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Declutter and Thrive: How an organized home can change your life

We’ve all experienced the effects of a disorganized living space at some point – whether it’s the frustration of not finding your keys, the stress of a cluttered kitchen, or the constant battle with overflowing closets. But this shouldn’t be a given!

With a few simple rules of thumb and a little effort, you can transform your home into a well-organized haven that’s both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

The Chaos of Clutter: A Disorganized Home’s Many Faces

Imagine walking into your home after a long day, and instead of feeling welcomed by a serene and tidy environment, you’re greeted by chaos and clutter. The negative impacts of a disorganized home are far-reaching and affect multiple aspects of your life.

A cluttered and disorganized home often lacks visual appeal. It can make your living spaces appear messy, chaotic, and far from the inviting sanctuary you desire. Additionally, maintaining such a home can be an uphill battle, leading to frequent cleaning frustrations. Valuable space often goes unused or underutilized, leading to wasted potential.

Beyond aesthetics, disorganization can hinder the functionality of your home. The difficulty of finding items when needed is a common complaint. When your belongings aren’t properly stored, daily tasks become more challenging. Safety hazards may also emerge as cluttered spaces increase the risk of tripping or falling over objects. Moreover, impaired productivity can result from trying to work or study in a cluttered environment.

The consequences of a disorganized home aren’t limited to the physical realm. It can take a toll on your mental and social well-being. The constant presence of clutter can lead to stress and anxiety, making it harder to relax and unwind. Tensions can arise among family members or roommates, straining relationships. Personal space may become limited, affecting your overall comfort. Even hospitality can be impacted, as an untidy home may deter you from inviting guests over.

The good news? You don’t have to live with these negative effects. By following a few straightforward rules of thumb, you can regain control of your living space and enjoy the benefits of a well-organized home.

Mastering the Art of Home Organization: Simple Rules of Thumb

Organizing your home doesn’t have to be an overwhelming task. By embracing some common-sense principles, you can efficiently optimize your storage space and create an environment that’s not only organized but also aesthetically pleasing.

Declutter Regularly:

Regularly decluttering your home is the cornerstone of effective organization. Make it a habit to review your belongings and part ways with items you no longer use or need. Embrace the “one in, one out” rule – for every new item you bring in, consider donating or discarding an old one. This keeps clutter at bay and ensures that your space remains functional and inviting.

Prioritize Functionality:

Start by thinking about the function of each room or space in your home. Consider what items need to be stored there and how frequently you access them. Then, design your storage solutions accordingly. Here are some practical tips:

Create zones within each room based on their functions. For example, establish a kitchen zone for cooking utensils, a cleaning zone for supplies, and a study zone for office materials.
Rotate seasonal items in and out of storage to keep your space uncluttered and functional.
Keep frequently used items at eye level or within easy reach to minimize the time spent searching.
Maximize vertical space by installing tall shelves, cabinets, or wall-mounted organizers. This utilizes space efficiently without consuming valuable floor space.
Make the most of closet space with space-saving hangers, shoe organizers, and closet systems.
Don’t forget about under-bed storage, a often-overlooked treasure trove for seasonal clothing, shoes, or storage bins.

Gear Up for Organizing:

Now that you’ve cleared the clutter and have a plan in place, it’s time to equip yourself with the right tools and strategies to maintain an organized home:

Opt for multifunctional furniture that serves multiple purposes. Consider ottomans with hidden storage, beds with drawers, or sofas that convert into beds.
When space allows, consider built-in storage solutions. Built-in bookshelves, custom closets, and cabinets can be tailored to your specific needs and maximize available space.
Use clear containers or labeled bins to easily identify the contents of storage containers. This prevents the need to open multiple containers to find what you’re looking for.
Implement drawer dividers to keep small items, like socks, utensils, or office supplies, neatly separated and easily accessible.
Install hooks and pegs on walls or the backs of doors to hang items like keys, bags, or accessories, keeping them off countertops and tables.
Label everything! Whether it’s storage bins, shelves, or drawers, labeling ensures that items find their designated spots, making it easier for everyone in the household to maintain order.

With these rules of thumb in mind, you’re well on your way to creating an organized home that’s not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. But let’s not stop here; there’s more to gain from a well-organized home.

The Benefits of a Well-Organized Home

Picture this: you open your front door, and a sense of calm and serenity washes over you. Your living space is neat, organized, and visually appealing. Everything has a designated place, and you can easily find what you need. But the benefits of a well-organized home extend beyond aesthetics; they encompass functionality, mental well-being, and even your social life.

