Find out how to keep your home organised and in great shape when you find it tricky to keep on top of organisation in general because you’re naturally disorganised.
Being naturally disorganised is something that can make the home really chaotic. It can feel as though you are always on the back foot when it comes to keeping things neat and tidy, which can then lead to a feeling of frustration, and might even impact your health and happiness negatively.
The good news is that whilst it is more challenging to keep a neat and tidy home when you are naturally disorganised. There are plenty of tricks, hacks and methods you can use to keep a tidier home, including these:
1. Use Affordable Self Storage
“Your storage space is your private paradise, so personalise it to the fullest.” – Marie Kondo
Self storage is an affordable and convenient way to extend the space in your home, and so it is a bit of a godsend when it comes to being naturally disorganised. This is because it gives you a ‘safe space’ away from the home in which to keep extras that can make it harder to maintain neatness overall. A good example is big bulky items like camping gear, Christmas decorations or even out of season clothing. By having a little more space to place these items when they aren’t in use, you have a little more room in your home for breathing space.
2. Keep Things Functional
Marie Kondo speaks a lot about the functionality of a space, which is what keeps it from getting cluttered in the first place. You can tidy up any area, but if it isn’t working in how it is used, it will quickly become messy and cluttered again. This could be a playroom without enough storage, or a kitchen sink that is too small. If you can identify ‘bottlenecks’ in your home you can switch up how they work, and so you won’t find things get messy as easily.
3. Accept That You Are Naturally Disorganised
Some people are great at being totally organised and on top of their homes, and some people aren’t. It’s OK not to be Mrs Hinch – there is nothing wrong with you, it just isn’t your strength. Once you accept this is just something you struggle with (and isn’t a weakness) you can drop a lot of frustration and instead work towards a better toolbox for the way that you work. Maybe you’re not the kind of person who is house proud and who has a million ways to clean a kitchen sink, but maybe you are the kind of person who has workarounds and tricks that enable you to keep your house in shape.
4. Don’t Be Ashamed Of Shortcuts
There are so many shortcuts that can help you to keep a more organised home. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of help when you struggle with this aspect of your life. One such shortcut is having a cleaner once a week. It’s an affordable way to freshen the house up every once in a while, so at the very least you have that ‘reset’ occurring regularly.
Another shortcut is one-pot cooking, which minimises the dishes you use and therefore the mess that is made.
5. Have Less Stuff
By having less stuff and decluttering, you have a better chance of keeping things tidy. Achieving a minimalist lifestyle is a helpful way to change your consumerist habits for the good of your bank balance and your home.
6. Create ‘Systems’
Do your dirty clothes have a laundry basket to go in, or do they just stay on the floor until they get washed? Do you have a shredding basket for junk mail and post, or does a pile mount up for months before you take action? Having a ‘system’ means a place for different items to go, whether they are awaiting an action, or they are in their storage space until you need to access them again. It’s really helpful because it becomes an automatic habit to move your things through these different ‘stations’.
“The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past.” – Marie Kondo
Being disorganised is a problem when you want to keep a tidy house, but there are ways to work around it and boost the functionality and aesthetic of your home. It will always be a work in progress when you struggle with these kinds of things, but the key is the progress part. As long as you’re making progress, things are improving and you’re getting closer to keeping on top of your house and the way that it functions.