Friday, January 24, 2014

De-Clutter Your Home

Does your apartment get cluttered throughout the week?  Here are some great tips on how to slowly eliminate the clutter that builds up throughout the week.  These tips will help your apartment stay cleaner, and it will help you feel less stressed when you come home.   You can learn more at apartment therapy.

Designated Outbox: Set up a permanent basket, box, or bag by your front door to toss things that need to go. Make it part of your decor so that it's part of your daily life and doesn't just look like a messy cardboard chore lurking in the corner, sending accusing looks at you. Try emptying it once a week or at least twice a month.
Clean As You Cook: Somehow a messy kitchen with a pile of dishes is always the first stop on the ride on the messy train. Never go to bed with a sink full of dishes. Waking up to dirty dishes just sets you starting your day off wrong. Also, try to clean up as you cook so that when dinner is done you don't turn around to more work and can end your night on a good note.
Sort Mail Immediately: I am guilty as charged when it comes to piles of mail in various places that "I'll get to later." My new workflow is: pick up mail; open it over the recycle bin; put bills in a designated bill cubby; and feel good while doing it.
Tidy Up 10 Minutes a Day: You can split this up into two five-minute chunks or a full ten. Quickly shuffle through your house (preferably at the end of the day) and put away all those little things that you took out, opened, or tossed on the couch throughout the day. This way you can reset your home each evening and start fresh each morning.
Refocus Your Energy: A long time ago I heard someone say, 'it takes just as much energy to be messy and it does to be clean" and it always stuck with me. It makes total sense: when you're messy you are just delaying the energy it will take to clean it up instead of doing it immediately. I find that, when I clean as I go, I'm much happier and rest so much better without 'to do's' weighing on my mind, or seeing guilt-ridden piles of stuff.

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