Forget waiting till spring to do a big clean, now is the time to get organised. Here we have 15 great tips to help you get your home organised right now.

During winter, we naturally like to hibernate a little bit, spending a lot more time inside. For this reason, it becomes more important for the home to be clean and tidy, because we are spending more time enjoying it.

So, although certain times of the year are famous for big cleans, like the infamous spring clean, it actually makes the most sense to get your home organised during this time of year. You’ll be spending more time inside, you’re going to need space for all the Christmas presents you’ll be buying, you’ll also need more space for all the gifts you will be receiving, and no one wants to go into the New Year with a house full of junk. A tidy home is a tidy mind and this time of the year is very stressful, so a tidy mind is certainly something most of us could benefit from!

Here are 15 useful tips to help you get your home organised:

• School Nights – Often on busy school mornings we can end up turning the place upside down trying to find something we didn’t know was needed, and thus continues the circle of disorganisation with things getting lost. Prepare for school mornings the night before. Have a system in place to ensure the kids’ bags are packed for the next day, with homework, sports kits etc. Designate hooks, boxes and other areas for the kids to put their uniform and bags in, and make sure they know to do so. Basically, it might sound like a military operation but, if you have a system in place, things will run much more smoothly.

• Work Nights – In the same way you sort out the kids’ stuff the night before, do the same for your work stuff. Have a bowl for your keys by the door, have your uniform or outfit on a hanger, and have your own bag packed if you need to take a report in, or specific books, files or tech.

• Bathroom Clutter – Bathroom clutter can take a beautiful bathroom from chic to shabby in minutes. Have cute baskets, plastic tubs and other small storage solutions for all your bits and bobs. Small trugs are particularly useful for putting wet items in like shampoo bottles.

• Magnet Strips – To organise ‘sharps’ inside a bathroom cabinet, place a magnetic strip inside which you can use to hang all your tweezers and nail scissors from – just make sure the cabinet is out of the reach of little hands.

• Regularly Throw Out Old Bathroom Items – Often the clutter that mounts up in the bathroom consists of items that could easily be thrown away – empty shampoo bottles, old makeup, out of date lotions and potions. Have a monthly clear-out to regularly get rid of old debris.

• Roll Up Your Towels – Towels can look untidy when they are hung. To store your clean, dry towels in the bathroom, consider rolling them up and stacking them in a cabinet or on a shelf.

• Put Hooks Everywhere – Wherever you can put hooks up in your home – do it. They come in so handy for hanging tea towels, bags, pictures, decorations – just make sure you don’t hammer any in where there are electrics or where people might bang their head. Consider using stick on hooks for lighter items.

• Have More Than One Laundry Basket – Place laundry baskets in different areas if you can. One in the bedroom, one in the bathroom – wherever people change their clothes so there’s never an excuse to leave dirty clothing on the floor.

• Sort Your Clothes Out – This is the perfect time of year to have a clothes sort out because the weather is changing. Have a few bags – charity, bin, sell. You could also have additional piles like a storage pile if you intend to take any of your clothes to your self storage facility, or a swap/ giveaway pile if you want your friends to gain from your clearout. The most important thing is to be ruthless.

• Get Your Spare Room/ Garage/ Shed/ Storage Unit Back! Regardless of which room it is, you will have a room that you use to throw any old rubbish into. Like a giant version of a messy drawer. This should be your priority to sort out. Take a weekend to organise whichever room it is that needs organising; now is a good time to declutter. If it is at home – you’re paying a mortgage or rent for space you don’t use and you’re not using items or equipment you could use if you had more space. If your messy area is a self storage unit – this needs organising right away, you’re directly paying for this area to be messy when you could save and downgrade to a smaller unit simply by having a decluttering session.

• Organise Your Clothes – When you have the clothes setup you want to keep, get them organised. Think of all the different ‘types’ of clothes you have – work/ casual/ party and organise them that way. If you find you’re struggling for space, especially with sections of clothes you don’t use during winter – consider investing in some cheap storage units to help you become more organised.

