How to Organize and Declutter Your Home: Why Clutter is Causing Depression

Now that the holidays over, it’s time to focus on a new year and new beginnings, and what better way to start off the new year than with a clean slate- literally!

Check out my e-book HERE on Amazon for only 99 cents!

Here is what you will learn from this book:

• How to Start

• How to Make a Schedule

• How to create a check-list

• How, What and where to store important information

• Ideas on how to start organizing and keep organized

• How to clean up

• How to create a command center (and even involve your kids- if you have any)

UCLA once did a study on the affects of clutter in a room called “Life at home in the 21st century”, this study was based on a groundbreaking, four-year, ethnoarchaeological CELF study conducted in 2001-2005. What they found was that a staggering number of possessions and an array of spaces and furnishings that serve as the stage for multiple family activities can tell us a lot about who we are as a society.

The results were astonishing! The cluttered homes caused as much stress as postpartum depression based on their cortisol readings. Think about that for a moment…the clutter was literally causing depression. As the clutter begins to pile up, your stress levels raise as well. If you don’t do anything about the clutter, eventually you will have a mental break point. A point at which the stress becomes too much to bear, and you give into depression and loose all motivation to clean up the clutter that is causing your stress induced depression. Only furthering your depression deeper. It’s a loose-loose cycle.

So how do we stop this cycle? Read my book “How to organize and declutter your home” to learn all the steps you can take to creating a life of freedom from clutter and depression.

Does your house feel like cluttered chaos? Do you feel overwhelmed or chaostrophic in your own home? Getting your house organized can be overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you separate what you need in your home from what you want in your home? There are many steps to getting organized, but this e-book will guide you through the whole process one step at a time. You will work at your own pace, and accomplish one goal at a time, and before you know it, your entire home will be organized and clutter free! Each step is tried and tested, by me, to get your home organized and help keep it that way without making it feel like you are carrying the world on your shoulders while trying to juggle every aspect of your life all at the same time.
Your home reflects how you see yourself, and now is the time to let your brilliance shine! Now is not the time to let what other’s think get in your way, you are on a mission! A mission to show everyone (or perhaps just a disapproving mother-in-law) that you’ve got a beautiful home and you did it all by yourself (This e-book can be our little secret!). Maybe you just moved into a new place and need help organizing each room, or maybe you have been living in your house for years and are finally fed up with the dysfunction of your space- no matter your reason, I am glad you are here, and I want you to know that I can help.

Check out my guidebook How to Organize and Declutter Your Home

How to Organize & Declutter Your Home

Now that the holidays over, it’s time to focus on a new year and new beginnings, and what better way to start off the new year than with a clean slate- literally!

Check out my e-book HERE on Amazon for only 99 cents!

Here is what you will learn from this book:

• How to Start

• How to Make a Schedule

• How to create a check-list

• How, What and where to store important information

• Ideas on how to start organizing and keep organized

• How to clean up

• How to create a command center (and even involve your kids- if you have any)

How to Organize and De-clutter Your Home Part 5

How to Organize Your Home:

You should have a designated space to keep Emergency Information as well as Personal Information. If something were to happen to you, and your family needed access to these types of documents, you don’t want them to have to dig around through your desk, spending hours of precious time looking for what they need. Here are some of the items I suggest you keep in a safe place:

• Marriage Certificate

• Birth Certificate

• Adoption Papers

• Citizenship Records

• Divorce Papers

• House Deed

• Mortgage Papers

• Death Certificate

• Automobile Titles

• Service Papers

• Leases /Contracts

• Will

• Patents and Copyrights  

• Passports

• Life Insurance Policy

• Health Insurance Card (s)

• Copy of your License

• Medical Directives (should you not be able to speak on your own behalf, a medical directive will ensure your decisions are followed)

• Emergency Medical Contacts (primary physician’s phone number, etc)

• Medical Information (blood type, allergies, etc)

• Up to date photo of everyone in your family, including your pets (in case someone goes missing)

• Finger Prints

• Pet Insurance

If security is a concern of yours, then store these documents in a safe, locked drawer, or in a safety deposit box. Here are the items I suggest you store in a secured space.

That wraps up our 5 part series of how to Organize and Declutter Your Home! Now is the time to buy my e-book on Amazon for a copy of your own list of items to consider when trying to organize and declutter your home. 

