Mission Decluttering

Pin It Now! For the past few weeks I have been actively de-cluttering and organizing my home. On the way, I taught myself a whole lot of new things. It was tiring but a lot of fun, and utterly satisfying. These are some of my lessons learned that may help some of you in your next organizing project.

My goal was to make my home - neat,spacious and definitely more organized.

The first step was to ask myself questions- lots of them.What do I want to change ? What is creating the clutter ? I looked around and the answers came right back.

There were lots of things that needed de-cluttering. For instance, Aamod's toys. So many were broken and not used. I donated a big bag of them and trashed several. I now have only the toys that I want to keep. Less stuff to keep means more space and easy organizing.Ditto with shoes,clothes,zip lock containers etc.Closet and cabinet space is precious real estate that should be wisely used.

I cannot stress how important this step has been. In fact I plan to do it every few months. If I cannot decide if something needed to go or stay I follow the 3-6 month rule. I store it away and if I do not recall or use it for 3-6 months I probably do not need it.

Another trick I learned is to start with small spaces and small projects. I am a working mom and I can only devote so much time to my home. I planned to do a few tasks( may be 2 or 3 small ones) every weekend. That way I do not stress out and lose out on the fun. Make a task list and target it over a few weeks.

I also realized that its not easy to let go of things. Specially toys, clothes - that have been so fondly bought and even gifted.But believe me when you see your clean, organized home it will be all worth it.

Coming up next - are clever ideas to organize your home. Don't head to the IKEA store unless you read this.And this one will be a picture post, I promise.