really speaks to that.
Cons: Taking every item from one category such as clothing can be extremely time consuming and overwhelming. Marie Kondo, says that decluttering is a special event to be done once, so this might be too big of an undertaking for some with smaller pockets of time. This method also can make it harder to let your stuff go if you find yourself saying everything sparks joy.
2. Four Box Method – relocate, donate, trash, sell
The four-box method of decluttering allows you to make quick decisions and tackle small areas to declutter. Start with grabbing four boxes, containers, washing baskets or whatever you have on hand and labelling them with Keep, Toss, Donate and Sell. As you move through each area make a decision for each piece in the area you are decluttering and place it into the appropriate box.
This decluttering method can be flexible to sort through a whole room or a small area and can be used for quick decluttering or bigger time slots. Anything you decide to keep can stay in the same location.
Keep: Anything you love that you want to hold onto.
Toss: This is for any items you no longer need or want that are damaged, unsaleable or not in good condition to donate. Sometimes it is best to split this into two containers one for trash and one for recyclables. Just bring your regular recycling bin into the room ready for any recycling. Do your bit for the environment and dispose of each item as thoughtfully as possible. If it can be donated, recycled or sold take that option and limit what ends up in landfill.
Donate: These are any items that you no longer want or need, that are in good condition and could be used by other people. When the box is full put it in your boot and drop it off at your local charity bin or shop.
Sell: This container is for any items of value that you no longer want, but that you could sell on eBay, Facebook or local buy, swap sell sites. I would recommend setting a $20 limit, if you can’t sell any items for more than $20 it is probably not going to be worth the time and effort to list it and deal with shipping it or arranging a pick-up. If you are in need of cash and have the time by all means set a lower limit.
Pros: This decluttering method helps you to easily keep track of each item and sort it with one touch. It gives you 4 options to help limit any overwhelm from decision making. Sometimes having the decision based on what to keep, rather than what to get rid of makes for easier decision making on what to keep or dispose of.
Cons: This decluttering method doesn’t really give you any guidelines on where to start like the Konmari method.
3. The Minimalists Packing Party
The Packing Party is a game established by the Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Millburn for people who don’t want to take a year to declutter their stuff and want fast results.
The idea is that you box up all of your possessions and only take out each item as you need them to decide what you do use and what you don’t. As you need towels, plates, clothes, shoes and other items take them out of the box. After 21 days see what you didn’t touch and make a decision on what’s left as to whether it stays or goes. If there is anything not out of the boxes consider whether it truly adds value to your life and consider selling, donating, giving it away or trashing it.
Pros: A great method if you don’t want to spend months decluttering or longer. Allows you to declutter your home quickly and see what you do and don’t use on a regular basis.
Cons: This can seem like a pretty extreme, messy decluttering method. It may save time decluttering and speed up the process, but packing up all of your stuff is going to take a significant amount of time in itself.
Minimise With Me’s Tip: If packing up your entire house seems daunting, unnecessary or impossible, try packing up one area at a time. Your towels, make-up, wardrobe, your kitchen utensils, plates and cups. After 3 weeks assess what you didn’t need from each area and declutter accordingly.
4. The Minimalists Mins Game
The Mins Game is a game developed by The Minimalists to make decluttering a little more fun and to ease you into the process.
Start off on day one decluttering one item. Day two declutter two items. Day three, three items and so on until you get to day 30 where you declutter 30 items.
Over the space of 30 days, you will have decluttered a total of 465 items. A great game to start off a new month and keep you on your toes.
To keep you motivated and keep track of your progress you can post your photos with #minsgame to look back on your decluttering journey and see others’ progress to help motivate you.
Pros: Builds momentum, starting small with one item and gradually increasing the number. Great way to motivate you to declutter a large number of items in a small space of time.
Cons: It can be frustrating initially to only declutter one item. Not extremely flexible in terms of time as you need to have more and more time to declutter as the month progresses which may not suit your schedule.
5. The Minimalists 90/90 rule
The 90/90 rule is one that you can use to look forward in time and backwards to make a decision on what to keep. It can be applied to your wardrobe or whatever else you like by simply asking ‘Have I used this in the last 90 days and do I see myself using it in the next 90 days’?
If there is something you have been holding onto ‘just in case’, ask yourself the question.
Writing a list of these items can help keep track of what things you are considering. Over the next three months be mindful of the item. If you have a use for it, you’re most likely going to use the item over that time frame. If at the end of that six month assessment period you still are yet to use an item and it isn’t something seasonal, consider if it is something you truly need. The 20/20 rule below can help you make this decision.
Pros: This can speed up the decluttering process by allowing you to consider the past three months in your decision rather than only looking ahead like the backwards hanger method.
Cons: This decluttering method doesn’t take into account that some items are things that you want to keep but might only use for a small period of the year such as seasonal items like ski equipment. For these items, it is probably best to stretch the assessment period to looking back six months and forward six months as opposed to three.
6. The Minimalists 20/20 Just in Case Rule:
The 20/20 Just in Case rule is a helpful tool to allow you to let go of those ‘Just In Case’ items that you aren’t using but keep you thinking – what if I need it one day?
