How many times have you looked forward to getting home to relax from a stressful day and when you walk through the door you realize your home is a mess? So what do you do? You start cleaning or stashing things in places where you won't have to see them. Before you know it every closet, under bed storage, attic, drawer and cabinet are completely full and you have no where left to hide all these "things you need". A cluttered unorganized home can wreak havoc on your daily life. You're trying to get dressed but you can't find your pants, you head to the grocery store but can't remember what you have in your pantry, your child needs that one piece of paper they left on the counter for a school project and it is no where to be found...sound familiar? All of these scenarios can send you over the edge when you are already stressed out.
Most people don't declutter until they are forced to. They are having a party at their home, someone important is coming over, or they are preparing to sell their home. Decluttering doesn't have to be a long drawn out miserable task. My advice is to start with one room at a time. Set a goal for yourself to declutter one room a week or one a day if you are on a time crunch. Start with at least one cup of coffee (or wine) and your favorite tunes and get to it! When you finish and your entire home is clutter free you will feel like wonder woman! It's the most freeing feeling to know where every thing is and to have a functional, well organized home. Some of my clients have mentioned they fell in love with their home after we decluttered and decorated. "It's like I have a brand new house!
My favorite item to help with decluttering are bins! Bins, bins, bins! They are everywhere these days. You can find them at Home Goods, Target, Walmart and they are fairly inexpensive. I recently purchased 2 cars full of bins to declutter and stage a home that I was listing. The total cost was $200 for a 3500 sqft home.
The kitchen is where we spend so much of our time; cooking, hanging out, eating, having some wine with our girlfriends. The pantry is always a messy space. Some of my favorite bins for the pantry area are these plastic weave bins at Target . They are perfect for separating can foods, pasta, snacks, spices, etc. See below for my before and after of a pantry I recently organized for a client's home we were about to list.
There are so many creative ways to use storage bins. The key is to clean through the clutter and THEN store what you need in the containers. Do not throw all your items in a bin to hide them! I know what you were thinking all my hoarder friends out there.....
Children's room and playrooms can be tricky. They love to take everything out every day. My best advice is to declutter when your children are not home or they will try to keep all the items you are giving to good will! The truth is kids don't need all those toys to be happy. They, like us, function better when they have a few choices instead of hundreds. I have found some creative ways to keep Ellie and Hayes' room clutter free while making all of us happy. Tiered baskets like this one can be used to put toys and stuffed animals in. The tall design keeps clutter off the floor and also leaves more room for the kids to play. It also makes cleaning up a breeze. I store games with lots of tiny pieces, crayons, painting items, etc in these bins on the top shelf of the closet. This way they have to ask me to get them down and I can monitor when they are playing with tiny pieces that Hayes could choke on or messy items that can ruin my walls!
Bathroom decluttering is one of my toughest spaces. As a woman, I love all things products and the older I get the more products I need...or so I tell myself. Bathrooms can be a challenge when you have multiple family members using one or you have limited space to keep all your goodies. Again, you want to take an hour or so to declutter and throw out what you don't need. If you haven't used it in the past 6 months to a year, the chance that you will use it in the future is slim. Once you have everything sorted, make separate piles for beauty, bath, hair, skin, makeup, kids toys and washes, or in my case, my husbands five different sets of trimmers. After sorting start putting items in bins and storing them based on how often you will need them. Most used items to the front and least used to the back. For items we use every day I purchased canvas/jute baskets like these. I keep them out on the shelf for easy access and you can't see what's inside them which makes the room feel clean and organized. For your linen closet or cabinet in the bathroom I find these stands for the pantry to be helpful in sorting hand towels and wash rags while being able to stack them on top of each other. Lazy Susans can also be a great way to store products that you use daily if you have the cabinet space. I could go into detail about every room but that post would be veryyyyy long. So, here are some before and afters from a home I recently decluttered. If you have any specific questions shoot me a message. I hope you enjoyed this post!