How to Declutter a Closet
Do you have a hard time trying to fit you dry cleaning into your closet? With the styles of clothes constantly changing and your need to change your clothes, a closet can become cramped and cluttered rather quickly. So if this is your challenge it might be time to do something about yours.
Good times to approach the issue of de-cluttering a closet are late fall and late spring. This is because by then the weather would have become a little more constant. After all, would you want to pack away all your summer clothes in the beginning of October only to suddenly get a week that a Capri and short sleeves would have been perfect. Also, you will want to tackle de-cluttering your closet when you have the whole day to spare. This is because you will most likely use your bed to store clothes and you wouldn’t want to get to a point where it is time for bed and you are so tired that you just throw everything back into the closet to go to sleep. However, the de-cluttering of your closet actually starts a few days earlier as you check it out to determine what you would need to organize it. Maybe you need a better way to organize you shoes. Do you have your accessories all over the place due to a lack of proper storage? Do you require more shelves or racks? On identifying the items you need to aid in the organizing of the closet you can purchase it in advance so you have it by your “de-cluttering the closet” day.
On the set day, start by removing pieces of clothing and judging them one at a time. Determine how long since you last wore it and whether or not it is in good condition. If with in the last year there is a piece of clothing you have not worn chances are, you are not going to wear it anytime soon. Sort your accessories and shoes as well. Any items that are not in good condition discard. Once your closet is empty you can go ahead and clean it by vacuuming the floor and wiping down any shelves, racks and clothes bars. Afterwards, you can begin replacing the items into your closet you are going to keep back in an organized manner.
Don’t take any space for granted it you happen to have a small closet. After all, you can place a few hooks, a shoe rack or even an accessory rack at the back of the closet door. If after doing this you still find yourself running out of space to store your shoes, look for alternatives. A great alternative would be to purchase a bin with wheels that you can slide under your bed. If space under your bed is limited or you don’t have space for a bin you can get bed lifts to help increase the amount of space under your bed. Any seasonal items that you may have can be stored in vacuum bags. A great tip to save time in the future when switching out seasonal clothes is to store your out of season clothes on hangers. As such clothes don’t need to be hung up, having them stored with the hanger intact makes it easy to put them in and take them out of your closet with each change in season. Consider investing in a permanent organizational solution. Companies like EasyClosets.com help you maintain a closet that is organized and clean as they specialize in space utilization. For those females in your life who have a lot of hand bags then they can check out Clipa – The Instant Handbag Hanger which is a great way to help them organize the handbags in their closet as well as allowing them the convenience of being able to hang their handbags securely when they are out running errands.
Conquering the clutter in your closet can be a simple process. All you have to do is take your time, utilize your existing space efficiently and look for the most appropriate organizational solutions.
Decluttering Your Bedroom in One Day
An organized bedroom has the benefit of offering feelings of relaxation and comfort. However, these feelings are robbed when walking into a bedroom that is full of clutter. Yet the whole process of de-cluttering a bedroom can be completed in one day. So get rid of the clutter by doing these simple things and be well on your way to having a bedroom of perfect relaxation and comfort.
Firstly, get a pen and paper and make some notes when you are starting to declutter your bedroom. Now, look around the room and note where the clutter is mostly collecting. Is the clutter predominately by the nightstand? What essential items would you like to keep close to your bed and what items are cluttering up the space? Do you enjoy reading reading at night? If you have piles of books and magazines that are out of place you might be able to solve that problem by placing a few shelves by the side of the bed.
If you notice small pieces of garbage all over the night stand then on your list it would be a good idea to purchase a small trash bin to keep by the bed side. If the clutter is due to laundry that is heaping up in a pile next to the bed then an investment in a laundry hamper would be a great idea to make note. During your de-cluttering process remember to check under the bed. How is the organization there? Would the purchase of a few bins with wheels on them that can slide easily in and out from under the bed be important? Would you need to get bed lifts if there isn’t enough space for the bins? Once you have identified the items you need to purchase to aid you in organizing your bedroom, it is then onto step two.
