DECLUTTER IN 1 HOUR!
I’m often asked how long it takes to declutter a room, or an entire home. Obviously it’s difficult to put a time on this without seeing the level of clutter there may be in a home, how large the home is, and a number of other factors such as the type of room.
The important thing to remember is that it may take a lot less time than you might think. And in this newsletter I want to give you a few ideas of some areas in your home that you could declutter in just one hour. When you take a look at this list, which is obviously endless, it will hopefully provide you with a few ideas on areas you would like to tackle in your home, and you only need to set aside one hour at a time.
While I acknowledge that many people are very busy with children and their many and varied activities both in school and after school, not to mention often a busy career thrown into the mix. However, I would like to think that even the busiest of us can find one hour during our week which we could dedicate to our ‘decluttering goals’.
The first step of course is to find that hour when you will be free to completely focus on the job at hand. In other words, this will ideally not be when the children are around needing your attention.
You could schedule your decluttering hour in your diary, and decide each week on which part of the home you want to get decluttered and organised. After all, if you can find an hour one week, you could enjoy the momentum this creates and schedule an hour each week to handle a different area. Just think how much you could get done in a few weeks taking it one hour at a time.
Something I often talk to clients about is macro and micro organising, and what I mean by that is: we may have a large area that needs decluttering, which is clearly going to take some time to complete. In this case I call it a ‘macro’ declutter where we tackle the big stuff and clear areas, but leave the ‘micro’ bits for another time. To give you an idea of what I mean, an example could be the home office filing cabinet, where files need to be organised and set up, but the content of the files can be gone through and culled at a later time.
To create momentum, as I touched on earlier, I suggest you make one of your first ‘declutter hours’ in an area of the home which is visible, for example the tabletop areas of your living room, or the top of your chest of drawers in your bedroom. This way you get immediate enjoyment and satisfaction from your decluttering efforts which will spur you on to create the impetus to attack other clutter zones.
Here are a few examples of what I believe is doable in one hour, in no particular order of importance:
– Bathroom vanity cupboard, these often get stuffed full of creams, lotions, makeup etc which are no longer used
– Medicine cabinet or kit, don’t forget to check expiry dates of medicines, and make a note of what needs to replenished
– Sort your cook books and give away the ones you know you’ll never use again
– Linen cupboard, again we often have much more linen than what we need
– Just one section of your wardrobe, which could be your shoe storage, or items that may be tossed in the bottom of the wardrobe; wardrobes can take much longer than an hour to do them completely so by doing it in bitable chunks you’re less likely to become overwhelmed
– A kitchen drawer or two, choose a couple of the messiest ones and do a cull of all the double ups – the extra cutlery, fish slice and slotted spoon could go into a kit reserved for picnics or camping, and stored in the garage or spare room
– A drawer or two of your chest of drawers, or the top of your chest of drawers which tends to gather lots of bits and pieces
– Declutter and clear the desk-top in your home office, and/or sort at least one drawer in the desk
– Sort one child’s wardrobe, or do two if you have time
– Cull and organise kids toys and books; this may well be a 2-part project where you whisk through and cull out what you absolutely know they have grown out of, with the second part dedicated to sorting areas or containers for types of toys so they’re in some semblance of order
– Tackle one or two shelves in your pantry keeping like-minded products together eg herbs and spices, pastas and rice, biscuits and breads, cereals and spreads
You may find that you’re enjoying the process so much that you continue on over the allocated hour, but I would suggest you only continue on if you are enjoying it. If you’re getting tired and feel it’s a chore, then stop at the end of the hour and pick up again in your next hour’s session.
I hope all of this is helpful, and that you start having fun with your mini-declutter sessions. I know when I’m doing this in my own home I often become totally absorbed in working through what I know I can part with, and what I definitely want to keep, and sometimes reinventing spaces so what I’m keeping creates a new display.
I wish you joy and blessings, and a wonderful month ahead as we head towards Christmas and the New Year.
In Joy!
Angella Gilbert
P: 09 410 4166
M: 027 224 8937
E: angella.gilbert@xtra.co.nz
W: www.gioia.net.nz
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