• Terminate The Tupperware – Tupperware takes up loads of space. Sort through it all, ditching any with cracks, with no lid, or any you really do not use any more. You’ll be surprised at how much cupboard space you gain.

• Get A Tin For Packet Herbal Teas – If you drink a lot of teas which come in little paper packets (enabling you to identify them) get a tin and fill it with them. This takes up a lot less space than having all the individual boxes in the cupboard.

• Have Direct Access To The Things You Use Everyday – Don’t fill up valuable counter space with items you only use every now and then. Only have direct access to those items you do use every day, including coffee machine, toaster, utensils and condiments.

• Make Time To Get Organised! – Stop making excuses and telling yourself you’d love to organise a certain area of the home but you just don’t have time. If you want to do something – make time! Your house is only getting more hectic the longer you put it off! Spend an afternoon sorting the spare room, spend 5 minutes sorting out a kitchen cupboard, spent a weekend organising your attic – whatever it is, stop putting it off. The sooner you get organised, the sooner you can start re

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But recently I saw the results of a neighbour’s decluttering session and it has spurred me on to try again. I have only just met this new neighbour – well, I say new, I actually moved here nearly 2 years ago and quickly got to know my immediate neighbours but this one lives in a side road opposite my drive so is not technically a neighbour. But she came for a chat when she saw me in the front garden one day because her daughter is about to start at the same school as my daughter.

But back to the issue of decluttering: the neighbour’s house – following what I’m told was a mammoth decluttering exercise over several week-ends – is an oasis of calm. For all I know it may always have been a calm place even when full of stuff but, somehow, I doubt it. They have a huge hallway, tiled in large glossy white tiles, with nothing in it except a black baby grand piano. I loved it before I had even been into any of the rooms. There is plenty of storage that cleverly blends into the white walls where, presumably they keep coats, shoes etc.

What seems to work so well is that every room has these unobtrusive storage spaces but I know (because I peeked) that the storage cupboards are all neat and tidy with the right shelves, hooks, drawers etc. appropriate to the room. So they haven’t gone all minimalist; they have simply made sure there is a place for everything. Maybe, in theory, there wouldn’t be such a thing as clutter if we all had masses of storage space, but I’m not going to follow that thought through because it would just be another excuse for me to avoid decluttering; and my neighbour has given me the encouragement to get started.

Of course organised storage is necessary but I also have to make sure I only store those things I truly need. I can see how our family life could become so much calmer if our living space was better organised. No last minute panics hunting for documents, school books, sports kit or a pen!

Ironically, decluttering is more difficult because of all the clutter around me so I’ve made a 5-step plan, which I am going to follow over the course of however many week-ends it takes but I have set myself a deadline of 2 months, just in case it drags on too long. So here’s my 5-step plan:

1: Wardrobes

Be absolutely ruthless clearing out wardrobes otherwise it’s far too easy to think you will wear that dress that is 2 sizes too small next year. Or think those uncomfortable shoes will eventually be fine to wear – if something doesn’t fit, is dated or I no longer like it then it just has to go. I will donate good quality items to charity, otherwise use a clothes recycling bank or just throw them out. There are places to sell good quality items online but I think preparing for that just adds to the pressure and I already have enough just tackling the clutter.

And I won’t forget those other items stored in the wardrobes such as handbags, belts, sports bags, suitcases etc.

Every family member, including my children, will need to go through this process.

2: Study/Office

This is by far the most cluttered and disorganised space in my whole house and, even worse, tends to be a dumping ground for all those things nobody quite knows what to do with. So it doesn’t just contain books, files etc but also board games, sports kit and assorted broken or unwanted musical instrument (a couple of guitars, a mandolin and an ancient trombone are some of the ones that are visible).

Shelves are over-flowing, filing cabinets full to bursting and opening the large storage cupboard usually results in something falling out because it is so full of stuff. I already know this will take longer than a single week-end; much of the floor area has piles of folders and books so it could well take a day just to clear the floor. I really don’t know why I have let the clutter build up.

