When it comes to organizing and cleaning — there’s a certain knack to it.
And while some people love nothing more than having a mop or Swiffer in hand to go to town cleaning and putting things away — others can’t be bothered and do the bare minimum.
Luckily there are people like Lesley Spellman, a decluttering expert, co-founder of The Declutter Hub and co-author of the new book Reset Your Home: Unpack Your Emotions and Your Clutter, Step by Step, whose job is to literally help guide lost cleaners in figuring out how to best arrange and tidy up their homes — and lives.
She told the Daily Mail in an interview that most people’s habits “quietly sabotage” their “efforts to get organized.”
“Whether it’s underestimating how long the job will take, flitting (moving swiftly) between rooms without finishing anything, or letting ‘stuff’ take center stage instead of addressing the emotions behind it, these are the behaviors that keep clutter coming back,” shared the expert.
Spellman said the first mistake she sees most people make is not coming up with a game plan before tackling a mess head-on.
As the saying goes, fail to prepare — prepare to fail.
“All good projects need a plan. [Ask yourself], what equipment do you need? How much time do you have? How much energy do you have?” she told the outlet.
Being overly ambitious and feeling the need to buy organizing bins or supplies before assessing the mess at hand is another common thing inexperienced organizers do.
“Most of the time we have more than enough storage in our homes, we just have too much stuff,” she explained.
“You need to declutter first, work out where you want to have something and then decide on what box to buy to either containerize, make it pretty, or both.”
The expert recommended using empty boxes lying around your home as temporary storage until you find better solutions.
Spellman also advises against tackling the messiest area of your room first — something many people think is the best strategy.
“When we think about the decluttering projects that need to be done in our homes, our minds always go to the hardest things,” she said.
“We need to build up our decluttering muscle by tackling easy things first. Then the tough rooms can happen further into the process.”
In addition to Spellman’s helpful tips, a professional organizer on TikTok swears by a decluttering rule that supposedly only takes three seconds.
“All I want you to do, is you’re gonna make a decision on each pair,” @kayleenkellyorganize said. “It’s either a yes, you keep it, or no, it goes. But if you hesitate [for more than three seconds], it’s an automatic keep.”
“If you feel like you have to try them on before you decide, just put it in your ‘keep’ pile and we’ll circle back around,” the organizer explained.
Anything to keep your life more organized and sane, right?
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