12 tips to order and free up space at home

In fact, becoming a little happier in your own home is simple: it is crucial not to organize things, give up unnecessary things, not improve old items, and get rid of them. If you follow these recommendations, everything changes for the better, at least within the walls of your home.

Picture 1 of 12 tips to order and free up space at home

1. Make room for the new

We all know how quickly a house "grows" with unnecessary things. Organizing space and moving items from one place to other turns into another reorganization later, and then the process repeats, and again, and again. Drastically solve the problem: if you do not use an item for six months, it's time to give it to someone who needs it.

2. One good thing instead of five "so-so" things

Why do you need five salad bowls and three butcher knives? Do you wear seven scarves and three fall hats? The number of identical items at home keeps increasing, even though we usually only use a couple of pans out of the eight we have and walk around all fall wearing one but our favorite hat. It's time to audit and keep one good, working item. Getting rid of unnecessary things, you will experience joy every time you open the closet and see the order inside.

3. Don't hoard pretty things.

If you see a beautiful item at the store at a significant discount, that doesn't mean it has to be yours. There are many beautiful things for the home, but you don't have to "settle" everything in your apartment. Are you having doubts? Then remember that "dream chair" that you recently sent into exile at the cottage, and still tell yourself a firm "No."

4. Redistribute your time

On average, we spend about 8 hours a week cleaning our home or workplace. Commit to minimalism - and the time that used to be spent eliminating chaos will now be all yours. Use it the way you want to, not the way a cluttered house dictates:

1. Go for a walk in the park.
2. Watch a new episode of your favorite show.
3. Have a picnic with the family.

5. Use it or throw it away

Revisit your closet. Set aside items you haven't worn for at least one season and wait a little while. If you still don't need them after a few weeks, take them to a friend or secondhand.

6. Start small

One look at the apartment clutter often brings up a question: Where do I start? Let's tell you a secret: where - it does not matter, as long as you start. Just get some air in your lungs, walk over to your closet, open the door, and you're good to go. Be bold: you'll see the results very soon.

7. Keep an eye on the future

Imagine living with it and seeing how it will look in your apartment six months from now. Perhaps, visualizing the future, you'll realize that you can pass by without opening your wallet. You've lived without this item for 10 years, which means you can easily live as long again.

8. Appliances need to be necessary

High technologies make everything compact and convenient. Just 40 years ago, any online paper writer created articles using a typewriter. Appliances like automatic washing machines and dishwashers were once merely a pipe dream. Now we can acquire practically any piece of equipment, but we are confused about what we really need due to the abundance.

If an appliance won't fit in the cabinet and must be kept on the countertop, consider whether you use it frequently in your home. Or does it now just match the color of that vase, so you involuntarily look at it every day? Yes, yes, look at the toaster and the juicer!

9. Don't stop. Keep going

Minimalism, like life, is a process. Stay alert at all times, or chaos will return to your home. Minimalism is not a void in the apartment and bare walls. It's not asceticism. Minimalism is order and simplicity. We get rid of unnecessary things to make room for what matters. Redundancy clutters not only our homes but also our minds and senses.

10. Change, not multiply

Bought something new into the house? Replace an old item with it! Sometimes we keep things not because they are helpful or charming but because of an emotional attachment. Or we are waiting for our children to use them someday. Be willing to let go of the unnecessary. Remember that the treasures you can give your children are your time and attention, not things.

11. Make a minimalist wish list

Instead of spending money on new items for the house, consider investing it in yourself and your family's future. Sign up for new classes, buy a season ticket to the pool - instead of cluttering up the interior, do things that will enrich and enhance your life. Maybe your wife has long dreamed of riding bikes with you in the evenings, and your kids have longed to fly helicopters into the sky more often than twice a summer. 

12. Don't let the thirst for consumption possess you

We will immediately become happy if we get something new for the kitchen or the bedroom. Maybe, but for a while: once things become obsolete, we'll start thinking about new things. For starters, stop making a new shopping list of things you don't need - better to do some cleaning or rearranging.

Micah Soto

Update 21 November 2021