During the first several weeks of lockdown, most of us just dealt with the extra stuff laying around the house. Home offices overtook the dining room table, and online schooling requires other spaces to be used. We assumed that at some point things would return to semi-normal. But it’s rather clear that those days aren’t around the corner. With many employees preferring to work at home, a dedicated home office space is needed long-term. And with questions about COVID-19 and the fall semester, a better school strategy is going to be important. Somehow, you’re going to need to address the clutter in your home.
Keeping you home clean during COVID is quite the challenge. Clutter in your home has likely accumulated for a number of reasons. For one, there’s more people in the house for more hours out of the day. In other words, your home’s population density has increased. Likewise, your home is being used for a greater number of activities. In addition to meals, sleeping and TV-watching, it’s now become a place for education, work, and videoconferencing. Understanding these demands are not likely to change, you’re going to need a plan for keeping your home clean. And the following are some key suggestions to help you do just that.
(To read more about how some have turned challenges into inspirational stories of success, check out Ed Kopko’s book, PROJECT BOLD LIFE: The Proven Formula to Take on Challenges and Achieve Happiness and Success.)
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Everything Needs a Designated Place
When COVID first started, you probably never imagined you would have a pile of face coverings on your entryway table. You also didn’t realize your kids’ art projects, school workbooks, and devices would be scattered all about. But now it’s evident we’re in this for a longer period of time. Thus, a key to keeping your home clean is making sure everything has a designated place where it’s kept. If something is no longer being used, then it needs to be put away. Getting everyone in this habit can go a long way in reducing the clutter in your home.
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De-Clutter on a Regular Basis
Of course, finding a designated place for the clutter in your home might be difficult. In order to make room, you may need to get rid of some items you no longer need. With this in mind, it’s important to de-clutter your home on a regular basis. Most experts recommend doing this once every 3 months. But you may also want to de-clutter on a smaller scale when drawers become too full. This can help you in keeping your home clean by routinely ensuring you have space to put everything away. And it offers you a chance to donate items to others by embracing a more minimalistic lifestyle.
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Have Some Quick “Pack-Up” Solutions
This is an excellent strategy to help you manage the clutter in your home. Many people now find that they have to use the dining room table for their home office. Likewise, other locations in the house might serve as study tables or conferencing sites. This can naturally make your house seem disorganized and interfere with other activities. Therefore, consider having a box where office, school, art of other activity supplies can be rapidly packed up. This keeps everything organized yet out of the way when it’s not being used. And by assigning a designated place for your “pack-up box,” you’ll still succeed in keeping your home clean.
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Distribute the Tasks
Understandably, this may be easier said than done. But it’s important to elicit everyone’s help in keeping your home clean. By assigning everyone a specific set of tasks, it’s naturally easier to prevent clutter in your home from piling up. With more of your family at home more hours out of the day, it becomes essential to recruit everyone’s help. And if this simply isn’t feasible, consider hiring some housekeeping help periodically. Though this needs to be weighed with safety concerns, this may be your best option.
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Consider Storage Solutions
For some, there is only so much space in the house for additional items and activities. In these situations, it might be worthwhile exploring storage solutions that better organize your household items. If de-cluttering and assigning places for items isn’t working, then it might be time to get creative. A variety of storage solutions now exist that can help you in keeping your home clean. Rather than having clutter in your home laying around, these products provide great solutions for better organization.
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Create Clutter-free Safe Havens
The best plans often fall short, even when the above strategies are executed well. Some clutter in your home will likely persist even though it will be reduced. For this reason, it’s important to designate one area of your home that’s a “clutter-free” zone at all times. While keeping your home clean in its entirety may be overwhelming, a single room should not be. And this offers you a place of escape from the rest of the clutter in your home. If nothing else, this provides a sense of control and a safe haven where you can always go to relax.
Keeping Your Home Clean Is Important
Given that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, good hygiene is important no matter what. But keeping your home clean is essential in promoting positive mental health. When your home is organized and tidy, you receive positive feedback from your surroundings. This feedback is empowering, and it provides you with a sense of control and accomplishment. This is particularly important during these times of COVID when mental resilience is needed.
If you’re experiencing COVID clutter in your home, don’t feel bad. You’re certainly not alone. Each of us are trying to deal with new situations we are encountering on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. As a result, a bit of messiness is to be expected. But with the above strategies, keeping you home clean can be better achieved. In the process, you’ll not only benefit from a more organized place to live. You’ll also be better able to accomplish other goals in your life. By taking care of the clutter in your home, you’re certain to have a more positive outlook on life.
