With the economic times probably playing heavily into their decision making the home owner of today is downsizing. According to an article written by Maggie Sieger “Living Big in a Small Home” Americans are taking a break from upsizing and are enjoying the benefits of more modest living spaces. She goes on to say that the average square footage of a home in 2009 decreased slightly from 2215 square feet from the year before of 2277 square feet as reported by the U.S.Census Bureau.
This may not sound like much but take into account all the “stuff” occupying those 62 sq feet. What do you do with it? This is the burning question racking my brain. How do you put all the items we constantly accumulate into a smaller package?
I know I am constantly fighting and mostly losing the battle to the clutter that mysteriously accumulates on a daily basis.
I have found some very helpful articles on how to organize and de-clutter my home and have decided that I am going to commit to putting a plan in place and sticking to it. I have a smaller home and enjoy the coziness and closeness I am allowed with my family but I would love to better utilize the smaller spaces that I have. Today is Day 1 of De-cluttering 101. Anyone else care to join me? If so then the following articles will be quite useful in getting you heading in the right direction..
Instructions for Decluttering Your Home (in less than 500 words)
Declutter Your Home in 8 Easy-to-Follow Steps
Conquering Clutter- The 4 Container Method
And my personal favorite…Simple Stress-Free System to Unclutter Your Home... and Keep It That Way
I’m all for simple and stress free so you know which system I will be trying to tackle in the next few days. Perhaps you have some tips of your own you might like to share. Your comments and helpful hints would be most welcome!If you or anyone you know is looking to purchase a new home whether to downsize or upgrade you can now search All Homes in New Hampshire on my NEW website HomesofSouthernNH.com
Technorati Tags: homes,clutter,declutter,small spaces,downsizing,organize,living space,square footage
After reading these articles I found one idea to offer some hope on the issue of getting the other family members to pitch in with keeping the home decluttered. Donna Smallin suggests enforcing what she calls and I quote:
ReplyDelete"Follow the anticlutter ground rule -- whoever makes a mess is responsible for cleaning it up. Every family member has to clean his/her bedroom and leave the bathroom and kitchen the way he found them.
If family members leave things where they don’t belong, put the items in a plastic bag in the garage. When the kids ask for their stuff, they can do an extra chore to earn it back. If they don’t care enough to work, give the stuff away."
I am going to actually print this Rule out and paste it to the refrigerator so I can at least say they've been warned! :)
I loved the part where you say getting the family invoved As the saying goes IT TAKES A VILLAGE well I say IT TAKES A FAMILY
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