You don’t have to be Martha Stewart or Marie Kondo to have a manageable, organized Instagram-worthy home. Creating a comfortable organized home requires planning and intention, can help save money, lower home maintenance costs, improve your mental health, making you feel calm and relaxed at the end of the day. Simply, organization is about keeping the things you need and removing the items you don’t. When you set criteria that everything in your home should serve a purpose, you will be less tempted to bring in unnecessary items and you may even find you have become a minimalist in your décor and design.
One thing to remember is that an organized home is a lifestyle, not a project, where everything has its place and purpose, and requires daily routine, like exercise. Daily discipline in maintaining an organized home includes making beds, cleaning up the kitchen after every meal, putting dishes away, loading or unloading the dishwasher, sorting through the mail immediately, keeping only what is needed, having an organized closet, and keeping organized closets and drawers.
You may not be able to always keep your closets and drawers organized; however, it’s important to set times throughout the year to clean them out. As you organize your home, you can add more usable space and simplify your lifestyle.
When you are starting on your journey to tackle home organization, here are a few tips:
- Start with one room at a time, think through the way your live, what you need in your daily routine (critical items), and start to identify what you don’t need.
- Start big and work small
- As an example, in the kitchen:
- Clear the counters of all items not used regularly
- Store appliances like mixers or toasters in the pantry or cabinets
- Organize cabinet shelves, remove China, or serving platters from counter tops
- Clean your refrigerator - place drinks in the door, check all item expiration dates, and place condiments on one shelf together
- Throw out old sprays or cleaners, rags or used sponges. Put down fresh contact paper and keep new items organized based on usage.
- Identify items you can consign or donate to a local charity or hold a yard sale. Tag them with post it notes. Create a box for kids to donate gently used toys ahead of holidays or birthdays, and donate books to local neighborhood free libraries or book drives.
- Divide clothing into 3 piles: Keep, Donate, Throw Away. Remove donated or trash items quickly so they don’t lay around and become part of the décor themselves.
- Consider learning and using eastern methods like Feng Shui to discover optimum ways to create harmony and increase positivity in your home.
- Add plants to purify your air and increase oxygen in your home.
- Add 10 minutes of tidying and light cleaning into your daily routine so you can maintain an organized home.
- Get children involved in daily pick-up games in their room or play areas.Helping them feel organized in their spaces gives them confidence and increases their sense of independence.
- Make space in your garage to store cars and bicycles, not just junk. Assemble shelves to hold household items like paint, cleaning or yard care items, or possibly seasonal décor or holiday decorations.
- Make a rule that if you haven’t used an item in 6 months to get rid of it. Set limits on what can be stored in any areas of your home, so you won’t be tempted to collect more items over time.
You will have peace of mind when you see open and clean areas without clutter. You won’t waste time looking for things because you won’t have to dig through lots of items to find what you need.
For more information about how to protect your home, valuables and property, contact Hurley Insurance group at 910-868-3500 or visit www.hurleyinsurancegroup.com.