organise your home in 30 days
Dilly Carter, professional organiser, author and TV presenter, gives her advice
1
Organising your home is simple, really – it’s just about making sure everything is grouped together and in the right place. First, walk out your house and walk back in with a notebook and pen and try to work out how each room has strayed from the original vision, and what you need to do to return it to that. It’s not until we take a step back that we see what needs to be done. You might want to write a list of 30 areas to tackle, prioritising the area that most affects your life.
2
If the whole house is cluttered, start with the bedrooms, because sleep is our most important commodity. The questions to ask are: do you love it? Do you need it? Is it purposeful? I recommend doing a daily 15-minute declutter challenge. You’ll end up doing it for longer, but the 15 minutes feels achievable and gives you that initial boost. You have to be in the right mind frame to tackle this. If you are feeling despair, try starting with very small things – for example, the cutlery drawer – to make you feel better.
3
Toys and clothes are the biggest problems in most houses, as we tend to have too much of both. Keep an eye on what your kids are playing with and try to rotate their toys so there’s less stuff in their space. Educate your kids on the value of donating their toys – wouldn’t it be nice to give them away to a family in need or a children’s hospital? Children will give them away if they think it’s going to help another child.
4
Kitchens are the next big area – everyone over-buys food, especially pasta and snacks. Try to give yourself a one-shelf/one-drawer limit. Things get messy when you’ve got too much. Match your Tupperware lids to the bottoms so it’s neater and you’re not constantly searching for a lid, and stop buying bags for life, water bottles and coffee flasks – that’s often a big problem. Much of keeping clutter at bay is about keeping what you’ve got to a minimum.