Five common clutter areas in your home

Start the new year with less stuff and create a clearer space that will in turn give you a sense of calm in your home. We’ve got five tips from Cleanipedia to get you going by tackling small, yet common clutter spots. Once you’ve conquered these, you’ll feel better already…and you might just feel inspired to keep going!

The study

Start with the stationary drawer. This is often the place where things just get chucked in and forgotten. Check all the pens to make sure they are still working and throw away those that don’t. Throw out old receipts, shred any old mail and ditch any mystery junk objects. Now organise. Using small jars or boxes, put staples together with the stapler, paper clips and thumbtacks together to make sure everything is within easy reach.

The bedroom

How many empty hangers do you have in your wardrobe? Probably too many! From those horrible wire ones that come with your drycleaning to the plastic ones in all different sizes that you get with kids’ clothing. Opt for the thin, velvet hangers as these are the most space efficient and the solid wood ones for chunkier clothing. Give the rest to your local charity shop or second hand clothing store.

The living room

Living room floor full of toys? Stepping on a piece of lego is just the pits, so eliminate the possibility of going through this drama by clearing out the toy boxes and cleaning up the messy play areas. Look at trying toy rotations, which will immediately remove at least half of the toy clutter from your space. Donate or store toys that aren’t being played with anymore and set aside the toys they are not yet ready for just yet.

The bathroom

Expired medication, old beauty samples, empty tubes of toothpaste and rubbish nail files – this is the general state of bathroom cabinets. Be realistic here and toss out any products you haven’t used (and never will use) to make some much needed space and to be able to actually see what’s going on in the cupboard. Bin the product, rinse out and recycle the packaging and move on.

The kitchen

Make mornings that much easier by removing all Tupperware pieces that do not have a matching lid. There is nothing worse than wasting 10 minutes looking for a matching lid. Nest the containers from biggest to smallest and store the lids in the same order vertically alongside them in a big storage box to make sure they all stay in one place.