Anybody who has lived in a condo can tell you there’s just no room for clutter. But the consumer nature of our society – especially in the post holiday weeks – works against that rule. Fortunately, you can easily strike a happy medium between enjoying your condo and keeping it clutter-free. Follow the tips below to get started.
Zone out your condo
Part of the reason clutter piles up so easily is because items have not been “assigned” a home. Look around at your own piles of clutter and see if this is true.
Do the things that tend to get left out around your house actually have an assigned storage place? And if so, is that storage place logical? Even if you do have an assigned storage place for your items, it may do you no good unless that place makes logical sense.
An easy way to begin sorting and storing you clutter is to divide your condo into functional zones. Think in terms of the way you live. If you work from home or have a home office, you need an office zone.
You also need a kitchen (eating) zone, a zone for down-time (either relaxing or watching television), a zone for dressing (clothing, accessories, and shoes), and so forth. Get the idea?
Basically, assign a general function to each area of your home and lay it out like zoned lots.
Separate the function of your clutter
The next step in curbing your condo clutter is to assign your clutter to each of your new zones. Do this by considering the function of the items you have lying around the house, then organize them into the appropriate zones.
For example, a box of printing paper should go into the office/work zone. CDs and DVDs belong in your zone for television and down-time.
The goal of this exercise is to move things out of zones where they don’t belong and into zones where they make more sense. This will make it much easier for you to keep things put away after you use them.
Say for example you use a drawer in your office desk to store grocery coupons, napkins, and tablecloths. Or you keep a box of jewelry on an end table in your living room. Either way, the function of your items is too far removed from the zone where they should be stored.
Having your belongings spread out illogically like that makes it too easy to leave them laying around. It also makes you more likely to forget what you have and not use it at all. So place function and zone-relevance ahead of decorative notions and habits. That’s one of the most important steps in curbing clutter altogether.
Tackle zones methodically
When you’ve zoned out your condo and divvied your clutter up into the appropriate areas, your next step will be to organize each individual zone. Your best bet is to focus on one zone at a time and then only move on when you’ve completely organized that zone.
Work in order of importance. If you run a business out of your home, chances are you’d be best off organizing your office area first. Or if you’re particularly stressed out, work first on your relaxation zone.
By tackling one zone at a time, you’ll get to see more progress take place sooner than you would if you worked just a little bit all over the place.
Work in 30-minute bursts
If you have a lot of clutter piled up around your condo, it may be daunting to tackle it all in one day. It may even be too exhausting to work on a single room for one day.
Because of this, start working in 30-minute power bursts. Set your timer and stay focused on assigning your clutter to logical places for exactly thirty minutes. Then, when the timer dings, stop. Simply stop, even if you’re nowhere close to being done. You can pick up where you left off the next time you have thirty minutes to spare.
Working in short increments like this will give you the satisfaction of steady progress without leaving you totally exhausted.
Stay clutter-free for life
Keeping your condo clutter-free means a consistent commitment to staying organized. If you devote just ten minutes of every day – or even five, when the need arises – to organizing your belongings, chances are good you’ll never face a clutter problem again. So go ahead and take the plunge toward living the clutter-free lifestyle. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can enjoy your condo when it’s neat and organized.
