If you’re trying to spruce up your home and the clutter is still there, know that you can get rid of it once and for all. If you think you can’t fit anything in the house – we assure you, there is room. If your kitchen, nursery or cloakroom looks more like a shop room, you can transform it. And now is the time to do it!
STEPS
1. Decluttering
You should always start by de-cluttering. Even if you are not a shopaholic, but an advocate of conscious consumerism, there is probably somewhere in the depths of your wardrobe there is a “Narnia” with stacks of unnecessary things that you have forgotten about.
Clean clothes in good condition can be given to other people or to a charitable organisation. Some can be sold and some should be put in the rubbish bin. You’ll be surprised how much space you’ll end up with if you go through your flat or house properly.
2. Organising your storage
Once you have cleared your home of everything you don’t need, organise the storage of the remaining items.
- Keep items of a certain group should be kept in one place. This means storing clothes only in the wardrobe, not in the bathroom, kitchen and corridor. The exception to this is storing outerwear – it makes sense if jackets, fur coats and coats hang in a separate wardrobe near the front door. This rule also applies to other categories – toys should be placed only in the children’s area (again, except for those, for example, which are intended for bathing in the bathtub), cosmetics – in the cosmetic bag, cups – only in the kitchen cabinet or a specially designated place for this purpose.
- Keep all items upright. Stationery, make-up brushes, cutlery – all this can be put in glasses (plastic, ceramic, wooden). Clothes, including socks, tights, as well as bed linen and towels, should be neatly folded and stored vertically. This will take up less space.
- Place things in baskets or containers. Shelves, cupboard drawers and chests of drawers, where you can put plastic containers or cardboard boxes, can be used for storage. When you need something, you will not have to pull it out of the pile, and then all this pile again neatly stack. You also won’t have trouble finding it if the shelf is high up, not at eye level. It will be much more convenient to pull out the basket, take the thing out of it and put the basket back on the shelf or on the floor in the wardrobe. If you use containers that have a lid, you can stack them on top of each other.
- Use hanging hooks or hooks without fasteners. Hang them, as a rule, on the door – bathroom, cupboard, kitchen unit, room, shower cubicle. It is only important that the door and the hook fit together. Not only in style, but also in size.
3. Keeping things tidy
Once you’ve decided on your storage options, all the items in your home have a place. Now it’s your job to return each item to its place.
Make sure that this rule is followed not only by you, but also by the people you live with. This will make your home look tidy. Not only will your space change, but also your life!
TIPS
Books
What to throw away
Take a look in your bookcase. There you’ll probably find the first “candidates for elimination”:
- books you haven’t finished reading;
- new books you’ve never touched;
- books you bought by accident, “in the heat of the moment”;
- “wrong” books given to you by someone else;
- “disposable” books.
It is better to part with all these good things – sell them or give them away. To reread all that you keep, you certainly will not. And to save books for grandchildren makes no sense in today’s world, unless we are talking about rare or collectible editions. Only the most favourite books should remain, and they are usually not so many.
How to store
Here are just a few options thanks to which you can save space in the house. These can be:
- horizontal shelves above the interior door and vertical shelves behind it;
- a bed drawer or one large shelf all round the bed below;
- a narrow shelving unit in the kitchen (on a level with the table), if space permits, of course;
- boxes in the staircase, if there is one in the house.
Bed linen
What to throw away
In many homes, bed linen is stored as it is, free space and aesthetics are lacking. What to do.
Firstly, take a good look at everything: linen with holes and stains can be thrown away or recycled. If you don’t like it, don’t like it, donate it or sell it. Don’t forget to remove new sets from their packaging, as it eats up space. Once you’ve cleared out your clutter, you should only have the sets you actually use (and guest sets if you need them).
How to store
Stack them vertically, stack them vertically, roll them up. Each set can be stored as a whole (duvet cover, sheet, pillowcases together) or separately (sheets from all sets separately, pillowcases separately – convenient if you change the linen in parts).
For storage will be suitable:
- regular shelves in the wardrobe;
- hanging shelves (cells arranged vertically);
- drawers, where you can add dividing inserts;
- fabric organisers that can be zipped up;
- baskets, boxes, containers that can be put on a shelf (you take out a box, carefully take the necessary things from there, put them on top as neatly – it is more convenient than pulling out the bottom set and pulling the rest);
- bed trays, it’s worth using organisers to keep the linen dust-free;
- Vacuum bags – great space savers and can be used for those sets you don’t get out much (e.g. guest sets);
- if you have a lot of sets, you can store each set in a pillowcase so you don’t mix things up (i.e. put a stack of one set in a pillowcase).
How to care for
- It is best to change the bed linen once a week. To avoid confusion, you can set a specific day of the week for this.
- Wash bed linen at a temperature of at least 60 degrees, unless there are special markings on the label.
- Only put into storage when everything is completely dry.
- Use scents (herbs, a bar of soap) in the area where the bedding is stored.
- Fold and tie bedding with a ribbon if it is too bulky.
First aid kit
What to throw away
First aid supplies should be on hand, so check the contents regularly. Collect all the medicines you have in the house in one place.
Get rid of the following medications:
- expired;
- those labelled “store after opening…” if it is clear that they were bought a long time ago or it is not known how long they have been in the medicine cabinet;
- from those with two drops or half a tablet left;
- those that have been stored incorrectly: on a shelf, for example, rather than in the fridge;
- medicines that are not suitable for you;
- children’s medicines that aren’t age-appropriate;
- many of the same medicines.
How to store
- It is best to throw away boxes – they take up too much space.
- You can get rid of the instructions too, all the information is now on the internet. If this option is not for you – keep the instructions in a separate file, zipped bag.
- The remaining medicines are categorised: pills to pills, ointments to ointments. Or by prescription. Children’s and adult medicines should also be separated. Sign them using stickers.
- The expiry date can be tracked using a checklist (write down the name and expiry date there), check it periodically. Or use a mobile app to keep track of your medicines.
- After taking the medicine, return it to the medicine cabinet immediately. And do an audit from time to time.