This rule can be used in conjunction with the 90/90 rule and sets out that if you don’t need something but feel like you should hang onto it just in case you need it one day, consider whether you can replace that item within 20 minutes for less than $20. If that is the case, let it go.
You’ll often find that 99% of the time, what you have donated or sold won’t be missed. If there is that one item that you ended up needing you can easily go and reacquire it without having it take up valuable storage space in your home when you are not using it and at $20 it won’t blow your budget.
Pros: Helps in letting go of some of those ‘just in case’ items you’re reluctant to get rid of.
Cons: You may have a handful of items that you dispose of that you have to repurchase at a later date. By being honest with whether you need something, this will be kept to a minimum.
Methods to Declutter Your Wardrobe
Here are some decluttering methods specifically aimed at decluttering your wardrobe and help you to build a more curated wardrobe that you love!
7. The Backwards Hanger Method
This decluttering method is used to downsize your wardrobe and assess what you do and don’t wear.
Simply take all the clothes on your hangers and turn them backwards so the coat hanger hook is facing towards you. As you wear each piece and wash it, return the item to the wardrobe facing forward. Set a note on your calendar for three, six or twelve months, whatever you prefer, to remind you to review what you have and haven’t worn in that time.
Whatever is still facing backwards at the end of the calendar period is what hasn’t been worn and can probably be donated or sold. Keep in mind that some items like coats, will not be worn for 3-6 months across the summer months so it is probably best to separate your clothes by season and only include the clothes you will wear that season for review.
Pros: Takes the difficulty out of decluttering your wardrobe. Just set a reminder on your phone and have a reassessment at a later date. Allows you to ‘save’ clothes that you might have put off wearing and will encourage you to wear your favourite item more.
Cons: It is only useful for clothing and for items that you have hung up. If you don’t have much hanging space it won’t allow you to declutter much of your wardrobe.
8. Courtney Carver’s Project 333 Capsule Wardrobe
Courtney Carver’s Project 333 is a capsule wardrobe challenge to only wear 33 items. It includes clothing, accessories, jewellery, outerwear and shoes over a three month period. It excludes sentimental jewellery that you never take off, underwear, sleepwear, in-home loungewear, and workout clothing.
Once you have picked 33 items that you love and that can be mixed and matched, box up the remainder of your wardrobe, seal it with tape and put it out of sight. This capsule wardrobe is created every three months in order to tailor a wardrobe for each season of the year.
Pros: Takes the stress out of getting dressed every day. Everything in your wardrobe is something that you love wearing so you won’t have to stand at your wardrobe each morning looking through clothes you don’t like or wear. Helps you to get to know what clothing you enjoy wearing and what suits you so you can reduce buying clothes that end up unworn.
Cons: Paring down to 33 items for 3 months is definitely a challenge. If you can’t do 33 items, set a reasonable limit – 40 or 50 and see if you can manage that and try and pair it down with your next three-month wardrobe. It is meant to help you streamline your wardrobe not torture you.
9. Minimise With Me’s Drawer Rotation Method
After all my research on decluttering methods, I haven’t really found any decluttering method that catered to clothing that was not hung up but folded in drawers. I wouldn’t have been able to hang up all my clothes in my wardrobe due to the space limits. I also wanted to avoid going out and buying more coat hangers or special hangers to hold up singlets, shorts and the like, temporarily. I wanted a decluttering method that would allow me to assess what clothes I did and didn’t use, like the backwards hanger method for the clothing hung up in my wardrobe, but for the clothing, I kept in my drawers.
I came up with the Drawer Rotation Method which is a system I use, along with the Konmari Folding Technique, where you put your clean, folded washing to the back of your drawers – rather than in front.
This encourages you to wear all the items in your drawers, not just the items that you regularly wear and put back to the front, leaving the back items to sit for weeks or even months unworn and potentially forgotten, cluttering up your drawers.
This Drawer Rotation Method has helped me to keep an even rotation of the clothes I wear that are folded in drawers. It also helps to identify what you do and don’t wear. After a while, that old shirt that you hate wearing will be sitting at the front of your drawer as a constant reminder of how it might be time to donate or trash it.
Pros: Helps you to assess which clothes in your drawers you wear more frequently over a period of time and which ones you can declutter.
Cons: Only works if you use the Konmari folding technique where clothes as stacked horizontally in parcels, rather than in vertical, less-visible piles.
Have you tried any of the above decluttering methods? Did you find them helpful? Have you come across any others that have helped you? Please comment below with what has helped you declutter your home!
Are you finding yourself overwhelmed and stressed out by clutter in your home?
If you’re looking to minimise the excess in your life, Declutter With Me: A 12 Week Guide to Declutter Your Home is a go-at-your-own-pace course that will give you the step-by-step, room-by-room instructions to help you clear the clutter in your home in as soon as just 12 weeks!
But clearing the clutter isn’t just about getting rid of your excess stuff. It’s important to change your behaviour and consumer habits so you can avoid re-cluttering your space once you have decluttered. Included in Declutter With Me, are “Keep It Minimal” tips for each area in your home + 7 Tips To Help You Keep Your Home Minimal, to give you strategies you can implement to help you spend with intention so you can avoid bringing clutter back into your home.
If you are keen to minimise your unwanted clutter check out Declutter With Me so you can create a home you love!
6. Magazine Files
