In an age of clutter and chaos, we are to streamline our living space to maximise its full potential.
Here are some of the benefits of home organization:
Have young, impressionable children in your home? All the more reason why keeping a neat and organised home instils the good habit of keeping spaces neat and tidy.
Having a space for everything in your home ensures that you know where each item is when you need it, saving you time and energy from going on a wild goose chase around the house every time you need to find an item.
Another benefit to keeping organised is that is a good way to keep stock of what items you have at home. Especially with bigger items, or sports and leisure items that you only use once in a while. These items, like fishing rods or tents, tend to be on the pricier side. You want to keep an inventory on these bigger ticket items, to save money and prevent double purchases.
Organising your space well also allows you to maximise your living in storage spaces. In a country like Singapore, where most of us live in small spaces, keeping organised allows us to set aside more room for living space, affording us with some much-needed breathing room in our small apartments.
To keep you and your space organised, we have compiled a list of tips and tricks to keep your living space looking spick and span!
Declutter Regularly:
Before you even get started on organising items into their respective locations, the most important thing to do is to do a major declutter of your storage spaces.
That way, when you do your regular monthly declutters, it will be much easier on you!
Decluttering ensures that you only hold on to items that you need, or use regularly. That can help cut down the amount of storage space needed to hold onto your items.
After a major decluttering, you want to keep your home still relatively clutter-free. Set aside time regularly to declutter different areas of your home. This can be a room-by-room process or focused on specific categories of items (clothing, books, kitchen utensils, etc.).
Rooms that you use frequently like the main bedroom and the kitchen can be decluttered more regularly, while rooms like the storeroom or spare bedrooms can be decluttered every few months.
To aid you in figuring out what items to keep, you can consider using the “keep, donate, discard” method to quickly sort through belongings.
For items that you do not need and are still in good condition, you can donate them to second-hand stores or sell them online. This is one way to encourage recycling, by allowing someone else to get good use out of your preloved items that are still in good condition.
If you have items that are worn out or broken, discard them appropriately in the proper recycling bin to be more eco-friendly.
Utilize Storage Solutions:
Once you have decided on the items that you intend to keep, it is time to get organised! Store items that you are less likely to reach for regularly in your storeroom. That way, you can reserve cabinet or shelf space for more frequently used items for your convenience.
To keep your cabinets and shelves from overcrowding, invest in storage bins, baskets, and organizers to keep similar items together. This way, you have an idea of what items you own at a glance, helping to prevent double purchases and overconsumption. To find things you need easier in your cabinets, consider labelling the containers, or purchasing clear containers.
Cabinets are not the only storage solution! Most of us overlook vertical spaces like blank walls when it comes to storage.
To maximise your vertical space, use shelves, hooks, or wall-mounted organizers. This helps free up floor and cabinet space and keeps items that you want to display or hang easily accessible.
Create a Command Centre:
A new design that might be useful to implement in your home is the idea of a “Command Centre”. Most of us in the home have a very busy lifestyle, whether you are a working parent or a student. Having a central area in the home like a command centre, can help consolidate important dates and information that the household needs to be aware of.
You can include a bulletin board, calendar, and baskets for mail and important documents in your command centre to hang up notices, flyers or shopping lists.
Have a consent form that you need Mom or Dad to sign? Having one place to deposit documents like this makes it easier for kids and parents to keep track of documents floating in and out of the home. Say goodbye to missed memos!
Use the command centre to keep track of schedules, and appointments, and to organize incoming and outgoing paperwork.
Implement the “One In, One Out” Rule:
One of the most important parts of organising your home is staying away from additional junk in a newly organised home.
By implementing the “One In, One Out” rule, you can keep track of the items that you are buying (and will eventually have to store.)
How this rule works is for every new item you bring into your home, consider getting rid of one similar item.
This helps prevent unnecessary accumulation and overconsumption and keeps your space from becoming overcrowded.
Hopefully, this will make you stop and consider before buying something new, to pause and ask yourself if it’s truly needed and where it will be stored.
Daily 10-Minute Cleanup Routine:
Doing one massive clean-up every half a year or so can be a very time-consuming and overwhelming task. To prevent clutter from piling up, you can dedicate a short amount of time each day to tidying up.
Set a timer for 10 minutes and focus on quick tasks like putting away clutter, folding blankets, or wiping down surfaces. Engaging your children in these tasks can teach them to take care of their belongings to make them last longer.
Not only that, it teaches them the importance of looking after their space and keeping it neat and tidy.
Consistent small efforts can prevent messes from piling up and make the overall organization more manageable.
Digital Organisation:
Done cleaning up your home? Don’t just stop there! With the amount of time that we all spend on our devices, it might be worth it to extend your organisation’s efforts to the digital realm.
Organise files on your computer, declutter your email inbox, and regularly back up important digital documents.
If doing all these tasks manually seems like a chore, you can utilise apps and tools for task management, note-taking, and goal-setting to keep your digital life organized.
As we navigate the demands of modern life, cultivating a well-organised home environment is not merely a matter of aesthetics but a profound investment in one’s overall well-being. The benefits extend beyond a visually pleasing space to encompass enhanced productivity, reduced stress, and an overall improved quality of life.
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