How amazing would it be to cut cleaning your home down by 40%? I’ve got the trick for you!
Declutter.
Yeah, I know. You were hoping for something sexier than that.
Stay with me, though. Think about it. You have less stuff, that means you have less stuff to put away, less stuff to vacuum under, less stuff to dust, less stuff to trip over, less stuff to launder and fold, less stuff to get in your way, less stuff for other stuff to get hidden behind…
According to research by the National Soap and Detergent Association, getting rid of clutter eliminates 40% of housework.
Less stuff doesn’t mean toilets don’t need scrubbing, dishes don’t need washing, floors don’t need mopping, etc. It means doing the necessities of a clean home takes less time because you aren’t dodging clutter bombs all the time.
GET ORGANIZED AND STAY ORGANIZED
Organizing clutter is not organizing. It’s holding back the tide.
When you declutter, you know where everything goes. Cleaning takes less time because you aren’t reinventing the wheel every day.
A Lost and Found survey by Pixie found that the average person spends two and a half days searching for misplaced items, such as the remote control, keys, or glasses) each year.
Someone took the tape out for a school project? No problem, they know exactly where to put it back when they’re done.
You needed to find something to wear for a nice evening out? No problem, you know what you own and where to find it. You know you like everything you own, so it was easy getting dressed and you didn’t end up with a pile of clothes on the floor of your closet.
You brought the mail in and dropped it on the kitchen table? No problem, you know where things go so sorting the mail isn’t overwhelming anymore. Junk mail goes in the bin, paper bills go somewhere to be taken care of ASAP, etc.
A Harris Interactive Study discovered that disorganization leads to 23% of adults paying their bills late.
NOTE: Most paper stuff like bills, and medical info can be found online, so keeping paper clutter needs to be a thing of the past.
Organization isn’t a secret that professional organizers learn in some dark basement where they swear blood oaths to never reveal what they know. Organization is first and foremost about having only what you love and use. After that you can get into the specifics of organizing styles.
STOP CLEANING STUFF YOU DON’T USE
Keep in mind that decluttering means keeping what you love and use and letting go of what you don’t.
According to The National Association of Productivity and Organizing (NAPO), 80% of the things people keep when they “declutter” are never used.
If your house has things in it that you don’t love and/or use you are wasting time cleaning them or cleaning around them.
That stack of books you’ve been saying you were going to read for three years? Either you aren’t going to read them, therefore you aren’t using them, or you’re going to change your habits to include reading and you’ll find out if you love them or not.
The knick-knacks covering your mantle that you hate dusting? If you loved them, you wouldn’t mind dusting them because you’re caring for something you love. Get rid of them.
That Keurig that broke and you swore you were going to fix, but is now just taking up space? It’s in the way, get rid of it.
The toys your kids don’t play with anymore? They’re making it so the toy room is the entire house. Get rid of the stuff they no longer love or use and contain the chaos.
The two cleaning issues my clients talk about the most are laundry and dishes. No one likes doing these chores, and they always need doing! However, having less will mean less cleaning and tidying and more time for yourself.
LAUNDRY
No, I don’t have a way for laundry to never have to be done. No matter how much clothing you own you’re still going to wear the same amount.
Heck, even with a minimal wardrobe it doesn’t mean your laundry loads will be smaller or that you’re doing laundry more often so it feels less overwhelming. Those things will require a behavioral change out of you.
You’ll have to decide to do a load of laundry every day if you want smaller loads. You’ll have to be willing to fold and put it all away right away if you want it to be less overwhelming.
What having less clothing simplifies and helps reduce time on is the putting away of things. When I actually get around to the folding of my clean laundry it’s simple to put away. I never feel like I’m playing a game of Tetris anymore.
In a OnePoll survey of 1000 women, 10% said they feel sad or depressed when they open their closet doors, 57% said they believe that an organized closet makes it easier and quicker to find what they need, and 1 in 6 women have resorted to taking dirty clothes out of the hamper when they can’t find something to wear.
Go take a look at my reels on Instagram and Facebook @soulfulspace.coaching on Shoe Storage (IG, FB), Closet Space (IG, FB), and File Folded Drawer Storage (IG, FB) to see what my real-life wardrobe looks like in it’s more minimal and always organized state.
BTW, file folding does not take a long time to do. I totally thought I would never be able to keep up with it and I’m five years and counting into non-stop tidiness. Check out this YouTube video on file folding by How to GYST.
NOTE: If you have ADHD, file folding is unlikely to work for you. You probably need solutions that are less detail-oriented like bins. Keep things simple. Less is more!
KITCHEN
A kitchen with only what you love and use is a breeze to care for.
My husband does 90% of our cooking (thank you) so I do the cleaning up. The mess after dinner looks intimidating, but that’s just my old brain remembering how I used to just leave it all and create a bigger and bigger mess that was even more overwhelming.
According to a Cornell University study from 2016, stress triggered by clutter may also trigger coping and avoidance strategies, like eating junk food, oversleeping or binge-watching Netflix.
When you have only what you need, you aren’t at risk of things falling out of cabinets when you open them, so you’re not afraid to put dishes away or get food containers out.
When you have only what you need, you have a tidy pantry where you can put things away quickly and efficiently because you know exactly where they go.
When you have only what you need you wipe down the counters, sink, and stove without working around a bunch of random crap that has migrated to the surface.
When you have only what you need you can clean up and get back to what you really want to be doing.
THE TAKE AWAY
Decluttering is not a trendy thing to do. It isn’t a thing to do because your mother shamed you into it. It isn’t a thing to do because I advocate for it.
A 2009 study from UCLA’s Center for Everyday Lives of Families showed that stress for women is directly proportional to the amount of stuff they have in their home.
Decluttering is something you do to make your life easier. Yes, it takes time and effort and energy and emotion. In the end you will spend less time looking for things. You will spend less time being aggravated. You will spend less time avoiding cleaning. You will spend less time cleaning.
Living in a clutter-free home is about giving you your life back.
NOTE: Take a peek at this video Stop Cleaning Start Decluttering (IG, FB)
This is what I do. I help you overcome all of the things stopping you from decluttering and reclaiming your life.
Let’s set up your free Ditch Your Sh*t intro to coaching session today!