By Nikki Kinzer
Clutter… Most of us have it in some form or another! It builds up in a variety of different places in our home like countertops, tables, and even the floor! I like to call them clutter hot spots… The areas in our home that for some reason attract all of our stuff!
I can tell you by experience… You will be much more successful in building your organized lifestyle if you work with your clutter rather than against it!
You have to start by looking at these clutter hot spots in a different way, first by acknowledging they exist! Take a look around your home and identify where are they?
Ask yourself:
What’s in these clutter hot spots? What type of items?
Why is this the place everything lands?
Where should these items go? Do they have a home?
Do I need to make up a new system? Change an existing one?
How do I control the clutter build up?
Once you have a clear idea of where your hot spots are and what’s in them, you can really start laying the groundwork on creating better systems.
Work with your habits and daily routines, for example, if paper is an issue, instead of having several stacks of mail in different areas, designate one basket that ALL mail goes into. When you are ready to sort it, you know where it will be… Place the basket where it’s convenient, maybe on a table right by the front door or on the wall by the door you come in.
The point is to make it easy!
You can also set rules for yourself for when a clutter hot spot needs attention. If your mail basket is overflowing and you are no longer able to neatly place the mail into the basket, use this as your red flag that now is the time to go through it. If you notice items are piling up on a chair or a countertop, decided when it’s no longer acceptable to you and use this as your red flag to do something about it.
Awareness to the clutter hot spots will keep these areas from getting out of control!
Clutter is going to happen, the point is to make your systems easy enough to maintain and to have the red flags set in place for you to take action when it’s necessary! It’s about being proactive rather than reactive!
Take a look around, what simple changes can you make right now, today?
Happy Organizing!
