Have You Established the Habits Needed to Keep Your Home Clutter Free?

So you have just spent countless hours uncluttering your home.  Now the next question is how are you going to keep it that way.  Time after time I have been witness to rooms, garages, yards and all kinds of other areas cleared of annoying clutter only to be cluttered again because nothing was done to make sure that it did not happen again.

Mike, a friend of mine just spent several days cleaning out his garage.  Every year around this time Mike takes several days off from work just to work around the house and one of the things on his list is cleaning out the garage.  He spends several days taking everything out, deciding what to keep and what to throw out and then reorganizing all of his stuff.  Since Mike has a large two car garage you can image just how much clutter can accumulate.

But, wouldn’t it be great if Mike didn’t have to spend several days cleaning out his garage each year?  Wouldn’t it be great if Mike could spend his few days off from work just to do what he wants?  If he just knew how to keep his garage organized he wouldn’t have this same chore waiting for him every year.  Well, he could if he just knew how to keep his garage organized.

Would you like to be able to maintain the area that you just organized so that it does not get cluttered again?

If so, what you are going to need is a way to continue with the methods that you originally used to get the area uncluttered in the first place.  You are going to need to establish a few good habits.  What you will be glad to know is that making something that you do into a habit is really not that difficult. 

Here are a couple of ways to turn your un-cluttering techniques into good long term habits so that you will not have to do the same job over and over again.

1. Leverage – first tell someone, in fact tell a couple of people what you intend to do.  By making it public that you are going to keep the space organized you will feel compelled to do so.

2. Write – by writing down the habits that you intend to create, you will be giving them clarity and definition.  There is also a lot of power in writing something down then leaving it to memory.  Also, be sure to leave your list someplace where you will see it often.

3. One at a time – don’t try and make massive changes all at once.  Never focus on creating more than one habit at a time.  It take about three weeks to develop a habit so spend at least that amount of time before you begin to focus on developing another one.

4. Consistency – good habits mean practicing them every day.  If this means picking up your clothes or clearing the days clutter off of the table then do it!  Habits need to be developed.  They don’t form over night and take practice.

Nothing is worse than spending countless hours doing a job only to have to do it again, especially if it could have been avoided had you taken a little extra time and established a plan to avoid it.  Home organizing is no different.  You can either spend a little extra time and effort now developing a few good habits or a lot more time later doing the same job over and over again.