Sometimes, our home tends to look cluttered no matter how much we clean it. Rather than considering it as our inefficiency in decorating a space properly, we should find out the cause for the clutter. Only this can help us clear it away efficiently. Accordingly, here are the top 6 mistakes that would directly contribute to clutter in your home.
Not clearing the clutter
This is the first mistake you can commit while clearing out clutter in your home. You may make it a big project and create a huge list of everything that needs to stay or go. But if you don’t schedule the time for the project, you are only going to end up with a list of unchecked tasks. Set aside the time to complete the project, if not at once then in small installments.
Letting the Mail and Newspapers Pile Up
Face it! The mail and newspapers we get every day end up either on the center table or a sofa. With time, it becomes a huge mountain that is simply impossible to handle. Your best bet in this case is to get rid of all these mails and newspapers on a weekly basis. Set aside some time on a weekend to get rid of all the old mails and newspapers so that they don’t pile up in the room afterwards.
Buying containers we like but may never use
This is one of the biggest mistakes you can commit. Rather than clearing out the clutter, you start buying containers to stuff them in. Sooner than later, you will have dozens of these containers littering the place, with nothing but junk stuffed in them.
Retaining things that are of no use anymore
Most of us tend to hang on to stuff that we no longer need. The result is a room cluttered with useless items for the most part. As you start your de-cluttering project, you need to make a list of all the items in the room. Then you would need to split them into two groups, the ‘Can Stay-s’ and the ‘Need to Go-s’.
Write down all the items in the Need to Go-s list first. Then, consider each item and its inherent value before moving it to the Can Stay-s list. A rule of the thumb here is that if you are not going to need it and don’t love it, it should go.
Collecting Items and stashing them away
Sometimes we tend to have a fetish for certain items and keep collecting them even if we run out of space to showcase them. The result? We simply stash the collectibles into a bag and push it under the bed.
This is one of the main scenarios where clutter starts. True collectors know the value of the objects they collect, and tend to display them in a beautiful manner. If you still think that bag of collectibles stuffed under your bed is valuable, think again. Unless you take the effort to find a place for them in your home, chances are you may never want to keep them in the first place. It may be hard, but throwing them out is the only way to de-clutter your home in this case.
Forgetting to prevent more clutter
And finally! The last, but not the least important mistake you can commit while de-cluttering your home is preventing it from occurring again. You may take hours on end to clean up a room only to find it cluttered and messy in a few days. While de-cluttering your home is important, finding out and establishing ways to prevent more clutter is considered essential as well. This would mean carefully scrutinizing every item that needs to enter your home in the future, and bringing it in only if you consider it really valuable and hard to live without.
Clearing away clutter can become burdensome if you simply have too much of it to put away. From finding out the cause for the clutter and the mistakes you may be committing to contribute to it, to finding out the various ways in which you can handle the issue, these tips will help you reduce clutter in your home once and for all.
