5 New Year's tips to help organise your home in 2022
1. Organise & declutter the junk drawer
Contrary to popular belief, I love junk drawers, and think every home should have one, provided it is used properly!
New Year’s is a good time to stop putting off the dreaded task of sorting through the junk drawer. Often the catchall for the entire house, the junk drawer can quickly go from tidy to messy in a matter of weeks. Fortunately, I have a few easy steps you can take to turn it back into an organised, decluttered drawer in no time.
Start by emptying all the contents of the drawer into a big pile.
Any rubbish can go straight into the bin (Old receipts, broken pens)
Sort all items into like with like piles, e.g. pegs, rubber bands, paper clips.
Reduce the amount of each of these items so it is more manageable. Excess stationery could be returned to an existing stationery area in your home (But of course keep a few pens in the drawer for emergencies.
Lastly, if you have any small boxes or dividers these can be installed to help separate items.
2. Organise the linen closet
All too often linen cupboards can become a game of “Guess the sheet”, or “Find the matching pillowcase in 5 minutes or less”. If you are tired of these games, here are a few simple quick fixes to help you declutter and organise your linen cupboard.
Consider exactly how many towels you need. As a rule, I suggest 2 per person, 1 beach towel per person (If you are beach people!) & 2 spares for guests, or mopping up spills on the floor.
To make life easier, store all sheets with their buddies tucked away nicely in the matching pillowcase. I suggest 2 sets of sheets for your regularly used beds and one set for the guest bed.
Tea towels. We all know someone who loves novelty tea towels, great, how cute. But, do are they used regularly? do you really need all of them? Consider choosing your best 8 tea towels, and donating the rest.
3. Tidy away toys
The crazy Christmas season is finally over and despite the pre Christmas declutter many of us tend to undertake, you are now faced with all the extra toys that arrived at Christmas. If you’re trying to maintain a clean, organised look in your lounge and minimise constantly tripping over toys, these simple tips should help:
Consider a toy storage area. This can be really simple cube storage with colorful tubs and minimal labels. Keep it simple. Children will eventually learn that the tubs are where the toys belong.
Consider a longer-term toy storage area for rotating toys. If you don’t already do this, I suggest you give it a go. Simply put, choose toys that not played with often and store them away in the cupboard. From time to time you can swap them out with other toys. Eventually, you will get a sense for the toys that are no longer reached for and can be donated.
4. Clear out and organise your pantry
The new year is a great time to clear out the pantry. Christmas often sees us fill our pantries with obscure condiments and cans only used once a year for Christmas lunch. The New Year is not the time to be hoarding half-opened jars of cranberry sauce or mincemeat so use it up now or toss it. I suggest checking all items in the pantry for expiry dates, anything expired should be thrown out. Non-perishables that are still in date and you don’t plan on using can be donated to your local food bank.
Once you are certain all items in your pantry are not expired, you can begin decanting into containers and storing like with like. A tidy, organised pantry will help you see exactly what you have and make mealtimes easier. To see photos of kitchens I have helped organise, head to my testimonials page.
5. Label spice jars
Spices are a necessary evil for cooking even the simplest of meals. However, they can quickly take over your pantry if not organised well! When your spice jars start to extend beyond your simple wire rack, it’s time to take your jar organization to the next level.
When spices are in uniform jars and labelled well they can be easily grabbed in a hurry. Store your spice jars on easy-to-reach shelves, or even a spice drawer with labels on the lids so you can locate them quickly while cooking.
A huge part of my pantry organising service involves labeling spice jars on the job as I go. However, your labels don’t need to be fancy or expensive, they just need to make sense to you.
Remember the most important thing – you are doing these small things to clear your head and feel better about the space. If you want someone to help you organise your home, then I am the lady for the job. With an absolute passion for tidying, organising and making spaces functional, I started Tidy Life Solutions. I specialise in helping you declutter and organise your home to make it as functional and useable as possible. I offer a free in-home consultation throughout Wellington.