The most immediate and visible benefit of an organized home is its aesthetic appeal. Clutter-free living spaces are visually pleasing, creating an inviting and tranquil atmosphere. The clean lines, tidy surfaces, and well-arranged decor contribute to an overall sense of order and harmony. Your home becomes a reflection of your personal style, and you can proudly showcase your cherished belongings.

Organization also enhances the functionality of your home. You can effortlessly locate and access items, streamlining daily routines and tasks. With a designated place for everything, you’ll spend less time searching and more time enjoying your space. Functionality extends to room usage; organized spaces allow you to maximize the potential of each room, ensuring that it serves its intended purpose efficiently.

Lastly, the benefits of an organized home reach beyond the physical realm and positively impact your mental and social well-being. Here’s how:

Stress Reduction: A cluttered and disorganized home can contribute to stress and anxiety. In contrast, an organized space fosters a sense of calm and control, allowing you to unwind and relax.
Improved Relationships: An organized home can lead to more harmonious relationships with family members or roommates. Reduced clutter and orderliness promote a sense of well-being, reducing tension and disputes.
Personal Space: Your personal space is a vital aspect of well-being. An organized home ensures that you have designated areas where you can retreat, relax, and recharge. This is essential for maintaining mental and emotional health.
Hospitality: An organized home encourages hospitality. You’ll feel more comfortable inviting friends and family over, enhancing your social life and fostering connections.
Motivation and Confidence: Achieving and maintaining an organized home can boost motivation and confidence. It’s a tangible accomplishment that can positively impact your overall outlook on life.

Embracing a few straightforward rules of thumb and committing to regular maintenance can help you unlock the potential of your home and enjoy the many advantages of an organized living environment.

And whether you want to get started on getting organized or maintain your well-kept home, IKEA’s the place the get ideas and the things you need.

About IKEA

In 1951, the IKEA began operating as a mail-order catalogue business based in Almhult, a small, forested village in the Swedish countryside. Its founder, Ingvar Kamprad decided to sell good-quality furniture at low prices.

Since 2008, IKEA has been recognized as the largest furniture retailer in the world, with presence in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Oceania and North America.

In 2021, opened its largest store in the world right in our home turf, a 65,000 square meter outlet located in the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City which houses over 8,000 items.

You can visit IKEA Pasay at the MOA Square, Marina Way, Mall of Asia Complex, Barangay 76 Zone 10, CBP-IA, 1300 Pasay City, open daily from 10am to 10pm.

You may also order online through its website.

To stay updated on its promos and offers, follow it on Facebook and Instagram.

Header Image by Freepik | Other photos taken during previous store visits at IKEA Pasay.

Check out my previous posts about IKEA:

Answers to some questions you may have about IKEA PH (but haven’t gotten around to asking)

A taste of Scandinavia at IKEA’s Swedish Restaurant

Why you should design your bedroom with a Scandi aesthetic

Create your escape: how to design a cozy reading nook in your home

Creating a space for your little one: 10 tips for decorating a kid’s room

Tips for organizing your home for the New Normal

It has now been several months into the quarantine, and many of us, albeit reluctantly, have found ourselves making adjustments to cope with our New Normal.

A huge part of our new reality is that we are spending more and more of our time at home. Being the space that is wholly under our control, the home has become our safe zone, a refuge from the many risks and dangers from the outside world.

If you haven’t re-organized your home since the start of the quarantine, you might want to think of doing that now. We may be stuck in our current predicament for a long while yet; the sooner our personal environments are set up to be useful in the New Normal, the better off we will be.

Basic principles

The good news is that the basic principles of home organization still applies, albeit with a few tweaks.

Eliminate the non-essentials.

Non-essentials are items that currently have no clear use or purpose in our current situation. These basically clutter up our spaces and leave little room for us to move around to do our work or accommodate what’s actually important.

Look through your belongings and see what things you may have no use for in the coming months such as cosmetics, office attire, formal and travel wear and more.

Items that belong in this category can either be thrown out, or donated to someone who might be able to use them.

Find the proper home for each essential item.

Items that have a clear use and purpose should be housed or stored in areas that maximize their utility.

Also remember: out of sight, out of mind. An item that’s deemed useful but cannot be found when it’s needed is not really useful at all. It would be advisable to store essential items in such a way that they can be easily seen and obtained when needed.

Organize according to how you live.

Don’t rearrange your stuff in a vacuum. Consider how you and everybody else in your household move around and use your spaces.

