Time is precious, especially when your task list is completely filled out for the week or maybe even the month. Even though a tidy home is extremely important for a healthy and happy family, being in such a situation you might find yourself pushing back cleaning and decluttering your home, because you feel like it will drain the little time you get anyway.
Worry not! In this article, we will give you three easy hacks to declutter your home, no matter how busy of a family you are part of, without feeling like you sacrifice your precious time!
Why is decluttering important for busy families?
Clutter is the bane of productivity. It distracts, it demotivates and it can ruin your mood because you will always feel like you are leaving something undone.
Moreover, it is a hindrance especially for busy families, because nothing wastes time like trying to find an important tool among other less useful ones or looking for a document on a completely overloaded desk.
Furthermore, clutter can get in the way of your cleaning routine and cause you to become negligent in terms of cleaning. The more items you have on your desk or shelves, the less likely you would feel like cleaning them, wouldn’t you?
There are many other reasons why you don’t want clutter in your busy family home, but without further ado let’s get into the three decluttering hacks that will save you lots of time.
Hack 1: Take your time when decluttering your home
It sounds counterintuitive, however, you should not declutter in one go if you are part of a busy family. One of the easiest “I don’t have the time to declutter” traps to fall into is due to the fact you deem it impossible to finish it in a day, especially when your task list is nagging at you.
This is why you should have separate decluttering objectives and do it in one room per day. Better yet, you can do one category of items per day. Just pick a day when you can spare 15 minutes to an hour, maybe more if you feel like it. Pick a category like clothes, cleaners or silverware, for example.
Treat decluttering like a marathon rather than a sprint. This will save you time and nerves. And to tie into our next point, make sure you pick a day for decluttering when the rest of your family will be able to join in on the fun.
Hack 2: Get everybody to participate in the decluttering
Picking a day when everybody is free is key to easy decluttering for busy families. Decluttering with the other family members is faster. It’s far more fun and great for bonding. Also, it significantly reduces the chance that the rest of your busy family will keep “pouting at you” off of their task lists. Nobody likes it when something of sentimental value gets thrown out without their permission.
With more hands on deck, time will pass seamlessly, more work will be done and all of that while performing a meaningful activity together. Everybody will be able to pick their favourites and part ways with the items that they barely use anymore.
Having each family member guide you through their quarters and items will also significantly reduce the time you will spend trying to figure out if you are missing something and what items to keep or remove.
Also if you have children, make sure to add them to the activity too! This will be a chance for you to teach them the importance of a clean and tidy home from early on, by using games and fun to immerse them in the activity.
Hack 3: Use the four-box method to make decluttering even easier
You have marked a day when everybody is free and you have your objective set. What’s next? It is time to sort through the items and decide which stays, which goes and maybe even something in between. But clearing one pile, while creating another can lead to wasted time since you will have to clear these piles too. This is where the four-box method comes in.
Label four boxes “Keep”, “Throw away”, “Store away” and “Donate or sell*. Use:
- “Keep” to store items that you or your family use every time a situation calls for it.
- “Throw away* for items that you have even forgotten exist and you don’t think you or someone else will find a use for any time soon or ever. This applies to broken items in full force.
- “Store away” for objects you have intermittent use for, like seasonal clothes, decorations or other items such as swimming rings and more. Vacation equipment, collection items and vast book collections are worthy of this box.
- “Donate or Sell” whenever you find an object which is still useful, but you either have something better with the same functionality or something valuable that you simply do not need anymore.
Make sure you let everybody in on the rules and work together toward the same objective to quickly go through it and easily determine the best box for each item. Take a final look at the boxes once you have run through all the items to make sure everybody is happy with what the content of each box looks like.
Once you are done with the sorting, make sure to empty the boxes properly so they can be ready for your next decluttering session.
Conclusion
Taking it a step at a time, with as many members of your family members at possible and with the right strategy is the best way for you to deal with decluttering, whenever the schedule is tight. This will allow everybody to be happy with the decluttering and set the stage for easier cleaning routines for your busy family!
