Secrets to Eliminating Daily Clutter

To keep on top of your busy life you must deal with clutter on a daily basis.

Following are some secrets to keeping your home and family organized:

1. Think through where the clutter happens most often. What and where does clutter come from? Usually the kitchen is a primary spot caused by cooking and meals. Wash the dishes upon use.
2. Use baskets, shelves and cubes to contain clutter that is recurring in the same area and which your family uses on a regular basis.
3. The family room is another area that is a close second to the kitchen. Assign the children to do a fast pick up in the morning or before they go to bed for any toys, clothes and so on.
4. Use only one junk drawer. Sort through this drawer monthly. If the same items keep showing up, they are not junk and should be given their own space.
5. You must help children control their clutter. Give them the means to do so with baskets, shelves, drawers and cubes.
6. Dresser drawer dividers are a great way to keep small items, underwear, socks and so on separate and organized.
7. Treat your kitchen drawers with dividers too so that every item has its own place
8. Give any new item in your home, its own place and let the family know where that is. If it is a replacement for a current item, discard the old one now.
9.  Install a key holder rack at the same entrance for each set of keys to avoid having to look for them when it is time to leave home. The whole family should use this area and each set of keys should be readily identifiable.
10. Keep all books in one place. Store library books not being read at the entrance of your home most used for entering and leaving so that they are not forgotten.
11. Create folders for grocery coupons, invitations and events that you and your family could take advantage of. Keep these folders in another basket at the coming and going entrance of your home plus your cloth shopping bags to avoid…forgetting them. This is also a good area to keep information like transit schedules, school information etc.
12. Place all incoming mail in a basket for both you and your spouse. Open all this mail on the last Friday of each month and prepare for payment of bills at the end of the month. Be careful to watch for mail that are not bills and open these immediately upon receipt.
13. When shopping read the “Best Before Date” in the store before shopping. Your children will be very aware of this information as they are taught it in many schools.
14. Drop off expired date and unused medications at your pharmacy to be put in their disposal pail.
15. Go through every one’s clothes bi-annually with the owner to decide what should be discarded in the dumpster or given to charity.
16. Limit the amount of plastic bags you keep on hand.
17. This one is hard but throw out magazines over a year old, if not sooner.

Keeping on top of clutter on a daily basis creates calm surroundings that are a pleasure to come home to and enforces your self worth. It also teaches your children from a very young age to take responsibility of their possessions and to be aware of their surroundings too.