Secondly, you need to work on creating your organized space. If you identified that there was clutter near your bed table and the relevant adjustments as to shelve, etc., have been made then you can go through these items and remove those that you no longer need in your bedroom.How many of the books ad magazines are you really reading at the moment? Are there any books that you can place on another shelf in your home or maybe give away? Can the magazines be tossed? Do you have any clothes in your dresser that you can get rid of instead of merely placing in another dresser? You can separate your underwear, socks, bathing suits, etc instead of placing them all in to the same drawer. If you found that most of your clutter was under your bed, are there things that can be stored somewhere else in your home? Seasonal bedding can be stored in an air tight bag under your bed. In the process of deciding what to store under your bed a nice thing to keep in mind is that if you can not see each individual bin or bag under the bed, then you probably have too many things under there.
It is very easy to create a relaxing environment. Once you are clear on what you want you can make your bedroom the space of your dreams.
How to Declutter an Office
Some people say that your office says alot about the type of person you are in your work and personal life. So if your office is cluttered and that says the wrong thing about you, you may want to de-clutter you office as that might be the best thing for you and your career. Having a work area that is organized goes a long way towards helping you to save precious time by not having to look through a pile of clutter just to find the information you need.Yes I know you might say that there is some order to the chaos, but having an organized office makes it so much easier to give prospective and current clients a good impression. After all, people prefer to work with someone who is organized.
Starting with the general layout of your office, look to make sure that there is a clear path between your office furniture. That is, from your desk to any file cabinets and from your desk to the door to name a few. Also consider the overall space in your office as well. Is any of your furniture to big or small for the space? If your desk is too large it give the feeling of a cramped environment. Placing a table next to a small desk if you have one and require more room to work, can go a long way towards adding that touch of elegance to your office design as well. So your goal would be to find a table that is not only the same color finish but also height as your desk.
Is there the proper furniture in your office that is used to hold the essentials like a photo copier,fax machine, etc. If you were to give some of your essentials their own separate space it will allow you to gain a lot of work space whilst organizing your office. An example would be to have your printer or multifunction copier on a printer stand within usable distance and not on your desk. This will help to increase the valuable space you already have on your desk. Besides, the printer stand will also give you some more shelf storage space for accessories like printer paper. Is there enough room available for files or books? Investing in a book shelf might be the way to go; either freestanding or built in. Going as far as to place your desk in a manner that makes it easily accessible to other office furniture or equipment would be extremely beneficial as well. After all, you may be the type of person who requires access to your file cabinet regularly and an easy solution to the constant getting up and down would be to have the filing cabinet directly behind your desk. Alternatively, you could have the path wide enough that you can remain seated and roll your chair back and forth to the other office equipment.
Your desk alone can easily get cluttered and unorganized. So, what are the items that you really need on your desk? Having an uncluttered desk top can be achieved by organizing the paper on your desk. Making sure that all manila files and/or project folders are labeled also helps in the organization. You could be able to tell at a glance the various projects that require your attention by placing stacks of files in a step folder. This has the added benefit of getting rid of them as well. The use of stacking trays may be of use as these are ideal for assigning those “inbox” and “outbox” locations. These stacking trays not only save space but also help to keep your office desk top neat. The drawers of your desk are also areas that you need to pay special attention. You can organize your drawers by placing loose pens, paper clips and thumb tacks within plastic trays and caddies that are designed to fit into a desk drawer and which can be obtained from most office supply stores and chain retailers. Also look around the floor of your desk as this may have become a place where you placed items that couldn’t fit on your desk.
Once you have conquered the clutter in your office, it is really simple to ensure that it remains organized. This is achieved by spending a few minutes at the end of each day to put things away as this will help reduce the chances of the clutter returning.
Declutter and Organize Your Home
The disorder that you currently see in and around your home did not happen over night and will not be corrected over night either. Therefore, in an effort to de-clutter your home, your first priority would be to allocate a certain amount of time every day towards that goal. Once you have made that decision, the next thing to do would be to get your hands on three containers or boxes. Label one box “give away”, another “put away” and the last one “throw away”. Be sure to line the inside of the “throw away” box with a garbage bag as that would make the throwing away a whole lot easier.
