As a residential cleaning company operator with over 70,000 cleans completed, we’ve seen the following organising tips work wonders in the lives of hundreds of Australian households. We’d like to share the secrets to clearing your house of clutter. And how to clean it better with less effort so your family can enjoy the full life you deserve.

Being well organised is so important to living a full life. It allows us to declutter our mind and to be present more often. To enjoy fully the beauty that surrounds us on this magical planet. Even more important is to be present and in a positive state of mind for those precious moments with loved ones. Being organised in our lives not only helps us to enjoy these moments more, but more importantly to ensure we have more such moments to enjoy.

Here are our 7 top tips for organising your home 

1. De-cluttering

With modern life keeping us so busy it’s important to be organised so as to have things run smoothly. It’s easy to run on adrenalin and to rush busily from one task to the next. In the meantime things accumulate around us for sorting out “later”. Until later comes, we’ve found putting loose items into clear clutter boxes is the best first step. Decluttering has several simultaneous advantages. It quickly clears the space of clutter and provides a clear window to easily discern where the item we seek is. This approach energetically motivates us to take on the clutter in bite sized pieces over time. This is a better approach than to never starting due to overwhelm.  Overwhelm naturally confronts us when dreading such a herculean task. A journey of a million miles starts with the first step.
Take it!

2. Cleaning the house

Once the clutter is in clutter boxes, you will find your energy will slowly start to return. Now is the time to clean the house. You can hire a cleaning service or do it yourself. Either way your focus needs to be on removing as much of the fine microscopic dust as you can in one fell swoop. If you hire a cleaning service make sure you get a list and that the cleaner you use is one that comes recommended by someone you know and don’t necessarily trust online reviews, these are easy to fake. If you decide to do it yourself remember to breathe and just do one task at a time. Learn all about dust-free living in order to cut down on cleaning time by removing fine particle dust from your home with an annual spring clean. Wait for a windy day when you can create a through-draft to carry the fine particle dust out. Start with the dusting, then the wet areas, then the wiping, then the vacuuming and then the mopping. Nice and easy. A clean house will make you feel better and energise you for the tasks ahead. Pat yourself on the back. You’ve already done the heavy lifting so feel good about it and be happy with yourself.

You’re awesome!

3. A spot for the keys

Often in the mad rush to lurch from one thing to the next, it is not uncommon to put the keys down here, and our wallet down there and then when we are rushing to get out of the door to find they seem to have disappeared into a black hole. When we are in the process of implementing these sequential organisational steps it’s important to arrange a clear space that we get in the habit of putting important items into so they don’t get lost and we can start to move in and out of the house more seamlessly with less stress. This will ensure we are rarely late and we will increasingly feel great about things which is perhaps the most important part of all of these tips; to generate higher and higher levels of self-love. In the later stages of this process when your house is habitually clean and de cluttered the keys and the wallet will stand out on the open surfaces wherever you choose to put them, but until then we need to work with where we are at in the process and this step is important at this stage.

You’re halfway there!

4. Use the space

Vertical space in the home is an opportunity to create more space on the ground. Open areas are not only easier to keep clean and de cluttered but they also provide a lovely open feeling of space which translates into more space in our lives. This can be achieved by creating, using and utilising wall space to neatly stack these items that bring us joy. Solid wall wardrobes are great for putting our de-clutter boxes into so they’re out of sight and mind until we find the time and space to rationalise, categorise and arrange them later in this process. This can take years so be patient and just take on the whole pie with small mouth sized pieces over time. This way you can actually enjoy the process. So don’t take on all of these organising tips at once, but rather one at a time. Throwing away things we don’t need and treasuring those items we decide to keep by folding, collating and neatly stacking them is a beautiful process when we’re present and not in a rush.
And boy it looks good when you survey the fruits of your labours.
Enjoy the process!

5. Organise one thing at a time

It’s a psychological truism that when we look at the entire mountain we can get stuck in inertia and fail to take that crucial first step. This is why the climb to Everest is best started with the walk to base camp. Just get to base camp, then reassess and decide where to go and what to do from there. That’s how it is with these organising tips. Organising your home is not a sprint, it’s a marathon so start easy. Pick one corner and start. Then pick one clutter box and rationalise it. Throw some things out. Collate items into sections and then start to enjoy the sorting process. This is such an important orgaining tip. As things become clearer everything becomes clearer including the choices of what to put where. From little things big things grow and after a while your home and the energy inside of it will start to transform. You will start to experience more stillness, less stress and magically you will seemingly have more time. That’s actually happening because we are wasting less time and are becoming more efficient as the organising process takes root in our lives and repetition forms healthy habits. We feel less stressed and our immune systems also improve. We sleep better. It is a self-generating loop and the more energy we stop wasting the more energy we have to create more energy.

Form the habit!

6. Stack, store and label

Now we’re getting the final two organising tips, the end is within sight. Once your storage system starts to find momentum and becomes more sophisticated you will find that in the act of stacking the clear storage boxes out of sight you can label them in categories so as to be able to find what you need quickly and effortlessly. The great thing is that once you find the bulk of items in your house are now in their right place you can start to look ever more closely at the items in your boxes and start on the road to minimalism. The central question to ask is do we really need all that stuff? Are these things called possessions because they can actually possess us? The heart of the matter is that when we start to live more simply and to see clearly the societal trend towards orchestrated consumerism and the freedom that we enjoy when focusing on nature and family and life; the less unnecessary items we have cluttering our homes and our lives the better. And the best part is that a minimalist home is much easier to clean and to keep clean and there are less places for dust to hide.

Make it fun!

7. Time to relax ~ Me time

Now that the vast majority of hard work is done and you feel like you’ve got more time and energy, it’s the point where you focus on the most important thing. Yourself. This is perhaps the most important of all these organising tips. It is easy to confuse selfishness with self-love and there really is a big difference. As Dr Jordan Peterson says “treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping”. So what is it you like? What makes you feel good? Is it a warm Epsom salt bath with lavender oil on a lazy winter’s afternoon? Or is it an early night and a great sleep to kick off the new day? Perhaps you love to watch the sun rise over the ocean or to take a romantic stroll along the beach with your favourite person. Whatever it is, it’s very important. As part of the process put yourself as a priority and love your life.

Life’s so precious!

Michael Sweet is the founder of 1800 CLEANER, contact us today if you need help organising your home.