The thought of spring cleaning will either make you vomit or give you a solid dopamine hit. I think pre-lockdown it gave me the former, but since being bored in the house I have fallen in love with all things organisation and order. I think it’s given me a project to keep myself occupied with and has meant that I have edited our spaces to make them comfortable for lockdown and just day to day life. I have collated and written down a few of my top tips to look at when organising your spaces. You don’t have to go hell for leather like I have, you could even just focus on one small space a week, just as you get the hang of it. I found it to be a bit addictive. Once I did one space, I naturally felt I wanted to organise other spaces that flowed into that space. But you do you! I hope this blog helps nonetheless!

Assess your wardrobe continually
Your wardrobes are a great place to start if you are a bit overwhelmed. I find it easy to cull stuff and sort through stuff because you are faced with it every day, so you probably already have a bit of an idea of what to keep or cull. I’m not joking when I say at an absolute minimum, I assess and ‘go through’ my wardrobe every season. I generally stick to a few questions when I’m assessing whether to keep something or not. These include:

• is it still in good condition?
• Does it fit me? (pregnancy aside)
• Do I feel good in this?
• Could someone else benefit from this garment?
• If I saw this in a store, would I buy it?

If I decide it’s still in good condition but I just don’t love it anymore, it goes straight into a donation bag. Some things I just straight up throw, if it’s stretched weirdly or if it’s got holes. But if it’s got more life, pass it forward to someone else or even try selling it if you invested in it.

Create order in your wardrobe cough rainbows cough
A colour coordinated wardrobe creates general effectiveness. I generally think and plan in colour so this strategy works for me. It also makes your wardrobe aesthetically pleasing and less overwhelming, particularly if you’ve got a walk-in. If you are continually taking things out and passing things on, this creates a consistent number of garments to choose from and doesn’t jam pack your storage spaces. By then putting them in colour order (and subcategories of type of garment: dresses together, tops together, knitted items together etc etc) you know where certain garments are quickly. I find it also makes putting washing away easy too. This strategy doesn’t not work for the colour-blind folk like my husband but if you like your storage strategies to be pretty it’s for you!

Kids clothing and toys: declutter and rotate before Christmas!
I like to spend the months of September to December slowly and gradually decluttering in general, but in particular I think it’s extra important to do this for kids stuff. Our babies get so spoilt and receive not only many toys and books for Christmas, but also stacks of clothes that truly do last then the year. I hardly have to buy our kids clothes because our family are A-grade practical gifters. Spend the months leading up to Christmas going through their wardrobe, getting rid of or passing on as many garments as you can, so when your children get their Chrissy haul, there are hangers and spaces for the new clothes to just slot right in. Same goes for books. See if any local primary schools, childcare centres or op shops can take some books off your hands so they can be replaced with updated, age-appropriate books as your kids grow.

Try and cull a few toys in these months as well. It a toy is broken beyond repair just red bin it straight away, but if it has merely been outgrown, put it aside for the op shop, Facebook marketplace, or even place it next to the letterbox for a passer-by to nab. Ideally, you want to enter the Christmas season with room for new things that your kids will inevitably get. If you are unsure whether to cull an item, hold onto it until the new year and reassess.

Give everything a home
Since organizing our house, I have tried really hard to sticking to the mantra of ‘everything has a home’ and ‘don’t put it down, put it away’. After doing this for a while, it does just become habit and creates calm and next to no clutter. We do a big sweep through of the house just before we serve dinner so our night-time routine is as calm as possible (big emphasis on ‘as possible’!) and we aren’t treading all over the daily mess as we try to navigate baths etc. We have a few loose things (a key bowl, notebooks on my desk and our bed side tables have a few bottles of cologne) but pretty much everything else we have put into labelled storage tubs or storage drawers, including toys (loose toys are a bit of an anxiety trigger for me!). Stationery is in a box, medical files are in a box, as well as our jewellery, toiletries, creams, special trinkets and swimming essentials for the kids, just to name a few. It is a bit of an out-of-pocket expense buying storage tubs, but I just keep it simple and try to find value packs. I have found The Reject Shop to be fantastic for storage solutions, but Kmart is also a winner.

Go and watch
All my ideas have derived from a few places that I need to credit. I binged The Home Edit and Marie Kondo: Tidying Up over a few days while I was up nursing all hours of the night and I really liked how simple and effective the organisation process was taught. These were both watched on Netflix but you can also find their handles on Instagram for some quick ideas. I hope this blog can give you some inspiration for your own home organising journey. Once you start you just keep going. Its like a trap. But its worth it and will make your spaces in your home super calm, simplified and a pleasure to live in!