Items that are placed well out of reach of those who need them, or areas seemingly made inhospitable to some family members because of how they are arranged, will become wellsprings of resentment later on.

Consider as well how some things just logically go together. Group together items that have similar functions and house them near the areas where they are used most frequently.

Establish and maintain the organization system.

Once you’ve tidied up and created well-organized spaces, you need to maintain them. Agree with your household members on which item goes where, how to keep everything neat, and how often to do major and minor cleanups.

From time to time, you will need to check if your system for organizing your spaces and belongings is still working for you. It may need to be adjusted as your situations change whether as a result of the quarantine or other factors.

Each room’s purpose

To apply these principles to the various rooms in your home, you should think hard on what purpose you will assign to each room especially in the New Normal, then design and arrange the room’s layout and contents accordingly.

Bedroom

The bedroom should be a place to rest and regain one’s strength at the end of the day. It should be a haven for you where you can spend the slow and quiet hours for rest or reflection.

To have a bedroom that serves as the relaxing spot where you can slow down and recover from the day’s challenges, keep the area around the bed, especially the floors and the nightstand, free of items that do not contribute to having a restful experience. Stow away items in your dresser or under the bed to improve the flow of the room. Having a couple of indoor plants will also add some spots of color and life to the space.

Closet

Many of us have the tendency to just stash our stuff in our closet and hope that we can find them when we need them. Seldom does this work, however, and we end up wasting precious time and energy searching for a piece of clothing buried beneath piles of other clothes.

As the central repository of your clothes, your closet determines how you present yourself to the outside world. It should, therefore, equip you with what you need to wear, depending on the season and situation. This will not be possible with a disorganized closet.

As you regularly update your wardrobe throughout the year, so should you also be decluttering and arranging the contents of your closet. Group similar clothes together and consider tossing out those that are too worn to be presentable, or ones you haven’t worn for the past year. Especially now, when you may be working from home, items such as formal blazers and suits may just be using up space in your closet. Consider placing them on storage or tossing some out to free up space for clothes more suitable for our current situation.

Kitchen

Given all the lockdown restrictions on dining out, as well as our reduced food budgets, many of us are cooking and baking at home nowadays. Some have even begun to sell food online as a business. To help us in preparing food that nourishes our family or brings money to our pockets, we need to have our kitchen items in order.

Check out the food stored in your pantry and refrigerator for those past their expiration date. Toss out utensils and equipment if you already have something to replace them such as old measuring spoons or worn out egg beaters. Remember: your kitchen drawers are prime real estate when it comes to storage so they should contain items that are ready to be used everyday.

Dining Room

The lockdown, in a way, has provided households and families with more opportunities to share meals. Such times are welcome instances for everyone to catch up on each other’s activities and enjoy each other’s company.

The dining room, therefore, should be a place that encourages sharing and conversation. The dining table and chairs, for example, should be clear of items that are not needed during mealtimes. When meals are served, the items on the table top should be within easy reach of family members. When mealtimes are done, all dishes, utensils and linens should be cleared away as well.

Living Room

With more family members spending more time at home, the living rooms has been seeing a lot more action. This area is sometimes made into a makeshift classroom, or the family’s home theater for movie nights. What’s important is that this should be a space for family members to comfortably congregate and spend time together.

To achieve a family living space that’s welcoming and relaxing, make sure the space is free-flowing and clutter-free. Get rid of papers or knick-knacks that may have accumulated on the console table and other flat surfaces. Organize the cords under the TV and other devices by clipping them together. Utilize the space behind a sofa by placing a trunk to store throw pillows or a low bookcase to showcase the family’s book and movie collection. Move furniture around to free up floor space and improve the flow of movement around the room.

Home Office

Now that more people are working or learning from home, we are realizing the importance of setting aside space where we can think and concentrate on our work.

As usually directed to us in our offices or classrooms, our workstations at home should also be kept neat and uncluttered. Plus, we also need to tidy up the surrounding areas to have presentable backgrounds for our video calls just in case we haven’t set up fake ones in Zoom.

As our primary base of operations, our homes should be set up to support our goals and activities as we all adjust to living in a post–COVID19 world.

How do you plan to re-organize your home for the New Normal?

Photo credits: Header (Jason Briscoe), Kitchen (Naomi Hebert), Bedroom (Shop Slo), Closet (JamestheThomas5), Dining Room (Danill Silantev), Living Room (Patrick Perkins) and Home Office (Isabel Achison) on Unsplash

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