Diwali is almost here. It is time to de-clutter and cleanse the living spaces. Usher in the positive energies and get rid of the negatives ones. Most of you know that I am a work from home mom and those of you who are too, know that it is not an easy job. My life involves playing a referee to two warring boys who seem to be highly intolerant to each other of late, attending calls, jotting down ideas and working furiously to meet the deadlines.
4 steps to organize your home this Diwali
Everyone loves a clean, neat and an organized home. Since I live in a flat, cleaning is less of a hassle for me because I don’t have a garden or other extended areas that I have to take care of. That still leaves the home to be cleaned! I have exactly 12 days to go before the family meets up for the festival and that gives me two weekends where I can put extra time. Listed are 4 steps to organize your home super fast and efficiently! And when you stick to a regime, you need to spend less than 15 minutes a day to keep your home neat and tidy. Ready? So here is how I plan to keep my home clean and organized.
Step 1# List it down
Make a list of all that you need. Now that you have made that list, go through it and re-check if you actually need it. I do this all the time and let the better half gun down the ideas! No, seriously it works. A few weeks ago, we gave away over 200 books from our collection to an NGO. I gave away a stack 100 DVD’s because I know that I won’t watch them again. Set the list aside and start cleaning your home and you never know what you may find from the list ! I am at peace knowing the books and DVD’s will provide that entertainment to someone.
My mantra : Know the joy of giving, it makes you feel good from the inside.
Step 2 # Tackle one room at a time
Be realistic. You don’t have super powers and you are very much human. Overloading yourself with work is just going to zap you out of the energies and exhaust you to the core. Avoid this by allocating one room at a time. When you clean one room at a time, you are cleaning it thoroughly without doing a rush job. Click here to read on how to clean one room at a time.
My mantra : If you haven’t used it for a year, you don’t need it .
Step 3# Storage Solutions
I am a mom to twin boys and I have double of everything. Right from toys to clothes to sweaters, you get the drift? Earlier, I would make different piles of clothes according to the season and keep them on the top shelves of the cupboard. But that would still make the cupboard look cluttered. A mom blogger in one her posts suggested keeping the off season clothes in a suitcase and stashing it away. I did that and it did make the cupboard look cleaner. Ditto for the semi wash area, I picked up trays to line up the face washes and other accessories. On the dressing table, I have these super cute Omved tins ( the tees were packed in them) that I use to keep my creams and lip balms. Since I have a bed with a storage area, I used cartons with lids to stock on essentials like soaps, shampoos and other bath items that were in excess. Not only are they in one place, but also labelled so I know where everything is.
Step #4 Make it a habit
Cleaning and de-cluttering your home requires effort and once you make a habit out of it, nothing can stop you. If you have kids, teach them to keep the socks and shoes in the shoe rack and keep the dirty clothes in the laundry bag. Clean up after you use the kitchen. Dust your home every two days. Always keep a track of the inventory, do a stock taking at least once a month and make a list of what you need when you head to the supermarket to stock on the supplies.
My mantra : 15 minutes in a day is all you need to de-clutter the spaces and keep everything neat and tidy on a daily basis.
If you want to read up more on how to organize your living spaces, I totally recommend these awesome posts on de-cluttering and organizing written by fellow bloggers I love to follow!
- De-cluttering – a series – Written by Prerna, the whiz behind TheMomWrites
- Organizing your kids cupboard – Written by Swapna, the founder of TheMomViews
- D is for Diwali, D is for De-clutter – a lovely post by Poornima, a fellow blogger
I truly agree with you Pratibha, De-cluttering is an ongoing process, it cannot happen in a day or two – i do it regularly. Being a mom of twin boys and working that means i am not home from 9:15 am to 6:00 pm there are many things i need to plan and work on regularly.
– every morning when i prepare my Tea – i do give 5 minutes to check my kitchen stock, and also too check if we are not eating any thing then i love to distribute among our helpers.
– my washing machine gets special attention every day , every morning – i believe in washing clothes every day.
– for my boys wardrobe i have drawer organizers (purchased from Home Town) where i put Sox , hand towel, belt, inner clothes all separately. So nothing looks cluttered.
– medicine is one thing that i keep a check on a monthly basis to trash all the expired ones.
– All the old, worn out clothes , this time i put all in a box and asked my helpers to take what all they want for their children, relatives etc etc and trust me it really worked i have only very few left.
and the list goes on –
Thank you for sharing this, reading this article makes me feel that all good work is acknowledged. and it’s worth it.
That is a lot of things you take care of Bhavna! I know we sail in the same boat being mom to twins!
Hi Pratibha, I started this weekend. I loved the break up of steps you have given. Hope to follow some of it ; – ) I am also doing one room everyday. And, I am really letting myself go at the giving part. If my two maids do not want it, I tell her to neatly and separately pack stuff in plastic bags. That way, whoever wants to use it will find it in the best possible condition. And yes, one must do activity is – decluttering everyday 🙁 with a kid it is very difficult. My failure is in keeping things back in place immediately after use. I just get so tired and bogged down. I end up – Damn the cleanliness. Hence, my post on mind decluttering 🙂 Thanks for mentioning my post here. I liked Bhavvna’s comments too 🙂 Good luck to you too. May be we can have post cleaning photo sessions 🙂
Tell me about the cleaning. Sometimes I am so exhausted that I can barely sit down let alone clean the place. I end up cheating on the cleaning those days 🙁 And I totally loved your post, so that is why I shared it 🙂
Living in the US, and the relative sizes of people’s houses means that they have so much junk that it’s almost scary. Me on the other hand I prefer to live in a smaller home which means that I have to have the junk under control. It’s surprising how little we need and how much we hoard.
True. I almost give in to those sales and buy lots of stuff mode at times. Its almost scary as you said. Post Diwali I plan on a 2 month ban on myself 😛
good one!
Hi Pratibha,
Its a very good article I am happy to read it.
Thank you for stopping by my blog Mansoor! I am glad you liked the post 🙂 Stopped by your business pages too! Interesting and we live in the same city 🙂