New year, new buzz when it comes to organizing your home and making it a more pleasant place to spend your time
Where you can start when you’re looking to organize your home in Champaign-Urbana
With the start of a new year, there’s a whole lot of buzz on organizing your abode, cleaning up your space and generally just making your home a happier place to live. And with as much time as we are all spending in our homes in the last year, I think we can all agree that these dwelling places have taken a bit of a beating over the last several months.
If you want to take some steps to better organize your home in 2021, where do you begin?
Home organizing shows and articles about clearing clutter are nothing new, especially at the turning of a new year. But the popularity of Netflix shows like “The Home Edit” and “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” can certainly light a fire under some of us to get going.
It’s about more than making your home look pretty, after all. The “cost” of clutter in your home and the correlation to your mental health and that of your family has been studied time and time again. We’re not saying you’re doing anything “wrong” by falling behind on home organization and cleaning; it’s just that you only stand to gain more clarity, calm and contentment when you take steps to better organize and tidy up your home. And well, we will take all the clarity, calm and contentment we can get!
How do you begin?
Well, there’s no shortage of tips, tricks and checklists out there on Pinterest for you to peruse. But if you want to keep it super simple, pick one area (just one!) of your home to begin with and focus your efforts there until it is done. Keep two or three trash bags or boxes nearby as you work – one for trash, one for donations, and if you choose, one for things you’d like to sell. (You can always just work with the first two and sort through the donation pile at the end to see if there’s anything worth selling.)
Take everything out. I know. This sounds awful. And now you’re committed to seeing the project through. Working under the bathroom sink? Take it all out. Working on your child’s closet? Take it all out. A messy junk drawer in the kitchen? Yep. Take it all out. Then, begin sorting through your things. You want to go with your initial reaction to an item when it comes to whether to keep it or toss out – don’t spend too much time thinking.
Now put what you’ve decided to keep back. Think about how you use this space. Just because something has always been stored in there doesn’t mean it needs to go back. If you only use it once a year, can it be stored in a less convenient place so you don’t have to look at it the other 364 days? If you are keeping an item for sentimental value, is there a storage bin in another spot in your home you can use to tuck it away safely? The things you look at every single day should be things that you use quite often.
What’s the best way to put it all away?
Well, this will depend on personal preference of course. And again, there’s no shortage of ideas out there on how to do it well. Whether you hang your shirts organized by colors of the rainbow or begin folding your socks Marie Kondo-style, the important thing is that you take your time putting things away in a system you can keep up with long-term.
If you have a budget, you may consider making some new purchases at this juncture. While we don’t have a Container Store in Champaign-Urbana (oh, how we love the Container Store!) you can find storage containers at many of our local big-box stores. Amazon carries many options, too, if you can wait a couple days for them to arrive. Have a tip on a local retailer who sells containers you can use to organize? Let us know!
Note: The links below are affiliate links; chambanamoms.com earns a small commission on purchases through those links. Thank you for supporting our small business.
Bathroom essentials – set of 10 containers from Amazon, $15
Shoes/closet storage – shoebox size containers from Amazon, set of 12, $31.43
Kitchen drawers – clear organizers from Amazon, $19.99
Now remove the rest of the stuff from the building
This part is really important in helping you immediately enjoy the fruits of your work. Make that quick pass through the discard pile to see if you’re keeping anything to sell/donate, and then get the rest of the things out of your home. Get the trash out to the trash and make arrangements to donate everything you’re donating. Better yet, go out and donate it today so that there’s no chance it sneaks back into your home somehow.
Looking for tips on selling and donating in Champaign-Urbana?
Where to Sell Your Stuff in Champaign-Urbana A round-up of local options, like area garage sale groups, consignment shops and more. Lots of pros/cons to weigh here. Know that sometimes it is easier to just give away and be done then go through the trouble of selling a small item.
Where to Donate in Champaign-Urbana When you have things you want to give away, we have a number of local options. Take note that some places (like Salt and Light) will take stained and ripped clothing items, too, so they can recycle them and make money by doing so. You don’t need to sort through what they can distribute and what they will recycle – they take care of that when you drop it off.
Keep up the good work
What next? Well, it’s up to you! Do you have another area of your home you’d like to tackle? Go for it! But whatever you decide to do, once you’ve organized and tidied up a space do whatever you can to keep it up so you’re not stuck doing the exact same thing in weeks or months down the road.
Remember, less stuff is correlated to improved mental health. Think twice before making purchases, and decide if you’ll still want it when you go to organize your home again down the road… or will it end up in the throw-away pile!?