The 4 Keys to a Clutter-Free Home 

Whatever the inspiration behind your urge to have a clutter-free home, the truth is starting can put you in a pinch, being one of the hardest places to start. All the more, it’s true when you’re looking at your home right now, and it looks like it can use a lot of help. Then, once you’ve successfully tackled all the cleaning and decluttering, there’s another obstacle to go through in maintaining it.  

Photo of a woman relaxing on a couch in her living room.
It’s worth the work to enjoy the feeling of a clutter-free home.

Yes, those homeowners with perfectly-organized homes don’t just sit around and leave their home as it is. Small habits and big ones alike make their home look as it is. When your home is supposed to be your sanctuary, you’ll want it to call you in to relax and not stress you out with all the mess.  

Keeping and maintaining a clutter-free home presents a unique set of challenges, but many have found themselves victorious, and so can you, too. With that, here are some useful ideas.  

1. Schedule a Same-Day Rubbish Collection 

Those who can stay on top of their cleaning schedules would know there are generally two types of household cleaning: the regular, small cleaning chores and the seasonal, deep-cleaning ones. For the latter, things can get tricky, as your cleaning tasks can involve doing a major purge of your home, such as spring cleaning. 

Photo of a garbage truck coming for a pickup
Garbage and junk removal is essential to keep any home clean and safe.

Deep-cleaning your home also means possibly disposing of odd-shaped items, even those that need extra care when throwing, like recyclables or those containing toxic substances. These call for the involvement of experts, such as the crew at Same-Day Rubbish Removal

As its name implies, those companies visit your home to collect the rubbish on the day you’ve scheduled. They’ll take care of handling and disposal so all those things you’re letting go of won’t crowd your bins while you’re still awaiting the next scheduled visit of your local garbage truck. 

2. Remove the Concept of ‘Just In Case’ Items 

Say you have a cabinet filled with fifty plates for parties or just in case. Then, there are the serving platters you’ve never used and other duplicates of all sorts of household items.  

This kind of thinking is one of the reasons you’ve made your home so cluttered. Over the years, you’ve accumulated things just because you think you need them for hosting parties and whatnot.   

Now that you’re decluttering, removing the concept of needing multiple of the same items is important. Parties don’t happen all the time, and when they do, you may wind up ordering from a caterer or heading out elsewhere, anyway. If you were to host gatherings at home, you could always rent what you need, so you don’t have to store them yourself. This concept also brings in another one: ‘borrow before you buy,’ especially for merely seasonal things, to begin with.  

Once you let go of thinking you need so many multiple household belongings, you may realize how much more spacious your home is. There’s less clutter and less visual nuisance, particularly when you’re short on space.  

3. Remember to Put Things Away ASAP 

One of the reasons why homes become so cluttered is when you leave small items to linger all over your home by putting them down and then forgetting that they’re there in the first place. A better habit instead would be to put things away ASAP. Follow the one-touch method, where, as soon as you find something that needs to be put away, you make a mental note to return it right away to where it belongs rather than elsewhere.  

When you think about it, it takes the same effort to pick something up and then put it down. Why not put it down where it belongs right away? It may take a lot of getting used to, but eventually, you’ll get the hang of it, and it becomes second nature to you.  

4. Tackle the Closets 

If you have young kids at home, you’ll know how fast their closets can get cluttered easily. It’s not just about the mess; it’s also about the number of clothes children have. It’s even true when you’re keeping clothes to hand over to the next child, so instead of having space, you’re accumulating closet space for quite a long time.  

With that in mind, it’s a good practice to tackle all the closets in your home at least once, quarterly, or twice a year. Do this more frequently when the purpose is merely for sorting. However, a semi-annual purge is a good idea if it’s for going through clothes to give away.  

Commandments for a Clutter-Free Home 

Decluttering can be tough for various reasons, but it doesn’t always have to feel that way. The ideas above should prove that a clutter-free home is a concerted effort of small and big things. Gone are the days of having unrealistic expectations about how homeowners should go about decluttering now that you know how to keep things a tad bit more manageable. Do it on your own and with the help of experts (at least from time to time) so that a clutter-free home is yours every day, all year around. 

Tre Pryor, Realtor

Tre Pryor is the leading real estate expert in the city of Louisville. He is a multi-million dollar producer and consistently ranks in the top 1% of Louisville Realtors for homes sold. Tre Pryor has the highest possible rating—5.0 stars on Google—by his clients and is routinely interviewed by the local NBC news. Tre Pryor is a member of the RE/MAX Hall of Fame.