Clutter Cleaning Tips

Pack rats like to collect things, and I mean everything. They store so much stuff that eventually it gets out of hand. If your house is packed with clutter, there will come a time when you no longer have room to store anything else. Here are some clutter cleaning tips for you pack rats! 🙂

 
Read declutter quotes for inspiration- Before you even start the decluttering process, get some inspiration. Here are a few of the more popular quotes: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful” ~ by William Morris, “Owning less is better than organizing more” ~ by Joshua Becker, and “Bottom line is if you do not use it or need its clutter and it needs to go” ~ by Charisse Ward.

 
Clean one room at a time- It is important to tackle just one room at a time. If you look at the whole house as one big project, it will do nothing but overwhelm you. Pick any room in your home to start with and once that room is complete, move on to the next room or tackle that another day. Your home didn’t get cluttered in one day so you don’t have to declutter it in one day.

 
Have the necessary organizational tools – If you have the necessary tools on hand to get organized, you will be one step ahead of the game. The items that you use to declutter and organize will depend on your personal preference. It is likely you’ll use items like filing cabinets, display cases, stackable crates, and bookshelves. These usually prove to be the most useful.

Be sure you have cleaning items to complete the job. You will want to move furniture away from the walls and vacuum all around the edges of the room. When a room has been cluttered, there is likely a lot of debris that is left under the clutter. Using a lightweight vacuum cleaner that works well to pick up all the debris like the Riccar R10E, is very important. A Magic Eraser works well to clean up any marks left on walls. Don’t forget to dust. You will find that a clean, decluttered room will give you a sense of pride!

 
Make four piles in the middle of the floor – You will need to have four cardboard boxes so that you can put stuff in them. Have one box labeled Put Away, one labeled Trash, one labeled Donate/Sell, and one labeled Store. Each and every item needs to go into one of these boxes. As you fill up a box, put it in the appropriate spot. For instance, donation items should go in the trunk of your car to be dropped off, trash should be put outside, store items should be put in the garage or basement, and put away stuff should be put where each item belongs!

 
Once you have cleared out all the clutter, you need to ensure it stays that way. If you allow it, clutter will come right back to haunt you. It is a good practice to put things away where they belong rather than just putting them down. You will thank yourself for it later!