5 Ways to Declutter and Maintain Cleanliness

It’s been a long time since your last deep cleaning, but it’s time for the next round. Before the real cleaning can begin, you have to tackle your clutter. It can be a daunting task to confront all of the junk that’s been quietly building up in your home’s nooks and crannies for months, but that’s where strategy comes in. Here are five tips that will make decluttering your home a breeze.

Tackle one area at a time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you try to declutter your home in a single sweep. Instead, make a schedule of when you will tackle each room. If you put aside an hour on Monday evening to finish the front hall closet, and Sunday afternoon to finish the basement, the work will go by more quickly.

Pick a bag and fill it. It can be hard to let go of your possessions, as anyone with a closet that is fit to burst can confirm. Decide how much clutter you want to remove before you start examining each item. If you decide you need to get rid of a duffle bag worth of clothes before decluttering your bedroom closet, it’ll be a lot easier to say goodbye to those souvenir t-shirts you’ve been holding onto for years.

Clear surfaces. You can’t clean anything if there’s stuff all over it. Make a point of clearing off any flat surfaces in your home, be it your desk, coffee table or the dreaded dining room table. Clear surfaces also help a home feel bright and open, so do your best to keep them that way.

Check under the sink. One of the most notorious places for hidden clutter is under the sink. Take an afternoon and purge all of the unused toiletries, cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous junk lurking down there—your future self will thank you.

Implement the 10-minute pick up. Once you’ve decluttered your home, the next step is maintenance. An easy way to keep clutter from creeping back is to implement the 10-minute pick up rule. Every day before you go to sleep, take a quick 10 minute walk around your home and either place items where they belong or throw them out if they’re trash. You’ll wake up to a clean home and this helps keep a lid on future clutter build-up.