Top 5 Strategies to Reduce Clutter

I probably shouldn’t be giving this advice as my house is always in complete ruins, but maybe it just means I have more experience when it comes to dealing with clutter. Either way, you can take my advice or leave it. I know with 5 kids running around the house and the oldest being 7 years old, it can become a constant battle with housework and just plain clutter. All of your valuable time and free hands go towards the kids. But I have found that the days I am on top of things there are some trends I have followed which will allow your clutter to become minimal. This list isn’t how to clean or to make things cleaner necessarily, but more on ways to help stop things from getting worse. So as a Stay at Home Dad here is my advice:

1) Declutter As You Go. The first thing to help prevent the house from going from bad to worse is a simple procedure called “Declutter As You Go”. It is almost self explanatory. When you are on your way to the bathroom and you see 5 toys laying in the hall. Take note. On your way back from the bathroom pick those toys up and toss them in the toy box. It is that simple. Some people get overwhelmed and don’t do any form of cleaning until they can tell themselves it is time to pick up. They leave the toys there in the hall until they can bring themselves to clean. Some save this time for when the kids are down for a nap, or they wait until the end of the day. I think it is fine to set aside these times but I think it is also important to declutter as you go. It is amazing how much cleaner and less stressful it is to take an extra 10 seconds out of your day to pick up those toys in your travels and just toss them in the toy box.

2) Have a Home For Stuff. A major problem my wife and I faced for the longest time, and still do, is not having a home for everything. Whenever you bring new things into the home whether it be as big as a bookshelf or as small as a scratch pad for the kids to draw in, there really needs to be a home for it. The problem my wife and I ran into is that with 5 kids we have ultimately outgrown the house. It is still manageable but it makes finding a home for things a little more of a challenge.

Each drawer, cabinet, office space, corner of the house, toy box, shelf, and crook and cranny needs to be designated as a home for something. So when it is time to declutter and it is time to clean up there is actually a place to return these items to. You may want to declutter and clean but if you can’t find a home for things it makes this almost impossible and all you will be doing is moving your mess from one place to another. So sit down and determine where everything will go. If you can’t find a home for something make a spot. Buy totes at Walmart if you have to. You have two options, either get rid of the stuff or bring something else into the house to make a home for it.

3) Teach the Kids to Help. This might be tough when the kids are real small but when they are that small they aren’t going to be making a huge mess anyway. When they get old enough to remove toys from the toy box then they are old enough to put the toys back in. Set aside time before lunch time to clean. Set aside time before dinner to clean. Spend time with them doing it. They won’t be able to do it all but they sure can help and feel like they are a part of the cleaning crew.

I would suggest not setting time aside to clean before they take a nap or go to bed. This will allow the children to learn to clean slowly and inefficiently as they know when they are done cleaning they will be sent to bed. No kid likes going to bed. All kids like to eat, so make something enjoyable to follow the cleaning process so they have something to look forward to. This will help them learn and develop good cleaning habits and make both your experience and the child’s experience that much better.

4) Allocate and Assign Departments. What I mean by this is if you can really help it don’t fold laundry on the couch, or in the playroom. Put up a table somewhere and designate that place just for doing laundry. Another suggestion is turn one room into a play room. Put all your toys, children’s books, and a couple chairs in there. Try not to place your toy box in one room, kids books in another room, and drawing paper and crayons in another room. In the end this will spread your mess out all over these rooms. So assign how and where you will do things. Eat in the dining room and not wherever it is convenient. You will be picking food off the floor all over the house. Designate spots for things so that you will be cleaning toys only in the play room, folding laundry only in that designated area, and picking up food off the floor only in the dining room. Instead of doing all of those things all over the house. It will make decluttering that much easier.

5) Downsize. Our natural reaction to clutter is to make more space for it. Some people go as far as to buying a new house to fill it up with more clutter. I am not saying families have not outgrown their house or that people shouldn’t aspire to bigger homes, but you have to live within your own house at the moment. Many people buy things saying to themselves that it will be perfect for their new home someday. Or “I know this doesn’t go with our house now, but when we get a bigger house it will be nice to have this”. Though our intentions are all well and good, we need to remember that we do NOT have that bigger home yet and by buying unnecessary things prematurely will only add unneeded stress to your life. Make a list and when you get that new and bigger house, then you can start getting those things on the list.

So I would have to say that number 5 should not just be waiting on added things, but actually downsize. Remove unneeded things from the house. Do you have 2 toy boxes but enough toys to fill 3? Do you have 3 dressers in the house but have enough clothes to fill 5 or 6? Maybe too many kids books for the bookshelf? There are times when you need to bring things into the house to make a home for stuff but then there is a time to downsize and get rid of things that just don’t have a home.

Make a list of how many sets of drawers you need, how many toy boxes you want in the play room, how many kids books you can fit on the shelf, and so on. Then prioritize. Whatever is left over, get rid of it. By doing this you will be able to keep your clutter to a minimum.

Do you have any other techniques you use to clean up your clutter?