Banish Clutter Forever

Have you noticed something about all the homes in a dreadful state that are featured on ‘How clean is your house?’ All of them, virtually without exception are cluttered. Some of them have entire heaps of old food and packaging from takeaways in them as well as hoards of CDs, books and memorabilia or souvenirs.

 Now, there is nothing wrong with keeping souvenirs or collecting memorabilia. And there is nothing wrong with having lots of ornaments around your home. But there is something to learn from the ‘minimalists’ where household management is concerned, and that is, that clear surfaces take half the time to clean. In my own case, I find that I’m also likely to clean a clear surface more often too.

 When you make a personal decision about how much you are going to keep in your home on display, it’s worth remembering that there is a price to be paid for what you leave out. You will spend far more time cleaning in your lifetime (maybe three times as much) than the average minimalist, unless you are very organised and house collections in display cabinets or in places where they can’t collect dust. And remember that if you don’t clean regularly, that some very nasty bacteria, moulds and vermin will be attracted to the free meal you’re leaving out for them by way of the skin cells and hair you shed everyday, and the food you spill, that can make you or the people around you very ill.

 Personally, I like display items and ‘collections’ but I hate cleaning, and paying a penny more than I have to for someone else to clean for me. So the next time you coo over your collection of handmade dolls or sci-fi collectables, remember that they didn’t just cost you the price you paid for them originally. They also continue to cost you the extra time that either you spend cleaning or that you pay someone else to dust them, and that they will continue to do so as long as you keep them.

Sometimes, that decision to throw a lot of display items out, or purge or get rid of your collections can be a money and time saving decision too. I hope knowing that makes it less painful for you.

Filed under: General organising by Sheila Chandra