How to start decluttering and organising your home – Part 1

Know your home.

Let me ask you a few questions to start.

Do you have a vacuum cleaner at home?

It’s a lifesaver when children accidentally knock over a box of cereal, or the dog comes back from the walk covered in mud. It probably lives in an easily-accessible place in your home, so you can quickly grab it if necessary.

And what about tableware?

It’s something you use for your meals every day. So I bet you know how many forks are left from that 12-piece set you received when you moved into your house. You also know which plates have tiny cracks and which wine glasses need replacing soon.

But where did that oriental rug in the cupboard under the stairs come from?

Oh, right. You bought it on a whim when you visited Marrakesh with your friends ten years ago. But the truth is it’s not your style. It doesn’t go with your current home decor at all. You also constantly move it from the under-stairs cupboard to the loft, to the garage, and back to the loft because it takes up a lot of space when stowed away. So do you really need it?

Or take the signed rugby ball sitting on the desk in the study.

You don’t know how it ended up there. You thought it was your partner’s souvenir from his uni years. But he can’t remember anything about it or who even signed it. So instead of dusting it every week, could you maybe donate it to charity?

It’s funny how certain things have a clear purpose in our lives. And others just use up valuable space in our already busy homes. So if I can give you one piece of advice today, it’s this: “know what you own and why you own it”.

Interestingly, that famous quote came from someone who had nothing to do with the home organising business.

Peter Lynch is an investor and philanthropist. When he said those words, he was referring to money, the stock exchange and understanding your investment portfolio. But his pragmatic approach can be applied to any area of our lives. It helps a lot when your home needs decluttering and organising.

I’m sure you know not every investment, whether in business or home, is successful and profitable.

Sometimes, overwhelmed by a discount buzz, you buy things you don’t need. That vertical steam iron looked so handy when you scrolled through your social media feed, but it’s not practical in reality. So you end up shoving it in the loft after just one use. Did I get that part right?

Similarly, some items are only used at specific times of the year. You forget you have them and keep getting new ones. I’m looking at you, cute Easter napkins from the last five years piling up in the kitchen cupboard!

That’s not all. Keeping your house size in mind is also key to success.

When you have the right amount of stuff, all items have their assigned place in your home. I know it’s impossible to determine objectively what the “right amount” is because we’re all different. But your storage space will answer that question for you.

When belongings end up on the stairs, kitchen table or work surfaces, it’s fairly obvious they don’t have their own place in your home. Usually, they don’t have an assigned place because all the natural spaces you would put them in, like drawers, cupboards or wardrobes, are already full. That warning sign couldn’t be any clearer. You’ve accumulated too much stuff for your storage capacity.

Let’s do a little test to gauge it, shall we?

Imagine you’re coming back home from the school run or just got off from a Zoom meeting. You find ten items on your kitchen table that don’t belong there. Do you know where they “live” within your home?

If you can put them away quickly and easily, congratulations! You’re a home organising superstar. But if you don’t, you will turn around, flick the kettle on, and they’ll stay on your kitchen table forever. And trust me – ten items will quickly become 15. Those 15 will turn into 20, and so on.

As an experienced home organiser, I very much believe you should be able to stand within any room, do a 360-degree turn and be able to say what is in each cupboard and drawer. You should also know why it’s there.

Otherwise, your precious space is full of “nothing”. And not just nothing – “unorganised nothing”. Your house is inhabited by foreign objects you don’t recognise or didn’t even know you owned. Not an ideal situation, is it?

It might sound a little strange, but just like human beings, inanimate things have a purpose. Whether it’s clothes, furniture or food, it’s meant to make our lives better. So knowing what that purpose is and having a permanent place for each item within your home will make tidying easier and more efficient.

What helps is going through your belongings room by room, cupboard by cupboard, and categorising them according to what they are and the space they belong to.

Wrapping paper, sellotape and scissors go together. Seasonal items, like Christmas, Halloween and Easter, can be stowed away in clearly labelled boxes. Baking equipment belongs in one cupboard, and serving dishes in another. Tools probably “live” in the garage. And the ironing board might have its assigned space in your laundry room.

Yes, we all have that bottomless “miscellaneous cupboard”, or “a drawer of shame”, as I call it. It keeps swallowing more and more useless stuff every day. But there’s probably no logic to it. And it’s no fun being unable to find candles or matches when the lights suddenly go out at night, right?

If you don’t recognise an object and can’t figure out its function in your home, it might be time to say goodbye to it. The same applies when you realise you have too many things. Hello, decluttering and home organising!

The good news is you have a few options for letting things go. If they’re broken, there are sustainable ways to dispose of them. If they’re in good condition, selling or donating them to charity might be the way to go.

And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying: “live a minimalist life”.

I know, for a fact, many people enjoy having very few things. But others, like me, like having bits and bobs around to make their home space more homely. Even I have the odd Moët & Chandon champagne bottle with string lights inside. I love putting it on during the dark winter evenings. But most importantly – it fits within the vibe of the home I live in and it has a purpose.

So let me be the one to tell you this little secret: practicality should always come first if you want to keep your house tidy and organised.

Nobody likes overcrowded places. (Are you picturing the overwhelming middle aisles of Aldi or Lidl right now?) Then why should you settle for overstuffed rooms or overflowing storage? It’s all about finding a happy medium between having nothing at all and having too much stuff.

I’m sure I can help teach you how to get to that balanced space you’ll be proud to call your home again.

Elizabeth