A little clutter throughout your home can sometimes feel unavoidable. For example, after a busy day at work, it’s easy to empty out your bag onto the counter and plan to deal with it tomorrow. However, when this becomes a habit, your home can quickly become filled with clutter at every twist and turn, creating an environment that is less than pleasant.
Beyond the impact that this can have on how your home looks, clutter could also be bad for your health and overall wellbeing. For example:
- Cluttered spaces create an environment where dirt, bacteria, and germs can thrive, as they’ll often go undetected for long periods of time.
- Clutter impacts the way in which your brain functions, leaving you more prone to stress and anxiety. For example, a recent study found that ‘levels of the stress hormone cortisol were higher in mothers whose home environment was cluttered.’
- Clutter impacts your ability to focus, which could spell disaster for those who work from home. For example, you may find that you’re less productive when working from than in the office, despite having access to the same tools and resources. Over time, this could significantly impact your performance at work.
- Living within a cluttered space could also make you more susceptible to illness or impact your immune system. A recent study from Indiana University found that ‘people with clean houses tend to be healthier than those with messy or cluttered homes.’
- Clutter can be particularly harmful to those with allergies, this is because it makes it easier for allergens to pile up within your living space. For example, clutter creates a breeding ground for dust, mold, and more. On a similar note, this could also impact homeowners with respiratory conditions such as asthma.
- Clutter can also impact your ability to sleep at night, resulting in an array of complicated health issues further down the line. This is due to the fact that a messy environment leaves your brain on overdrive as you will subconsciously feel as though you have unfinished business to attend to, making it impossible to drift off.
As a result, it’s clear that it’s time to tackle clutter within your home – and here are some top tips that you can use to achieve this goal.
Try the Marie Kondo Method.
Marie Kondo’s guidance on keeping your home clean and clutter-free burst into popularity due to her Netflix series, providing viewers with a variety of effective ways to improve their living space. Perhaps the most important bit of advice to take from this is that it’s unhelpful to hold onto items that no longer serve a purpose. While humans, by our very nature, like to cling on to our belongings due to sentimentality, sometimes it’s okay to throw something away or donate it to charity. Go through your home and think carefully about whether or not the items in your home ‘spark joy’ or serve a purpose. If the answer is no, it’s time to get rid of it! For example, you’ll likely be surprised by how many broken items you have lying around the home that you’ve held onto for no good reason whatsoever. This also gives you a chance to get a headstart on your spring cleaning.
Invest in creative storage options.
Sometimes, the reason that clutter accumulates in the home is due to a lack of practical storage options. For example, if your cupboards are already overflowing, then it’s all too easy to leave your belongings on the countertops. Thankfully, there are various options at your disposal here. For example, you could invest in Sideboards & Buffets. They provide you with a stylish, yet effective storage option that will look great in any area of your home. You can find out more here: https://www.brosa.com.au/dining-kitchen/buffets-sideboards.
Try your hand at DIY.
Picking up some general DIY skills is a great way to update your home on a budget. However, they can also be instrumental in removing clutter as they help you to maximize space in your home. For example, you could build some simple shelves to store your belongings on. Alternatively, if you were looking for a challenge you could DIY under-stair drawers. These drawers are perfect for storing everyday clutter such as shoes, coats, and more – keeping your hallway clean and organized 24/7. They’re also a great selling point should you consider selling your home in the future.
Declutter for 10 minutes each day.
Clutter only really becomes a problem when you let it become one. That is, you put off tidying up one day, and then the next, and then the next. When you get into this habit, decluttering becomes a mammoth task as you’ve simply left yourself with too much to do. Thankfully, remedying this is relatively straightforward: set aside ten minutes each day that you can dedicate to decluttering. Try to stick with the mindset that ‘there is a place for everything, and everything should be in its place.
Change your mindset.
Reducing clutter within your home also comes down to your shopping habits. For example, if you’re constantly looking online for the next deal, or ‘accidentally’ hitting the shops for a little too long on payday, you’re always going to have some residual clutter in your home. As a result, you may need to change your mindset a little when it comes to shopping. For example, you could opt to only buy things you truly need or want, as opposed to buying products on a whim. This is also a great way to be more sustainable and budget-friendly in your daily life. One way in which you could go about changing your mindset to accommodate for this is by trailing the ‘one in, one out method’. For example, every time you buy something new for your home, try to remove something else beforehand. This is a great way to keep clutter to a minimum, while also giving you the chance to donate your old belongings to charity.