Now, to conquer your clutter start by focusing on one room in your home. After all organization is the goal and so you want to de-clutter in an organised way. You can do this by starting at one point in the room (maybe the entrance) and working your way around the room clockwise. Whilst going around the room do not skip anything.As you go around the room it can be hard determining which of the items will go into which boxes. So to help with the decision making process you should ask yourself some key questions about the item. You could ask questions like; How do I feel about this item? Does it have sentimental value? Do I love it? Does this item make me feel guilty or sad? Well as a side note, it might not be such a good reason to allow an item to continue to clutter up your home just because you may feel guilty about getting rid of it because someone gave it to you.
Some other really good questions to ask yourself would be, have I used this item in the last year? Is this item broken or not in good condition? Do I have something better? Using these questions as guides will help you get well on your way to reducing clutter and getting rid of a particular item. Now, as soon as your “give away” box is full, take it to the local thrift store or donation center.Further more if you want to earn a little cash off your “give away” items you could always sell them on Amazon
After you have started to de-clutter a room you might be surprise to see the amount of items that are out of place in your home once you take a look at your “put away” box. As soon as your “put away” box is full stop de-cluttering and put the items away. Do not place the box in another room with intentions of getting back to it later. Otherwise, you will never get around to it until it is time to de-clutter that room.
As you go around the room your frame of mind should be such that you are de-cluttering and so do not skip shelves, draws or furniture as this de-cluttering is also the perfect time to go about organizing the room. An example of this would be if a piece of furniture in the room is a desk then you could look through and organize the draws, making sure you have proper locations for items like pens, envelops and bills. If this desk was where you keep important financial papers, you will want to go through those papers as well. Create an alternative spot in your home where you can keep critical information for several years.
The whole process of de-cluttering your home is not as overwhelming as you may think. Just remember that it is a process that will occur over a period of time due to your diligence in doing something every day towards de-cluttering your home. Keep a rag with you to clean as you conquer your clutter. Once your de-cluttering is complete you can always go through the room and decorate with all your special items. Thus making each room into the way you want it to be.
Finding Help To De-clutter Your Home
Have you fought for years to be organized but have accepted that you aren’t an organized person and think that there is no way you can figure out your organizational needs? Well there is help out there so don’t you worry. This help is quite easy to find as well. So if organizing a closet is what you want, finding a company that can solve that problem isn’t a problem. However, if your needs or bigger, you may need to look for de-cluttering services that are more catered to you.
You can consider hiring a professional organizer but be sure you choose the right one for you. So, where do you begin looking for a de-clutter expert? That’s an easier question than you might think. After all, when was the last time you saw an advertisement for a professional organizer on the side of a bus? Looking into your local newspaper professional listing or even the yellow pages of the phone book under “Organizing Products and Services” would be helpful. There is also the National Association of Professional Organizers which is n automated referral system you can access on the internet. Once at this site you could search by location or organizing specialty to find the right person for you.
Always speak to several of these organizers before you decide on any one person. Meeting with the individual in person is recommended and ask if they offer a free estimate. Ask if they are a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) as it will show that they are committed to continuing education and an industry code of ethics. Unfortunately, it does not guarantee that the quality of the work they provide will be sufficient. You may be interested in knowing how long they have been a professional organizer. What areas do they specialize in and what results can you expect from the services they provide? Also ensure that you obtain a list of their references that you can follow up on. After all, this will be someone who will be allowing into your home and investing a fair amount of time and effort into. Be prepared to answer the questions about you and your organizational needs that they will undoubtedly for you. Be sure you are honest with your answers as the reason they are there is to help you organize your home so don’t be embarrassed.
You can expect to be charged between $50 and $200 an hour by most professional organizers. There are a few though that prefer value based pricing and so will charge by the project. However, if an organized office and home are truly important to you then the price is well worth it. So your dreams of conquering the clutter around you really can come true.
