Every year, Christmas comes along and brings with it family gatherings, gifts and more things we have to find a home for. Once all the festivities are over, the New Year is the perfect time to clear out the clutter and start the year with a fresh canvas. De-cluttering your home might feel overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. Just a few minutes a day can quickly make a big difference - and you'll feel all the better for it. Here are my top ten tips for de-cluttering your home...
1. If you want to tackle the whole house, make a list of all the areas to be decluttered, sorted from easiest to hardest. Start with the easiest area and work your way through the list.
2. Break it up. Give yourself a realistic amount of time a day or week to de-clutter. It could be just 10 minutes a day or an hour every weekend. And then stick to it!
3. If you have trouble deciding what to keep, ask yourself whether it brings you joy. If it's not sentimental and doesn't bring you joy, or if you haven't used it in the last year, out it goes.
4. Baskets, bags and storage bins are your friends when de-cluttering. Matching baskets add a stylish aesthetic to any space and are great for housing things like remote controls, toys, school supplies and more when you want to do a quick tidy up at the end of the day.
5. When it comes to clothes, if wardrobe space is limited, do the summer-winter swap. Put out-of-season clothes into clear storage bins or bags and store them elsewhere. To free up even more space, try storing things you wear less frequently elsewhere too such as a guest bedroom wardrobe.
6. If you have kids, give everyone their own storage box or shelf for shoes as they enter the house.
7. Short on time today? De-clutter your handbag. It only takes five minutes to have a clear out of all the old receipts, tissues, face masks etc and replace only the essentials. It will feel lovely when you next use it.
8. Use the Five Things a Day rule. Make it your goal to find places for five things a day. We all have those random items that end up in odd places in our homes. So as you're moving through your home doing other things, make a point to pick up a random thing and pop it back in its rightful place. Times that by five each day and you'll soon notice a big difference in the levels of clutter.
9. Following on from the Five Things a Day rule, if you find yourself picking something up and you have a spare few minutes, why not clean, straighten up or organise that area?
10. Fill one bag a day. If you're de-cluttering your entire home, commit to filling just one bag a day that you will either donate, shred or bin. This makes tackling the whole house so much easier to commit to and complete.