After you’ve been in a home for many years, the inevitable happens: things start to pile up! This happens to the best of us, but don’t give in. Here are some tips and tricks to keep your home organized all year long:
Create Rhythms
A rhythm is a habit that you do on a regular basis that just becomes part of your routine. Here are some suggested cleaning rhythms:
Weekly - light cleaning: Commit to doing light cleaning chores once every day. Assign these to specific days. For example, cleaning your kitchen counters on Monday, and vacuuming main areas on Tuesday.
Monthly - deep clean: Assign one day a month to a deep cleaning. This covers bathrooms and baseboards.
Seasonal - spring clean, fall cleaning, decorating, purge: Set aside one day a quarter to do the seasonal items to prepare for the months ahead.
Yearly - big tasks: These are the tasks you hate but they must be done (window washing anyone?). Make one day a year the ultimate cleaning day and require all family members be involved.
Target Problem Areas
What is the problem area in your home? A lot of homeowners tell me their garage or basement is “the place where things go to die.” Well, if they are going there to die, it is probably time to get rid of them. Target a few areas in your home you want to focus on and create a few weekly or monthly rhythms to get them organized. Here are some great examples:
Garage
Basement
Kids/Toy Room
Decoration Storage
Break It Down
Tackle your problem areas and sort things into 3 piles:
Keep: You use these things often, or they’re extremely special and hold significance. They must be important to you. Take the time to organize them so they are easy to find when you want to.
Donate: Still in good condition, but you don’t use them. There are several great areas to Donate in the FM/JD/CAZ area. Click here to find one near you.
Trash: Bad condition, not special, collecting dust. Getting rid of the trash is easy, put it out by the curb!
If you have been in your home for several years, don’t overwhelm yourself and try to do your whole house! Break it down, room by room, item by item, one at a time.
Still overwhelmed? Got 10, 15, 30 minutes? Set a timer and start sorting. When the timer goes off, go back to your regular life. Pretty soon all these will add up and you will have completed a room!