Is your ‘stuff’ overwhelming you? Do you not know where to start? Start here, with professional organiser Hazel Burton, owner of The Home Reset.
As a professional organiser I am here to tell you than cleaning alone is not enough. I like to refer to this time of year as The Spring Reset! It is more than cleaning, it is a complete refresh a chance to reorganise and create sustainable systems that work and are most importantly maintainable!
I want to give you practical ways to refresh, declutter and reset your homes for the brighter months ahead. Firstly, make a list of goals for your spaces – are you feeling overwhelmed by the clutter in a particular space and what can you do to tackle it?
The key to an organised home is having a place for everything and returning everything to its place. It sounds simple but getting started can feel overwhelming if you are surrounded by STUFF. So, at the outset let’s start small and go easy on ourselves – we want to avoid feeling even more overwhelmed and not achieving our goals.
When decluttering ask yourself:
Do I need it?
Do I love it?
Do I have space for it?
Also prepare for the exit strategy. For items leaving your home are you donating, selling or passing onto friends? It is important to include this step into the timing for the reset project. We want to avoid those donation bags sitting in our car boot for months on end.
Let’s focus on the most common areas that people struggle to maintain organised systems:
Wardrobes
Spring is the perfect time to do a seasonal rotation of our wardrobes. Rather than keeping all of our clothes and packing the wardrobe to the brim, let’s keep the pieces that we are currently wearing front and centre. Everything should be visible and accessible. Seasonal items should be kept up high, but clearly labelled.
Pantry
Rather than attempting to tackle the whole kitchen, let’s look at our pantry or food storage presses. The goal is to be able to see what you have so that you use what you have and reduce food waste. Remove food that has passed its best before date. Decanting into jars and labelling is how to keep on top of what you have. Then you can very easily see what needs to be replaced. Utilising clever storage to use the full height of the shelf or lazy susans are a great way to bring the back of the press to the front – no wasted space. Backstock or extra items should be kept on a different shelf but again clearly labelled. Get into the habit of checking these areas prior to heading off on your food shop to avoid overbuying.
Flat surfaces
Counter tops, kitchen islands, shelves, console tables are always a magnet for clutter but following my golden rule of Put Back,
Not Down you will soon find that everything makes its way back to its home and results in no clutter landing in these areas. If items are consistently landing in a space ask yourself why and where should the item live – implementing those all-important systems that work for you.
Under stairs storage
This area of the home is always a high traffic zone and therefore everything and anything can land in this space. By emptying the storage and categorising the items you can make informed decisions about what items should live in that area and what can move elsewhere in the home. Typically, we have our grab and go items here, hats, scarves, shoes, coats, sports equipment. At this time of year, we can switch up woolly hats for caps and heavy coats for lighter ones. Umbrellas cannot leave unfortunately!
Once you have your home reset and calm is restored try to implement the One In, One Out rule to continue to maintain this beautifully refreshed, reset space. So whatever space you choose to reset this Spring focus on realistic goals and enjoy the results.
For more tips: thehomereset.ie