A cluttered home isn’t only hard to look at; it can also be harmful to your health. One study found that people living in cluttered spaces are more prone to feelings of anxiety and depression.
But how do you know if you’re living in a cluttered home? With that in mind, here are nine signs that it’s time to start decluttering your house.
#1 Things Are Always Missing
If you’re like most people, you spend a considerable amount of time at home. With that in mind, you should easily be able to find most items inside of this space. If this isn’t happening, it might be due to clutter blocking your view and causing distractions.
#2 You Struggle To Close Cabinets and Drawers
Every home has cabinets and drawers. These items help protect and store your belongings. Unfortunately, cabinets and drawers can only hold so many items. If you’re struggling to close your drawers and cabinets, it’s time to declutter them.
#3 The Paper Piles Are Growing Higher
It’s often easy to set aside a few papers, bills, or other documents throughout your home. But, as time goes on, doing this too often creates unsightly clutter. Also, having too many stacks of paper in your home can make it a potential fire hazard.
If you see one (or several) stacks of paper in your home, you have a clutter problem to resolve. To solve this problem, consider buying a letter tray or folders to organize your documents.
#4 You Can’t See Your Flat Surfaces
Most people have at least one cluttered surface in their home. It’s easy to see why flat surfaces like tables and counters are so susceptible to clutter. These surfaces are flat, spacious, and usually within arm’s reach.
To stop clutter from taking over these areas, buy a few large bins for extra storage space. Also, work decluttering your home’s surfaces into a daily cleaning list. Daily cleaning helps prevent clutter from taking over your flat surfaces in the future.
#5 The Dishes Pile Up
Most people don’t jump for joy at the thought of doing a sink full of dishes. Doing the dishes typically means splashing water everywhere and scrapping old food off of dirty plates. However, you can stop dishes from piling up by making them part of your daily cleaning routine.
Another option is to do the dishes after every meal and place them immediately in the dishwasher. After all, your sink can’t fill up with dishes if no one ever puts them there.
#6 Your Kids Are Sliding Down the Laundry Mountain
It’s almost impossible to find a chore more dreaded than doing laundry, especially if you’re doing it for an entire family! Considering that, it’s easy to let the laundry begin piling up.
If you complete a small load of laundry daily, you’ll never have to deal with a mountain of dirty clothes piling up. Also, for multi-people households, consider having each person you live with fold and put up their respective laundry. If you want to get the kids involved, here’s how to motivate your children to help clean the house.
#7 The Car Can’t Enter the Garage
As you continue spending time in your home, it’s easy for the rooms here to lose their intended purposes. The most common way this happens is when people start using their garages as storage spaces. Before long, the garage meant for your car is now packed with clutter.
An excellent tip for decluttering this room is to separate the items in your garage. When you come across something, decide if you want to keep it, sell it, donate it, or throw it away. For more tips on how to declutter this area, visit bintheredumpthatusa.com.
#8 Empty Floor Space Is at a Premium
The floors in your home are popular places for clutter to reside. If your drawers, closets, and shelves are already packed to the brim with items, you might not have any other space besides your floors.
According to a recent article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, cluttered floors in the home is a sign it’s time to get rid of some things. Another option is to buy storage containers and start placing items there instead of on your floors.
#9 Cleaning Takes Too Much Time
Another surefire sign of clutter has to do with how long it takes to clean your home. It typically takes about three hours for one person to clean a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom house. Some people want to knock out all cleaning tasks in one day; other people might have small cleaning sessions throughout the week.
But how long is it taking you to clean your house? Unless you live in a mansion, it shouldn't take more than a few hours to clean your home. If it’s taking an entire day or more to clean your house, you might be dealing with a clutter problem.
In conclusion, almost everyone deals with a cluttered home from time to time. The key to solving this problem is acknowledging the build-up of clutter. Formulate a cleaning plan, and your cluttered home will soon be a thing of the past.