January is a great month to start organising and decluttering your home. The more organised your home, the calmer you feel. A decluttered home also makes cleaning much easier and quicker.
Firstly, don’t overwhelm yourself – deal with one room or area at a time. It doesn’t have to be the worst room in the house either as sometimes it is just too much to deal with, so start with something easy. For me, I like to start in the kitchen. After Christmas, my kitchen needs a clear out. My cupboards are a mess so it’s the perfect time to sort everything out. You will need a good few hours, but get the music on and it can truly be quite therapeutic!
Start with the wall units and deal with one cupboard at a time. I take everything out so I can give them a good clean and then I sort everything into categories. A few lazy susans for condiments and spices are perfect. I got mine from ‘A Place for Everything’ and I couldn’t live without them now.
Clear jars are great for storing pastas and rice etc and keep everything neatly contained but visible and then various sized clear boxes for storing everything else. The results are that I can see exactly what I have which is great when doing the weekly food shop!
Next, I move on to tins and jars.... There are great tiered cupboard organisers which lets you stack items 3-deep but you can see exactly what you have. Wilkos have them for just £4 and they make your cupboards so much neater. I love them!
Next to tackle is crockery - again remove everything for cleaning and then sort into items. Mugs, bowls etc can all be grouped together. I store plates in a vertical plate racks which you can also get from ‘A Place for Everything’ which keeps everything easily accessible.
The cutlery drawer is next, I go through everything and make sure there is nothing broken or due to be thrown out. Then, I put all the cutlery through the dishwasher for an extra clean and wash out the drawer and cutlery tray. Plastic containers are perfect for grouping larger utensils together and makes finding things so much easier as nothing gets lost at the back of the drawer.
Now that's the first area in the house cleared, cleaned and tidied! You will then feel able to move on to the next.