Areas to Unclutter in Your Daily Life
Clear the clutter from the 'active' zones in your home to make everyday transitions smoother
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There’s a lot of buzz about “decluttering” these days, but I’d like to take some time to focus on “uncluttering” (apparently the internet says there’s a difference). Instead of giving you tips for how to remove items from your home or your life altogether (decluttering), I’d like to highlight the areas in our home that could use less stuff in them, whether you choose to get rid of them altogether or not (uncluttering).
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been rushing out the door and you can’t find your keys (it’s me…hi!). The reason why this typically happens is because we have too much stuff, and our stuff isn’t in the right spot.
Let’s take a look at some of the areas you use every day in your home and find ways to streamline your spaces to make them work for you.
Active vs. Storage Space
A key factor in keeping high traffic areas in your home organized is to differentiate between active and storage space. The active spaces are the ones you use daily and often.
Front and Back Entryway or Mudroom
Clothes Closets
Bathrooms
Kitchen
Laundry Room
Car
Handbag
Storage spaces are the ones you use less often and are what I think of as “off the radar.” This depends on your personal living space but some examples are:
Guest Bedroom
Basement (sometimes)
Other Closets
Storage rooms
Front Room (if you’re from Chicago it’s pronounced “frunchroom”)
Garage
Attic
Home office if you work on-site
Take a moment to review your active spaces and decide if any of them are a pain point for you. Start with the area that sees the most traffic and causes you frustration.
Active vs. Storage Items
Next take a good look at the items you have in the active space. When reviewing each item, ask yourself:
Do I actively use this item daily or will it be better off stored away?
Here are some examples:
It’s springtime where you live and your coat rack still has heavy winter coats hanging on it. The heavy winter coats are storage items.
Your bathroom vanity drawer contains a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a comb. These are active items that you use every day. This same drawer holds makeup that you wear only for special occasions and cold medicine. These items can be considered storage items.
Transform Mixed Space to Pure Active Space
This is where the magic starts to happen and you begin to unclutter.
Take everything out of your active space that is meant to be in storage.
Designate a specific home for the active items.
Decide where storage items go.
When deciding where active items belong, think about where they naturally land. For example, does your mail end up in a pile next to your keys in the same spot when you walk in the door? Make the space work for your needs by placing a basket for mail and a hook for your keys in that spot. Have fun with it and come up with solutions that will be intuitive and functional.
When you assign a specific home for things, you’ll know exactly where to find them when you need them. For example, we have a rule for my daughter’s glasses: “In the case, when not on your face.” And the glasses case lives in a specific location in our home. (She’s still practicing getting this one down).
The things you designate as storage items can either go in a storage space in your home, or you can share the love and pass them on. That will lead you down the road of decluttering. You can read about some practical decluttering strategies here.
Let Go of Mental Clutter
Studies show that we make over 35,000 decisions every day. That’s a lot of mental weight to carry. It serves us well when we can eliminate some everyday decisions and run on autopilot for some of our daily transitions.
Having more stuff than you need in the space is a visual distraction and adds to our mental load. When you clear the unused storage items out of active spaces, you won’t have to think about:
what to wear while sifting through off-season clothes
which plates are everyday dinnerware vs. special occasion (hot tip: you can use one set for both)
which clothes in the drawer fit your children today
reaching for your toothpaste in the same drawer where you keep band-aids, medications, jewelry and special-occasion makeup
And so on…
Imagine how much time and mental energy you’d save if everything was in its place, and the extras were out of the way. If this sounds appealing to you, give it a try and see if it works for you.
My Favorites This Week
I’m not a big chip snacker, but when I was a kid I LOVED nacho cheese Doritos. I just discovered Late July Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips at my local grocery store and they taste exactly like Doritos but with recognizable ingredients. I can’t stop eating them!
The weather has been gorgeous here lately so it’s putting me in the mood to listen to my DRK Country playlist.
I’ve had keratosis pilaris on the backs of my arms my whole life and I’ve tried everything to get rid of it. I’m trying this new Welly Rough and Bumpy Lotion and I love that it is paraben, sulfate, dye and fragrance free.
We went to the Blink 182 concert last weekend and now this song is stuck in my head.
I try so hard to avoid using chemicals on our lawn and in our garden, but our lawn looks like it could use some love. My neighbor introduced me to Sunday Lawn Care - they don’t use toxic chemicals and they customize a plan to improve the health of your grass. They even curate a schedule for application and provide directions that are easy to follow.
I enjoyed this umbrella art installation:
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- Diana xo
Very helpful concepts! I was eating chips while I read this...