How to Organize and De-clutter Your Home Part 4

Here is a Declutter Checklist for your entire home:

Kitchen

• Create Space for Every Item

• Donate Mismatched Items (Dishes, Cups, etc)

• Toss Old Coffee Mugs and any dishware with a stain

• Limit Water Bottles

• Add Drawer Dividers

• Toss Stained, Mismatched or Broken Food Containers

• Throw out all old Spices and Expired Foods

Bathroom

• Toss Old Shampoo/Body Lotion, etc. Bottles

• Limit yourself to 2 shampoos/conditioner, lotions, etc.  

• Limit hairstylers, and store them in a basket or under your sink- out of sight.

• If it hasn’t been used in three months, toss it.

Linen Closet:

• Toss old towels and sheets that are stained or frayed

• Toss towels and sheets that don’t match

Office:

• Tackle one drawer at a time.

• Bundle like items together (Pens & Pencils, Envelopes, etc)

• Shred Papers that are not needed

  • After 1 Month: Receipts, Deposit/ ATM slips, Reconciled Bank Statements

  • 1-3 Years: Paycheck Stubs, Mortgage Statements, Expired Insurance Records, Charity Donation Receipts

  • 7 Years: Tax Returns, W-2 & 1099, Medical Statements, Real Estate Tax Forms

Your Closet:

• Have you worn it in the last 6 months?

• Will you wear it in the next two weeks?

• If it is Broken/ Has any holes, will you get them fixed?

• Does it fit well?

• Would you buy it now?

If you answered “yes” to all of the above questions, then keep it, however if you answered “no” to any of these, then you should probably toss it.

Check out the entire series on my e-book on Amazon Here:

How to Organize and De-clutter your Home Part 3

How to De-clutter Your Home:

The best way that I have found is to clear a space- possibly in another room, on the floor and dump out all the pieces (maybe it’s just a few drawers? Maybe it’s the whole kitchen?).

Here is a starter list of things to get rid of:

• Old or unread books and magazines

• Expired Coupons

• Outgrown Clothes

• Expired Food

• Mismatched or holey socks

• Mismatched Storage Containers (having all the same type of storage containers makes it easier to stack on top of one another, creating more space)

• Duplicate kitchen items

• Expired Cleaning Supplies

• Worn Towels

• Worn Sheets

• Broken Toys

• Tools missing parts

• Broken Jewelry

• Old Mail

• Expired Toiletries/Cosmetics

• Unused Toiletries

• Unused Toys/Sporting Equipment

Want to learn more? Get my e-book available on Amazon:

Part 2 Of The Guide To Organizing And De-cluttering Your Home

How to De-clutter Your Home

When you start to de-clutter a room, it can be very overwhelming. Don’t worry, we are going to take the and divide it into small sections. Start with one end of the room (Doesn’t matter where- Personally, I go left to right around the room from the entrance door, starting with the bottom section, then the middle section, and lastly the top section - I don’t know why, it’s just what I find easiest). Use the checklists in this step to decide what will stay and what will go.

Tip: Divide and Conquer: Shelf dividers will instantly begin to add order by providing “zones” for each set of items. You can improvise with these solutions as well. For instance I use desk organizers in my kitchen cabinets to help separate dishes. I also use over the door closet shoe organizers to hold cleaning supplies.  Search Pinterest to find the solution that would best work for your situation.

There are thousands of solutions to help you organize your home, it’s just a matter of personal preference and if these systems will fit in your space.

To learn more, check out my e-book, available on Amazon:

How to Organize and Declutter Your Home Part 1

Since it is a new year, you have probably made a new years resolution. Maybe going to the gym more? Maybe eating healthier? But have you thought about your home? Your home is where you spend most of your time, and you want it to feel relaxing, cozy, and inviting, but you can't do that when your space is filled with clutter! So I wanted to remind you of my e-book that I wrote:

How to Organize and Declutter Your Home (available on Amazon for $0.99!)

For the month of January I am going to share some of my secrets on how to organize and de-clutter your home!

Lets start with the Organization:

The Organization

The First “real” step to organization is to define how you are going to decide on what you will keep or get rid of. You’ll want to start by creating three piles- sell it, donate it, keep it. Maybe you are going to have a yard sale after you’re done organizing your house? Then sell it. But if it doesn’t sell, donate it. We are trying to organize and declutter your life, not add more clutter from one area to another. Maybe you hate yard sales and will simply be donating everything? Or maybe you have something that isn’t worth selling? Donate it.

The best way that I have found is to clear a space- possibly in another room, on the floor and dump out all the pieces (maybe it’s just a few drawers? Maybe it’s the whole kitchen?).

Why? The chances are that you will find things you forgot you had, or maybe you will discover you have two of something you only need one of.