Life-Changing Decluttering Hacks for Moms
Believe me when I say – Developing a decluttering habit can make your life a lot easier!!
I know you love clean and organized homes! And you want yours to be just like one – well organized, clean & tidy home! Ah, what a sight!!
But do you find it difficult to keep up with cleaning all the clutter and mess surrounding you every day?
Whenever you finally get some free time from your kids, do you spent most of that time on clearing the floors and organizing your home? And never get enough time to spend on those things that you want to do the most!
Then you must develop a decluttering habit!! This means you do a little decluttering every day. And you’ll be surprised at the results because this habit will not only help you in keeping your home tidy in a mere 15 -30 minutes but also it’ll save you some time which you can spend on the things that matter more to you!
It’s not that hard you know. When you start to give 15 mins of your day, every day, to do a little decluttering then it becomes more easy for you to keep your home tidy in literally no time!!
So, let’s see how to build a decluttering habit.
I recently read a book called ‘ The power of habit: why we do what we do and how to change’, the writer writes about the importance and power of habits in our life. Habits are really powerful. When an action becomes a habit of yours you do it on autopilot! You don’t have to think about it anymore, you simply do it without even knowing! And it saves time for you and also your energy!! And we mom need these both things more than anyone else!
Once the 15-minute decluttering session becomes your habit, you’ll start doing it automatically and save both your time and energy!!
So the first thing you need to do to develop this habit is-
#1. Set a time span for decluttering session
Pick a time when you can give 15 -30 minutes to declutter. It can be early in the morning before everyone gets up or at night after your kids go to sleep or maybe in the afternoon when your kids take their nap. Any time that works for you and gives you a span of 15-30 uninterrupted minutes, choose that time and do some decluttering at that same time every day!
It’s important to do it at the same time regularly to make it a habit. If you do the 15 minutes cleaning session every day at the same time then soon you’ll find yourself doing the exact thing at that exact time without even thinking about it!! It becomes your habit!
So pick a time suitable for you to do this session and do it intentionally at that time regularly.
You can pick a time that can work for you by using the following strategies :
Plan your day
Plan your day to see when can you have free time to do the decluttering session. Planning helps us in lot many ways. It reduces the overwhelm we mostly feel when there is a lot to do and that’s kind of everyday case for we moms!
We have many to do things pending on and it seems like we don’t have enough time to finish them up while looking after our kids! But you can find that time to do the most important things by planning out your day. You can prioritize your tasks for the day and include the 15-30 minutes decluttering session in your day at a particular time.
If you don’t know where to start when it comes to planning your day then you can try this strategy of mine to plan the day as a stay at home mom!
Use an established habit to trigger decluttering
In the book ” The power of habit: why we do what we do and how to change”, the author explains how habits are formed and how it affects us in many ways when we form a habit.
The most simple way to establish a new habit is to link it with one of your already established habits. The already established habit acts as a trigger to do what you want to do as your new habit.
In our case, for example, link your decluttering session to one of the task you do every day, like early in the morning after brushing your teeth, go and clean up the clutter for 15 minutes or maybe at night after dinner when your kids are playing with your husband or doing their homework you can do the decluttering for those 15-30 minutes! You get it!
When you do the cleaning sessions every day after that particular task, then whenever you do that task, say brush your teeth or finish your dinner, you’ll automatically get reminded of the decluttering you need to perform as your next task!!
So plan your day and pick a time considering an already established habit of yours and link your decluttering session to that habit. And soon you’ll be developing the decluttering habit for your own convenience.
#2. Take it slow, mom!
Decluttering can be overwhelming, especially for we moms. So take it slow!
Don’t overload yourself. As a mom, it’s really difficult to find time for the things that we want to do and even if you get that much time don’t burn yourself out with a lot of work. We need to save our energy so that we can look after our kids with a peaceful mind!
So, moms take it slow. Once you’ve decided about the time you’re going to pick for the cleaning sessions then remind yourself that you don’t have to do it all at once! Start with a drawer at a time maybe. Go through the contents of the drawer and get rid of the unnecessary stuff, arrange the drawer and that’s it for the day!
