Efficient and safe house

Your household can become a less wasteful, more efficient and more comfortable place to live in if you make some small changes. Keeping your home clean and organised is easy with these helpful tips!

• Designate surfaces and storage areas for hobbies and household activities
• Organise your spaces so they work optimally for their particular use
• When you are short of space make each room as versatile as possible by using multi-functional furniture. For instance, with folding dining table and sofa bed, a room can double up. Use a screen to divide a room for home office
• Declutter – get ruthless and attack the house room by room, cupboard by cupboard, sorting items. Then offload your excess by giving it away to friends, schools and charity shops.

The Clutter control

Clutter makes it harder to clean and harder to find things when you need them. Whether it is a pile of paper hiding in the dining room table, dozens of empty jars that you think you might use one day, or stashes of pens that don’t work, clutter one sort or another is very often the root of a mildly unnerving chaos in the home. Sound familiar? Don’t panic, if you feel like this you are definitely not alone. With few methods and tricks, you can organise your home easily and keep it tidy and neat.

The golden rules of clutter control

When in doubt, throw it away

• Gifts you don’t like
• Clothes that don’t fit
• Broken things
• Books you don’t value
• Appliances you never use

Do it now

• Pick up things when they drop
• Wipe spills when they happen
• Vacuum messes when they occur
• File bills and correspondence immediately
• Dump junk mail as soon as you receive it

Set limits

• Throw/give away one item each time you acquire another
• Allow yourself a set number of bags, food containers and boxes that you keep because they “might come handy one day”
• Clear and sort you cupboards and keep them organised

Get your home organised with the box method

Take six boxes/containers and sort your junk and treasures.

Box #1: Throw away

Box #2: Give away or sell – charity shops, yard sales, friends, etc

Box #3: Put away – things to put away later, sorted by room if that is easy enough to do quickly

Box #4: Storage – for seasonal clothing and items that you only use occasionally like camping equipment, decorating tools, ski equipment, winter jackets, etc

Box #5: “The one year box” – this is the “not sure box” where anything you are not sure about goes. It gets packed for one year and if you never use it again it is time to throw it away

Box #6: Needs repair – be realistic- will you actually fix it? Otherwise, it is in Box #1

The clutter test

Dump everything on the floor, then take back what you want to keep. To stay, an item needs to pass the clutter test.

• Is it in a good shape?
• If it is broken, can it be fixed?
• Do you really need it?
• Have you used it in the past year?
• Would it be hard to replace it if you ever need it again?
• Would you pay more money to store it?
• Does it have sentimental value?

Sorting the paperwork

Although we are living in a digital world, we still have not achieved the paper-free home or office – letters from school, bills, invitations, newspapers, junk mail….There is the time that you need a radical paper sort. Here it is one way to go about it.

• Put all your papers in a box and bin the items you don’t need
• Sort the papers in categories-personal, expenses, banking, school, house maintenance, etc
• Finally, create an “in” box which you empty and file once a week

How to keep your home organised and decluttered

• Spend few minutes each morning or evening picking up things and putting them where they belong
• Create household rules for clearing up after each activity
• Deal with things as they arise

Declutter your home easily with those easy to follow tips and tricks from Mega Cleaning’s professionals. If you still need help with your house cleaning, give us a call on 020 3637 7737!