Cut the Clutter

You may have heard of Marie Kondo – the Japanese organising consultant and author who for years now has encouraged us to go through all our belongings, one category at a time, and only keep those items that spark joy! While the benefits of minimalism or de-cluttering are well documented – it definitely makes hygiene cleaning easier – her methods can seem rather ruthless, particularly if you’re sentimental of nature. To boot, very few of us have the long stretches of free time needed to follow her process, so it’s easy to see why it may seem impossible and we prefer turning a blind eye to the growing clutter and disarray. But it shouldn’t be this all or nothing approach, because we are able to slowly but surely chip away at clutter one task at a time without having to devote an entire weekend to spring cleaning. So here are a few quick and easy to accomplish suggestions, that will have you feeling more organised in no time.

• Clear off a counter – it may seem like a small step, but if you can put things away so that only the essentials remain, it’ll give you an instant lift and a feeling that the other tasks are doable.
• Go through your Tupperware cupboard and throw away any storage containers that have no lids and vice versa, not only will it create order, but it will make you more efficient too – be honest, how much time have you wasted looking for a matching lid?
• Scrutinise your first aid cabinet and dispose of all the expired medication – you’ll be amazed at how long you’ve held on to bottles of cough syrup or tubes of ointment, and remember to do a spot of hygiene cleaning while you’re at it to prevent cross contamination.
• Do the same with your spice rack, they may be spices and have a longer shelf-life, but seasoning that’s moved with you from house to house probably shouldn’t still be there.
• Move through your home and gather any magazines, newspapers or bits of paper for recycling – include all the electronic or appliance instruction manuals you’ve accumulated over the years, most of them are now online and much easier to reference than the hard copies.
• Donate five tops or bottoms that you haven’t worn in the last year – do this for each family member.
• Work your way through your underwear drawer, toss anything that’s outlived its lifespan and bin the single socks too – if you haven’t found the matching mate by now, it’s never going to happen.
• Go through your book shelves, donate the books you don’t read, haven’t enjoyed or don’t consider classics – you’ll free up much-needed space plus your books could help community library initiatives for the less fortunate.

In short, bringing order to our homes and lives isn’t the huge undertaking some people make it out to be, it’s all achievable, one step at a time. And when you’re ready to do some deep cleaning, because the two go hand in hand, call on QClean – the cleaning experts who’ve tackled everything from post renovation cleaning to pre occupation cleaning, so you know you’ll always be in the best hands.