You come home from a long day’s work, toss your jacket on the kitchen table and set your bag down by the door. Exhausted, you flop on the couch and look around.
All around your home is clutter. Your mail is strewn across your countertop. There is a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. In the very back of your closet is a box that has been sitting there since moving day, and you haven’t had the motivation to unpack it.
You want to be better organised and clean to encourage productivity, but it’s hard to find the motivation, especially when you’re exhausted from working all day. Don’t worry, we’re here to motivate you!
Check out these creative ideas and get motivated to organise.
Browse magazines, blogs and social media
Finding motivation for organising can be difficult so start small. You don’t have to do an overhaul on your house at once. Go from room to room and see how you could better organise your belongings.
The best place to start looking for the inspiration to organise is a blog, a magazine or even Pinterest. By looking at images of clean homes, you might come up with your own ways to organise your home. Get inspired by what other people are writing about or posting. You might not be able to steal all of their ideas, but you could adapt a few.
Pinterest has hundred of great organisational boards from crafty cleaners to professional organisers. See what you can find, and try out some new ideas in your home.
Take a trip to a home goods store
Pictures are worth a 1,000 words, but sometimes seeing is believing. Go after work or on a weekend and explore a home goods store in your area and head straight to the storage section. Imagine what you could do with a few of these items and think how much easier it will be to find your items when you need them.
Here are few items you might consider picking up:
- Long plastic boxes that fit under beds: These are great for hobbies, like scrapbooking, and seasonal clothes, like coats and scarves. The clutter moves out of your closet and into a good place that is out of the way yet reachable.
- Filing cabinets: You should have all of your personal and important documents in one place. Bank account information, car titles and other documents should be easily accessible. You’ll also want to keep track of any prescriptions or health information.
- Wooden shelves with cloth bins: These organisers are excellent for closets and clothes. You can put jeans, t-shirts and other items that don’t need to be ironed in here.
- Shoe racks: Shoe boxes tend to take up a lot of space. For everyday shoes, like thongs or sneakers, you don’t really need a box. Rather than having them pile up by your door, shoes can go in a nice rack so you’ll always know where your favourite pair is.
Turn on a reality show about hoarders
If you’re ever really feeling unmotivated to even pick up after yourself, find a TV series that focuses on hoarders – there are heaps currently airing and uploaded to YouTube. These types of series visit the home of people who are literally buried alive in their own clutter. They’re often holding onto possessions that either have seemingly sentimental value, such as outdated clothing, or they swear will be useful one day, such as old tools or broken appliances.
From TV Howl. Photo: A&E Screaming Flea Productions
Now look around your house and see if you can spot your inner hoarder. Are you holding onto things that you promise you’ll fix one day? Is your linen closet filled with old towels and sheets that you’re saving for company, even though you know you’ll never have more than two houseguests at a time? If so, you might have an easier time motivating yourself if you just get rid of the clutter.
Get a large box and leave it in your bedroom or living room. When you see something you know you don’t need or use, toss it in the box. When it’s full, donate it. You can always set aside some time to go through your home and add to this box, but if you’re just not motivated, leave the box there and add to it over time.
Schedule a party or gathering
When you’re at work, nothing motivates you better than a deadline. When you know you have to have everything done and checked over, you’ll find the energy and focus to complete your task. The same works well for organising.
Plan a party or invite your parents over to stay for a night or a weekend. Knowing that your friends or your mother will see your house so cluttered and unorganised might just be the kick in the pants you need in order to organise your home. Promise to cook or bake something so you’re forced to clean and organise your kitchen.
Schedule your event about one week in advance. This gives you a little wiggle room in case something comes up at work that needs immediate attention. You’ll have plenty of time to organise your party spaces.
Time yourself
The most off-putting thing about organising is that it can often take hours, sometimes even days, to completely organise a room. Don’t let that get to you.
Instead, put aside a short period of time, say 15 or 30 minutes, to organise one place in your home. You might tackle under the kitchen sink or work on cleaning out what’s under your bed. After those 15 or 30 minutes are up, go relax.
You can also time yourself as if you’re in a race. This works especially well for cleaning a room or your house. If you know you have only one hour to complete the job, then you’ll be psyched to beat the clock.
Finding the motivation to get organised can be excruciating, especially when you’re coming home each day exhausted from working. Rather than coming home and immediately sitting on the couch, try to keep yourself moving. Play music when you get home or blast something fun and dance-inducing in the car on your way home. Stop by your favourite coffee bar or drink shop and pick up your favourite beverage or snack. Keep your energy levels up so you don’t feel so drained when you get home.
They say a clean home is happy home, and when you’re motivated to organise your home, you’ll feel the same way.
Fiona Wilson helps people all over Australia to better organise their homes and lives. Working closely with Wardrobe World and GarageSmart, she is incredibly passionate about finding practical lifestyle solutions for her clients.