Clutter is a major problem for families with children in the house! Find out how to de-clutter your home, save time and reduce stress.
Cheerful Clutter
Whenever I invite people to visit our home for the first time, I always take care to explain in advance that we live in “cheerful clutter”! With three young children, a home business and a busy lifestyle, the amount of “stuff” in our home just seems to keep on multiplying.
We have piles of toys overflowing in the lounge, office file boxes stashed in kids’ bedrooms, and piles of paper and “stuff” occupying every square inch of available bench and table space. In case you think I’m exaggerating, I have included some photos as proof!
Now, in fairness to the Mac (the man of the house) I should explain that he is by nature exceptionally tidy, but the children and I create a veritable deluge of “stuff”. In fact, many parts of our house look as if several bombs have been detonated at once!
So, I have made the momentous decision that we are about to start on a HUGE cleanout of our house.
Clutter Coaches
As a result, I have been doing a lot of reading, as well as talking to clutter coaches. For those of you that don’t know, a clutter coach is a wonderfully organised person who teaches you how to put into practice that delightful old saying:
“A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place”
This is the notion that everything should have a place to be stored in, and that it should be tidily returned there when it is not in use.
You can choose to tidy your home yourself, or invite a clutter coach to come in and work with you to remove clutter, and then create systems that will streamline your home in the future. They will help you create filing systems, storage systems and general personal organisation systems that should prevent you from getting into the same sort of mess in the future!
Reasons for De-Cluttering Your Home
So why would you hire someone to help you to de-clutter your home? Some good reasons for decluttering are that it will:
- Make your house look tidier – so you won’t be embarrassed to have guests over!
- Be less stressful – a clean, uncluttered living space is very restful.
- Save you time – no more will you turn the house upside down, trying to find your car keys or the remote control
- Help your children to learn good habits for the future
- Save you money – you won’t have to buy repeat items that you have “lost”, because you will know exactly where the original is!
- Make your house easier to clean – uncluttered surfaces are much easier to dust and vacuum.
- Be healthier – reducing the amount of dust and dust mites in your house will improve the health of the whole family.
- Increase the value of your property – it’s a well known fact that a clean and tidy home is more inviting to prospective buyers and will result in a higher sale price.
So de-cluttering your home is clearly a good idea – but should you hire a clutter coach, or can you do this yourself?
To find out more about hiring a clutter coach go here. If you think you’re ready to tackle it on your own, check out our great series Clear room, clear mind: Clearing the clutter in 7 areas of your life.
