7 Steps To Organizing Your Space To Banish Clutter

Clutter is the scrooge of mental well-being.

We might not be aware of how much it actually affects us negatively. But make no mistake about it. It gravely affects us… at least on an unconscious level.

If you have a high tolerance of unsightly messed up spaces, good for you. But if you want to enhance your focus and promote a clear mind, clutter is as close as it gets to a worst enemy.

Because clearing up clutter and maintaining a clutter-free environment takes effort and can be quite a hassle, clearing it up if one of those things that we set aside for another day.

And that day never seems to come.

If that eyesore has finally hit a nerve within you to take action, here are 7 steps to banish clutter to the fires of Mordor as it truly deserves.

1) Start with a BIG idea

Instead of just packing up your table, think big. Then, try even bigger.

Go for the whole desk including the drawers. Or consider the whole corner that your table is situated at. And since you are at it, why not go for the whole room?

If you think small, the odds are that you would achieve your goals easily. Making you think that you can move on to other areas on another day

This complacency will just encourage your laziness to take over and only get to step 2 in 3 months… if ever.

For example, if you are indeed clearing the whole desk of clutter, remove ever item on the tabletop and drawers. Leave them on another area and give the desk a good wipe down.

Since you have removed all items, you have unknowingly committed yourself to packing everything.

It’s a nice little way to force yourself to do what’s good for you. No motivation required. 😀

Then use the same method on other areas at home or in the office.

2) Get containers

I wouldn’t be surprised if an award-winning Professor makes a claim tomorrow that containers are the second best invention (after sliced bread of course) ever created by mankind.

Even if you have a thousand little items to organize. You can still dump them randomly into containers and still give the place an organized look to it.

Get jars, bottles, boxes, bags, baskets, etc.

If you fancy interior design, take note that materials of containers can play a vital role in creating whatever type of atmosphere you prefer.

Before you walk into a mall to get them, do remember that if space and clutter is a concern, then square containers are best as they can be neatly placed side-by-side and easily stacked if required.

3) Labels

If you are going to replace your mess with nicely stacked boxes, a key concern if how you are going to find your stuff in future when they are all chunked into boxes.

This is when your label maker will be a lifesaver.

You might be able to tell what kinds of items are contained in a transparent container. But when a box takes a solid color or opaque, labeling will help you save time in finding something specific.

If you are working on a budget, consider using permanent markers for writing on containers. But these can be unsightly if you have bad handwriting.

I strongly suggest label makers for that neater look.

4) Create categories

You can’t possibly list down all the items contained in a box or plastic bag. With the effort required to do that, it would be counter-productive to your organizing adventure to improve productivity.

Writing down so many items can be ugly too.

The best way to handle this is to categorize your items.

How exactly you should categorize them depends on your personal preferences and what specific words mean to you.

But at this stage, you’d want to be as general as possible without being confusing.

5) Group up items

Once you have categorized your items, you can double-up the organization by grouping items in specific areas.

For example, you might have designated a space in the living room, bedroom, and attic to place your boxes. In this case, you need to determine which boxes should be placed in which area.

For stuff that seldom see the light of day, it might be a good idea to group them together in the attic. For stuff that is used by everybody in the household, you might want to leave them in the living room. And for your personal items where you are the only person using them, leave them in your bedroom.

Again, these are just suggestions. Only you would know how best to group your junk so that you can operate most efficiently and effectively.

6) Make commonly used items accessible

Some things within that clutter might be stuff that you use often.

I myself have a clutter sitting in front of me now. And I can recognize immediately some stuff that I use frequently like:

• charging cables
• handheld mirror
• tissue box
• remote controls
• etc

Common sense should tell you that these things do not belong in a box. And common sense is probably right.

Put these items aside and when you have finished decluttering, find accessible places to put them.

Packing them into boxes would defeat the purpose of streamlining your place.

7) Remember to put them back

Once you have packed up the area, the challenge becomes your ability to maintain it.

The good news is that the tough part is over. But maintaining a clutter-free environment requires to put effort into putting things back to where you grabbed them from.

This requires little effort. And as long as you are not lazy, you should be able to keep this up. Anyway, it’s just good practice to put something back. Someone might need to use it after you.

Organizing your stuff can make a big impact on your stress levels. Some people even judge others by how well-organized they are at home. So don’t let a little clutter give people a bad impression of you.

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