Enjoy Your Home June 27, 2018

How to Organize Your Home – Different Strategies for Success

Excessive messiness can lead to stress and anxiety – yet many of us don’t know how to rid our homes of the clutter that causes such worry. Often, it’s not as easy as just picking up trash or unwanted items and throwing them away – much of what we accumulate over the years holds sentimental value and fond memories and can be difficult to part with.

So how do you decide what stays and what goes? How do you determine which items hold real value, and which are just taking up space?

There are several theories on the matter, but we’ve researched three of the most popular. Below is a brief synopsis of each, so you can decide whether or not they’ll work for you.

KonMari Method

Created by organizing consultant Marie Kondo, the KonMarie method promises to greatly simplify your life. How? Clean your house once and never do it again. Really!

Marie says that traditional ideas on tidying up – such as throwing out one old item for every new piece you bring into the house or storing out-of-season clothing in bins – are more problematic than they are helpful. In the end, they all just lead to more… stuff. You never actually get rid of anything!

Her solution? One massive, no-holds-barred cleaning sweep. Lose anything that doesn’t bring you joy, anything that doesn’t contribute to your overall purpose in life. Though it sounds complicated, it’s really a simple process – you can read more about it in her book.

NumNee Method

Created by the minds behind BNeato Bar, the Numbers and Need method is…well, exactly what it sounds like! Simply go through your house and, room by room, determine how many of each specific type of item you have. For instance, do you have 18 coffee mugs? Do you really need them? Unless you have 16 children or you’re running a B&B, chances are you’re never going to need more than, say 4.

Once you start, you’ll be surprised at how many of each item you actually have. When you pull out all your DVDs, or all your pens and pencils, or all your summer shoes and pile them up together – it can be astounding. People often accumulate things without realizing how much they have.

New Order

Organizer Fay Wolfe believes that de-cluttering isn’t just about the actual stuff you have laying around the house – it’s also about what’s in your mind. Of course, we all want a neater home – and that’s what we’re here to talk about – but organization doesn’t start by sorting things out. It begins by sorting YOU out.

Fay believes that disorganization is the product of a cluttered mind – fear, excuses, reasons for not beginning the process – and you can’t sort out your stuff until you sort out your thoughts. Her book is all about developing the basic skills to help get you started.

What are your thoughts on decluttering? Have any of these methods worked for you? Let us know in the comments!