If you’re a 9-to-5er, you’ll more than likely have developed a pretty monotonous routine when it comes to keeping your apartment neat and tidy. Maybe you’ve got a chore for every day of the week, or maybe you just save it all for the weekend. Either way, you’ll know all too well what a total burden clearing clutter can be, especially in naturally small spaces. Clutter demands your attention, transforming your cleaning rituals from mindless and satisfying chores, into genuinely taxing labour. Clutter just plain complicates things, so it’s best to avoid clutter altogether. But how can we tackle clutter preemptively? Read on to find out.
Let everything have its place
When you’re looking to keep a space clean, it’s best to start by ensuring that the space has been designed with maintaining its own cleanliness in mind. In other words, you need to make sure that everything has its own place. That way, it’s far less likely that you’ll find something to be out of place. Store your coats on a coat rack and get yourself some shoe storage shelves or racks to minimise clothing being flung about the place when you come home from work.
Storage ottomans can also be a fantastic and effortless solution to maintaining tidiness, especially so when it comes to smaller living rooms. There’s no denying that a living or lounge room is likely to be the most clutter-prone room in modern home environments, but this rings especially true to living areas in apartment spaces. Be sure to maximise your available space by investing in some versatile storage options.
Use organisational tools
Continuing on with this idea of versatile or flexible storage, it’s worthwhile looking into any valuable home organisation tools that may aid you in maximising not just your living space, but potentially also your kitchen and bathroom space too. There are some nifty cabinet organisers out there designed specifically for kitchen or bathroom spaces that are guaranteed to be useful in your quest for cleanliness. When used effectively, these organisers will keep your bathroom and kitchen spaces feeling fresh and tidy with minimal effort on your part.
It’s also worth mentioning that pull-out storage and overhead shelving may be superb additions to your apartment’s small kitchen, and may even allow you to boost the functionality of your kitchen space!
Declutter without mercy
It goes without saying that one of the most effective preemptive methods of keeping your apartment clean, is simply taking some time to do a full and thorough decluttering. Go through all your closets, cabinets, storage boxes, and under-the-bed treasure troves to make sure that you’re not holding onto any unnecessary clutter. Make a project out of this process by finding clothes and other items that you may like to donate to your local op shops.
If you’re finding it difficult to let go of things, feel free to take your time with your personal decluttering journey. It can be an adjustment to some, and feeling this process out at your own pace will keep you from experiencing culture shock. Despite it being embraced into pop culture, minimalism can be a deceptively onerous lifestyle to adopt, but only initially. This is mostly because consumer culture is inherently minimalism’s polar opposite. But so long as you declutter a day at a time and respect your own process, you’ll be sure to experience the immense benefits of a minimalist lifestyle gradually and alongside your own progress.~
If you’ve followed this preemptive guide to a tee, you may now be realising that keeping your apartment clean for longer periods of time means developing healthy living habits and reorganising not just your home, but also your mindset when it comes to cleanliness and orderliness. Of course, these habits must be maintained for you to reap the benefits of your new lifestyle in the long term. But as a clutter-free home means a clutter-free mind, maintaining these habits will quite honestly be a piece of cake!
