If you’re one of those people who dread the big spring clean, listen up! Aussie-born organisational guru Peter Walsh has some refreshing tips for cleaning out and decluttering your home.
Peter, who is Oprah Winfrey’s trusted organisation expert, says families have close to one tonne of things in their house that they don’t use or need.
“Everyone struggles with some form of clutter – it’s just a matter of degrees,” Peter says.
“In some way we all like to keep hold of something, whether it is our first school report card, a photo with someone famous or the clothes we wore when we met the love of our lives.
“Having more possessions can easily be more suffocating than liberating – for many of us, the stuff we own ends up owning us.”
But Peter’s style of decluttering doesn’t focus on the ‘stuff’ you have in your home, it concentrates on the life you want to live.
“The single biggest problem with organisation is that people think it’s all about ‘the stuff’ when, in fact, it’s almost never about ‘the stuff’,” Peter says.
“If you focus on the stuff you will never get organised – weird but true!
“The very first step in getting organised is to ask yourself, ‘What is the life I want to be living?’. And from this question there are others: ‘What does that life look like?’, ‘What do I want from my home – what mood, what experience?’
“It’s only after you’ve answered these questions that you can start looking at your stuff and get organised.”
Another key to keeping your home clutter-free is to accept the space you have. As soon as you accept this, the easier it will be to create the space you want.
Peter recommends holding onto just two types of objects in your home: things that are useful and things that you consider to be beautiful.
“If the things in your home don’t help you create the life you want, they have no place in your home,” he says.
“It’s important to constantly take stock of what you own (and be careful of what you bring into your living space) and remove those things you no longer need or use.”
So what’s his first tip to eliminating excess ‘stuff’? The 10-minute trash-bag tango!
“Set aside 10 minutes and have everyone in your home grab two garbage bags. Wander around your home, filling the first bag with garbage – old newspapers, unwearable clothing, discarded food containers – anything that belongs in the trash,” he says.
“In the other, you put things that you no longer need or use or want – these are items to donate to charity.
“If two of you do this for just 10 minutes a day, in one week you’ll have 14 bags of trash and 14 bags of items for donation – that’s pretty impressive!”
Declutter your home, one room at a time, with Peter’s top tips:
The living room
Say goodbye to the movies you don’t use or watch with the ‘ratio reduction rule’. Peter says for every four or five DVDs you have, remove one from you collection and donate it to charity.
If you still don’t have room to fit everything comfortably into your shelves or cupboards, do it again until you have room for new additions.
Bathroom
Can’t part with your favourite lipstick(s)? It’s time to read the labels! All cosmetics have an expiry date and this is the best way to determine what to ditch if you can’t bear to part with anything. Most make-up expires after six months, but the closer to the eyes, the shorter the lifespan. Mascara is the product most likely to turn first whereas body creams can last up to 12 months. So, start cleaning out your cupboards!
Kitchen
Can’t keep track of your appliances? A good way to determine what you use and what you don’t is to empty the contents of your kitchen utensil drawer into a cardboard box. For the next month, only put a utensil back in the drawer when you use it. At the end of the month, seriously consider whether you need what’s left in the box and donate it to charity.
Bedroom
There should be only three types of clothing in your closet: things that fit you now, things that you love and things that make you feel great. Everything else should go.
You should especially get rid of ‘wish’ clothes – those items you hope to fit into again. Open your wardrobe space by discarding everything you don’t wear or haven’t worn. If you don’t know where to start, try turning all the clothes on hangers in your wardrobe back to front. For the next six months, every time you wear something, return that item to the rack with the hanger facing the opposite way. At the end of six months, you should seriously consider discarding whatever is still hanging back to front.
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