You’re running late, you can’t find your keys, and your child is asking you where his lunchbox is. Honestly, you have no idea! We’ve all been there.
After a year of our living, working, and recreating at home, all of our houses are in need of a dust-down and reorg. And the truth is, taking on a few simple organization projects won’t just make your life easier—it will also make it better. Studies show that disorganized, cluttered homes negatively affect mental health, creating stress, anxiety, and even depression.
Whether you decide to go full-on Marie Kondo, or opt to keep all of your treasured knickknacks is really a matter of personal preference and style. But we tapped the minds and methods of professional organizers around the country for simple ways to get a bit more organized and sane, keeping a variety of time and budget constraints in mind. Read on for their tips.
f you have 5 minutes
Five minutes may not sound like a lot, but you can actually get a lot done if you set out with a focus on very specific tasks.
You can drastically reduce clutter quickly by thinking of your organization efforts as tidying, say Ema Hildebaugh, founder of Minimize My Mess in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“There are two types of clutter,” she explains. “Clutter that has a home is easy to handle; you just put it back where it belongs. For clutter that doesn’t have an obvious home, grab a dump box and pick a room. Collect all the clutter that doesn’t have a home, and put it in a box.”
Every time you have five minutes, tackle another room, with a separate box. Save up those boxes for a weekend when you can finish your reorganization.