Tidying up your home is one thing, but keeping it tidy over a longer period of time is another. If you want to keep your household tidy in the long term, it’s no good just cleaning up the occasional mess. Instead, you need a functioning organization system that you can use to keep your household tidy. Read here about the mistakes you are sure to make when tidying up and the tidying tips you should know.
Tidying up the household: these mistakes cause chaos
A tidy household has less to do with discipline than with a clever organization system. Unless you’re a born cleaner, you should avoid the following mistakes that make keeping your household tidy unnecessarily difficult.
Keeping things tidy is difficult if they don’t have a fixed place
Every item should have a fixed place and not simply be quickly hidden away in a drawer as soon as a visitor arrives. If your possessions have a fixed place, you will no longer have to search for them in future. Because now you always know exactly where the remote control or key is. What’s more, your home will be less cluttered as you can put everything back in its designated place immediately after use.
Store items in hard-to-reach places
Probably the most common reason for clutter is leaving items you use every day in hard-to-reach places. Hanging the key that you regularly need on a hook that is too high will ensure that you put it somewhere else next time to save you having to stretch and reach.
Clutter builds up, especially in cupboards, when you first have to pull out lots of other things to reach exactly what you need. Then, due to a lack of time, everything is stuffed back into the cupboard. You should therefore store your belongings in such a way that the items you use most often are easy to reach.
Store different categories together
If you store different categories that have nothing to do with each other together, it’s easy to lose track of where things are. You should therefore divide your belongings into suitable categories and store them separately.
Do not use transparent storage boxes
If you store a lot of things in storage boxes, you quickly lose track of what is actually in which box. If you are looking for something, you have to search through all the boxes until you finally find the desired item. You can counteract this by simply using transparent boxes. This allows you to see at a glance what is inside without having to rummage around.
Leave labels on cosmetic products
A mistake that pretty much everyone makes: leaving labels on cosmetic products. These are a visual distraction in the bathroom and unconsciously create the illusion of clutter. It is therefore advisable to simply remove the labels. The shape and color of the packaging is usually enough to distinguish the different products from one another.
Leave piles of paper on the desk
There’s nothing worse than a huge pile of paper on your desk. It makes the whole study look messy, even if the rest of the room is tidy. So in future, simply store your paperwork in binders or folders, label them and then put them on a suitable shelf.
Do not use storage jars for food
Do you have food packaging all over the place in your cupboard and everything falls out as soon as you open the cupboard door? You can prevent this by simply using storage jars. Not only do they save a lot of space, they also look much tidier in the kitchen and keep your household tidy. You can see what’s inside at a glance.
Keep unused items
That old laptop that no longer works, or that souvenir from 10 years ago that you never liked but are keeping out of courtesy: If you no longer need or even like items, you should either sell them, give them away or dispose of them properly. Because if you own less, it will be much easier for you to keep things tidy in future.
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Not using space properly
Many people have so much space in their home, but don’t use it properly. Some drawers remain half empty, while others are bursting at the seams. It is advisable to empty the cupboards once to see how much space is actually available.
Don’t get rid of the chaos in your closet
Organizing your closet by category is also helpful. T-shirts are on one shelf, pants on the next. Dresses and skirts are hung on the clothes rail. This way, you know immediately where things are and can put your outfit together in seconds.
If you avoid the mistakes mentioned here, it’s not that difficult to keep your household tidy in the long term. You’ll see that with these tidying tips, even unannounced visitors will no longer cause you any worry lines.
Source: brightside
Thumbnails: © flickr/Ulleskelf © flickr/Marné Lierman