I will now need to sort out years and years’ worth of paperwork stuffed randomly in the filing cabinets. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to keep it all but, obviously, there is plenty that I do need. One of the filing cabinets has 2 drawers that are broken inside so the hanging files no longer hang; it also has too few hanging files so items are not filed in any logical order but just squashed in wherever they will fit.

Decluttering is also the perfect opportunity to smarten up your office space. I plan to repaint my walls, storage cupboard and shelves, buy a new filing cabinet and a small sofa following the big de-clutter.

Of all the rooms to be de-cluttered this is the one I am dreading most.

3: Other Stuff

There is all sorts of stuff scattered about the house that needs a home of it’s own if I am to live the clutter-free dream. Magazines, toys, games, ornaments, vases, books, DVDs. Some of it may be good enough to donate to charity but some is simply past being of any use to anyone. I know from past failed attempts at decluttering that anything that I plan to donate to charity needs to be done straight away – otherwise I just end up with boxed labelled “charity shop” cluttering up my space.

I also know that when it comes to sorting through toys then I need to do this alone; my children are well past the playing with toys stage but I know they would persuade me to keep everything. I will hang on to a few special toys as keepsakes but the rest will go.

Unwanted ornaments, vases, board games etc will also be donated to charity – again I need to be ruthless otherwise I will be wasting my time simply moving all my clutter about and not actually de-cluttering.

4: Attic

It is so tempting to use the attic as a place to store all those things you want to keep but for which there is no space in the house, but I know that this space can quickly become unusable as it fills up and it becomes impossible to find anything up there when you do need it.

So I plan to keep it well-organised so I can see at a glance what I have and can retrieve any item easily. It is the perfect place for suitcases, infrequently used sports gear, out of season clothes or seasonal items such as Christmas decorations.

5: Garage

I can’t remember a time when I parked my car in the garage but it has always been useful for all the garden equipment, bikes, tools and car accessories. And, in the winter, the garden furniture too. But what started out as an organised space when I moved here 2 years ago has quickly become a mess with piles of boxes containing – who knows what? Probably the results of previous decluttering attempts. There are several boxes of CDs, DVDs and books following these previous attempts so I am going to be brave and just take them straight to my local charity shop without looking inside them, otherwise I will just be duplicating my previous efforts.

In the past I have secretly wanted to keep all my clutter – much like an addict cannot give up an addiction until they really want to – I have now reached the stage where the clutter is making my life too chaotic so I can only benefit from getting rid of it.

Wish me luck!

The post I Want to Declutter But… Here’s Why It’s Not Happening appeared first on Twits Guides.

• Be Ruthless – this is the hardest of things for us all to do. It is, however, the number one reason for our cluttered predicament. The issue we have is that we become attached at a sentimental level and it can sometimes cloud our judgement. We need to be brave and ruthless when we de-clutter; if you don’t use it, need it or love it, it goes.
• Strong plastic containers are best – when de-cluttering the worst thing you can do is to have a collection of inferior boxes gathered from your local supermarket, using old boxes with half the side missing and tops ripped off will simply not do. At worst you need to pack away your de-cluttered items into proper packing boxes like removal companies use. The best thing to use, are custom designed plastic containers with lids that fit and clip on. These will keep your precious belongings safe while they are packed away and free from dust and dirt.
• Create an inventory before you start packing everything away create an inventory. Get a pad and write a list as you pack things into the boxes. Closely linked to this tip is the next tip we have.
• Label the boxes there is nothing worse than realising that you need to get something out of storage and you have no idea which box it is in. The solution? Label the boxes and linked to our previous tip put the number of the box onto your inventory list at the top of each page. So as you write your list put the box number at the top of the inventory page to create an accurate record that will make it easy to find particular items should they be needed. There are other ways of improving this process by packing things by room or in alphabetical order.
• Self-Storage finally move your boxes to your chosen self- storage facility. There are several real advantages to using self- storage; if you do pack something away in your de-cluttering exercise that you later need, and you have created your inventory, it is very simple to retrieve your items. Most self-storage facilities have easy access, so retrieving your possessions is simple. Knowing that your favourite items are still accessible and can be retrieved at a moment’s notice makes the process of de-cluttering easier. Saying good-bye to your items is then much easier.

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