Don’t rush to do it all in one day or every day. Start slow, do a little every day and you’ll see that you are making progress!! You have little kids to take care of and you also need to take care of yourself, so don’t burn out your energy, friend. Just do the daily cleaning sessions and if still there is time left then go for a drawer to declutter.
One of the best things to do when you don’t want to overload yourself and take a baby step to develop the decluttering habit is –
Add quick cleaning sessions to your daily routine
Add the quick cleaning sessions to the time you picked as your decluttering time and do some decluttering along with the cleaning!!
In your quick cleaning session, you quickly go through the rooms of your home and clean whatever clutter or mess is there. For example, in the living room, you quickly pick up anything lying on the floor or on the couch and put it back to it’s ‘home’, then arrange the cushions on the couch and quickly clean the surface tops of the TV unit or glass tops of the tea table. Like this, you cover rooms and do the cleaning, put the toys of your kids back to their places and clean the countertops of your kitchen!!
While cleaning the rooms, if you find something is broken or an ingredient is expired or if you realize that the toy you just picked up from the floor is the one your kid has lost interest in and doesn’t play with it much now a days, then you can put these unnecessary things away and get rid of it!! See? you just decluttered your home while cleaning! And believe me, it can be done within 30 minutes!
And even you don’t manage to do it all in 30 minutes or the time you’ve given to yourself, then don’t stress over it. Do what is doable for you, and once it becomes your habit you’ll start doing faster than before. You’ll see the changes yourself!
#3. Do it for at least 30 days
Some say it takes 21 days to establish a habit, others say it takes 61 days to do that. So let’s draw a middle point here without any argument. Do your daily decluttering routine at the same time you’ve picked to do, every single day for at least 30 days.
You have to be intentional about it and determined to do it at the exact same time, after one of the already developed habits, EVERY DAY, for 30 days. Stay focused on it and soon you’ll find that you are doing it on autopilot.
After 30 days you won’t have to remind yourself to do this routine and you’ll do it automatically after your trigger habit- the habit to which you’ve linked your cleaning sessions! And you’ll surely develop the decluttering habit!!
Do it consistently, don’t miss out a single day for 30 days. You can use a habit tracker to make it easy for you and to see your progress.
#4. Accountability always makes it happen
When it comes to doing something consistently, we tend to avoid it after some time, Maybe you try to procrastinate things, or maybe sometimes you don’t feel motivated enough to do that thing for a long time. And here you need to do the exact same thing at exact same time for long 30 days!! It can get boring!! I know that I’ve been there more times than you can think!!
But when we want to develop a new habit which is going to make our life easy and convenient, then we should try our best to do it. We need to try every way to stay on the path and accomplish the task. And accountability is one of the best ways to stay focused and get it done when we are not feeling like doing it!!
Believe me when you announce it to someone that you’re going to do this cleaning session for 15 minutes daily for 30 days and give permission to that someone to ask you about your progress then you feel more compiled to do those cleaning sessions.
Studies have shown that when you put out there to the world about doing something then you do it most of the time and achieve your goal with a feeling of accomplishment!
So create accountability, tell your friend or neighbor, or maybe even put it on your social media as a challenge and you’ll find yourself doing it before you know it!! When you’re held accountable, when there is someone who’s gonna ask you questions about your task and progress then you tend to take it more seriously and more committed to doing your task!! Try it out and you won’t be disappointed, I promise!!
So, are you ready to start developing the decluttering habit to make your life easier?
Here is a recap of all the points listed above, as the post is quite long and you might miss one of them
- Set a time span
- Plan your day
- -Use an established habit to trigger decluttering
- Take it slow
- Add quick cleaning sessions to your daily routine
- Do this decluttering session every day for at least 30 days
- Create accountability
So here you go moms, try out these strategies and develop a decluttering habit to make your life easier and enjoy a clean and tidy home everyday!