It is important to maintain a clutter free home for you and your family. If sometimes you feel overwhelmed by what you have in your house it may be time to think about clearing out some of the furnishings and items so as to create a good home. This may involve a move towards creating a simple and cluttered free-living space. Less is more being the operative term. In some homes people fill their living space with furniture and other home items barely leaving enough room to maneuver. If you also take into account the fact that most Kenyan houses are built with very limited space it doesn’t help if you have a lot of furnishing and other items in the house. In order to create a clean and functional home reducing clutter is a sure-fire way to achieve this. Not only does clutter make it difficult to clean some areas it also causes dirt and dust to accumulate in hard-to-reach areas and providing pests with ample hiding places. It might take some time to declutter because it takes long for clutter to accumulate too so be patient with yourself. Here is an easy way to get you started.
Select the problem areas –identify areas in your house that needs de-cluttering for some the problem area might be just one room e.g. the kitchen but for others it might be the whole house. If the latter is the case begin by tackling one room at a time.
Sorting once you have identified the room you want to declutter remove everything from the shelves, or closet and different surfaces and storage areas and lay in a pile. Sort the pile into 3 categories ie the keep pile, the give or sell pile and finally the toss pile.
For the keep pile you have to be very particular about what you want to keep. Pick only items that you use. If you have items that you have not used for more than a year or something you always said you would use and never got around to using it, you do not have to keep such items chances are you will never use them. If you also have a large collection of particular items say cups or plates maybe plastic containers you can select from these and keep a few.
The give or sell pile -this pile should consist of items that you no longer use or items you have decided to sell so as to reduce on those you already have. These items are in good enough condition to either give to a friend maybe a charity, or to sell as used items. For these items you should not maintain them for too long, get rid of them as soon as possible to avoid building clutter again.
The toss pile is for items that have been completely damaged, worn or items that are junk such as newspapers carton box-es empty containers that you might have been keeping and may include other items you may see fit to belong to this category.
Having completed the sorting out process you can proceed to arrange the items that you have chosen to keep in their respective cabinet, closet and storage area in an organized manner. It is essential for you to actively try to maintain this clutter free environment by observing the following.
Avoid making unnecessary purchases of items. For every item you purchase you should re-move the equivalent of the same item from the ones you already have. Say you purchase a set of new tea cups you should then remove an old tea set by selling or giving away. This will help you avoid accumulating unused items over time.
You can do a weekly or monthly maintenance. This involves cleaning out unnecessary items say newspapers, carton boxes, empty containers. It would be nice to have designated containers for cereals, washing powder, etc. this will not only help you keep your house organized but once you have emptied the product into the containers the packaging can be thrown away immediately instead of accumulating containers with every shopping you do.
At the end of every year, you should do a closet decluttering by going through your clothing items and picking out items you have not worn for more than a year and giving them out to charity.
After all this is done the house will feel airier and finding items will be easy and your house will be more organized with ample space. It will make a world of difference to you and your family to live in a clutter free environment.
By Mirriam Thuita