How To Clean A Messy House Or Apartment

Whether you're cleaning a messy room, an overstuffed closet or your entire house, the process of clearing clutter isn't easy. In fact, many of us could be card carrying members of clutter anonymous.

If clutter is taking over your comfortable living space, it's time you made the decision to take action to get rid of your clutter once and for all.

Planning to Get Rid of Clutter

Break your huge clutter cleaning task into manageable chunks. A lot of the planning will go into deciding what valuable items you simply "must" keep and what you can let go.

Get three empty cardboard boxes and designate one for the items you are keeping. The second one is for items you maybe want to get rid of, and the third is for items you are definitely tossing out. Keep in mind that the maybe box is just temporary. You'll have to make a decision about whether you will ultimately find a place for these items or part with them forever.

You should keep important papers such as income taxes, child support, alimony, and work related benefits indefinitely-in case you need them in the future. A file cabinet is a good way to keep these papers secure and organized.

Let go of clutter

An important step in letting go of your clutter is deciding to throw out that stuff you've been holding onto for various reasons that you no longer use or need. This is not always as easy as it seems. Often times you may be holding onto clutter for emotional reasons. Some of this stuff makes you feel nostalgic, or another popular reason is the classic "I may need it some day."

Alas, realize that it's time to let this stuff go. Plan a garage sale or call a charity to pick up the items that can be donated (Note: some charities may request that you deliver charitable goods to them).

Bag the rest for your local trash collector. If you don't have curb side collection, put the bagged items into your car and take them to your local garbage dump on your next trip.

Storing Clutter

If you are ready to clean out a messy closet to make way for the new season, you'll want to use storage boxes, bins or bags to store seasonal clothing. If you get into the habit of doing this, you'll have much more space in your closet for each season's wardrobe.

Lateral file cabinets are versatile and use up less wall space.

An often overlooked space for storage is above and below the countertop area.

A storage shed can be used for storing tools, keepsakes, and anything you wish to keep but can't store inside your home. You also have the option of renting space from a storage facility for a monthly rental fee.

When you're organizing, always keep items that are alike together whether on a shelf, in drawers or in any other type of storage you're using.

Conquer your clutter

How much time and energy are you willing to commit to conquering your clutter problem?

Your level of commitment will determine how fast you can turn your cluttered home into a beautiful home that will make you proud.

To keep yourself motivated, set a timer and work on cleaning out the clutter until the timer goes off. You can set the timer for fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or sixty minutes.

Remember, your messy home isn't going to clean itself no matter how much you wish, hope, pray, or avoid getting organized. Try giving yourself an incentive every time you complete a clutter busting goal. The reward should be something extra special. Knowing there's a reward at the end makes your goal of cleaning up your messy clutter easier to achieve.