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Youve been here before: standing in your closet amid neatly aligned rows of hangers.
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Finally, your dresses hang neatly zipped, rather than half falling off.
Theyre filed by color, length, and/or purposenot jammed in wherever you’re able to find space.
Sweatshirts and sweaters are folded, not wadded.
Shoes are filed on shelves, not strewn about.
There are no heaps of clothing to step over.
This time you really mean it.
Its not that we dont try or dont care.
Find a home for every item.
One key to living clutter-free: Everything in your home needs a home.
Home organization, ultimately, needs to be about making it super easy to put things away.
That means giving items a convenient and consistent spot to livethe more obvious, the better.
It sounds so simple but it really works!
Never leave a room empty-handed.
Little habits, not crazy-ambitious cleaning days, are what ultimately keep a home clutter-free.
Declutter in smaller spurts.
Why stop at putting things back throughout the day?
Whats more effective is to make decluttering something we do daily.
Yes, this sounds like a total drag, but its actually weirdly satisfying.
When you open your leggings drawer tomorrow and see only favorites neatly stacked, go ahead and gloat.
Tomorrow: skin care edit.
Refresh your spaces with the season.
Big modern-day closets come with one downside: Were not all forced to rotate our clothes seasonally.
The key is to ruthlessly edit your space and set limits to simplify each area.
For example, put donations into your car to ensure accountability and follow-through.
To remind yourself to do a seasonal edit, block off some dates in your Google calendar now.
Employ these organizing hacks.
Her favorite, super-versatile fix: clear plastic bins with handles.
Another clutter-preventer: lazy Susans.
Turntables are your best friend, says professional organizer Rachel Rosenthal ofRachel & Co. One more surprisingly versatile decluttering tool:purse dividers.
This might be my team’s most-ordered item on Amazon, Rosenthal says.
Conjure storage space out of thin air.
Not blessed with a pantry, or lacking bathroom storage?
Take advantage of vertical space.
In the kitchen, consider a customizablewall organizerthat lets you add wall storage space.
Take the pressure off.
After the initial burst of motivation has worn off, decluttering can quickly become exhaustingphysically but also mentally.
Part of that is decision fatigue.
So go ahead and let yourself off the hookfor now.
Put feelings in their place.
Emotions also play an outsized role in why we accumulate clutter.
When we get overwhelmed by feelings entangled with our clutter, procrastination ensues.
Acknowledging this factor going in will help you better navigate.
As you declutter a space, come prepared with a mental strategy for pushing past discomfort.
Find a tactic that works for you, whether thats the famed Does this spark joy?
Rethink your value system.
Sometimes we hold on to stuff because of its monetary value, even if we never use it.
The money has already been spent.
The other big reason people dont declutter is because they dont want to contribute to landfills, Monahan notes.
None of us wants to do that, I agree.
But dont make your house a landfill because youre afraid of throwing things away.
Instead, commit to not buying more stuff you wont use.
Keep the best; lose the rest.
Practice not buying stuff.
When you have too much stuff, its more challenging to streamline and maintain clutter-free spaces.
Donate a like item to make space for the new.
When people ask us for help, the common denominator is almost always too much stuff, Pawlowski says.
