Mind-Blowing Home Decluttering & Organizing Tips for Busy Parents

If you constantly feel like you could use a few more hours every day, chances are high that you finish every day thoroughly exhausted. When you lack the time, like all busy parents do, some areas of your life can suffer. Most of the time, the most chaotic area in every busy parent's life is their home. There are too many things to handle simultaneously, so not everything can be a priority. However, there are ways to turn chaos into order, declutter your home and organise it better. Even on your busiest day, your home can look orderly and be the source of peace for a change.

Priorities first

Before you embark on an organising and decluttering frenzy, take a step back to plan your priorities first. When you’re already too busy, the only thing that will help you keep your proverbial head above the water is a list of priorities. From having clear daily priorities, you must create a list of your organisational goals. Not all are equally urgent and important, like reorganising the kitchen pantry in comparison to sorting seasonal clothes to make room for the needed pieces of clothing. Write everything you want to do, mark each based on urgency and start dealing with the ones with the highest mark.

Perfect everyday routines

The key to order is having routines. This can apply to practically every area of your life, from free time to time at work to time spent with kids, especially when creating order in your home. These routines can be divided into morning and evening outlines, daily non-negotiable ones, weekly, monthly and seasonal. Each one should not be a burden and energy drainer but should help create more order. For example, the everyday routine can be unloading the washing machine once it finishes or folding the laundry immediately after it dries.

Strategic decluttering

Decluttering is best done room by room. If you view your belongings as a whole, you might over-declutter or underdo it. But, if you critically analyse your living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and kids room, storage areas, containers and boxes, you’ll know what is ruining the area and contributing to clutter.

The most common decluttering strategy is to order things in three groups. There will be things that won’t serve anyone, so you should discard them appropriately. There are those you can give, donate or sell. The last one is the pile of things you will keep.

Master the laundry routine

When a house is full and at least one child in the picture, there will be one or two machines to wash daily. If the laundry pile feels never-ending, it’s time to bring in a laundry schedule. You should create a schedule and set a phone reminder to ensure it’s being followed. Figure out on which days you have more time at home and wash several machines on those days. Since some items must be air dried, ensure you get marine-grade clothes pegs like those by Clothes Pegsale, which can withstand different weather conditions. You won’t have to search for clothes pegs every time,  so you’ll save time when hanging the clothes to dry.

Find the right storage solutions

Most of the time, the home feels like a complete mess because there’s a lack of organisation. The key to better organisation is having the right storage type figured out. Things must be stored away, whether on the right spot on the shelf, folded or organised in boxes. When you fail to store things, put them away and organise them, you create the basis for clutter.

Invest in different storage solutions to store things neatly on a shelf, create closed storage for an open shelf and easily dedicate space for different things.

Use labels

Labels are necessary for your new storage system. You can get boxes of different sizes, store them neatly, and fill them with clothes, toys, books or other tools. But if you don’t label them, you won’t know how to find things or where to put back a particular thing.

Buy a lot of self-adhesive labels and use them everywhere, from storage room, and shelves in your wardrobe to kitchen items.

Optimise kitchen for ease of use

 A kitchen that is organised is the one where you can be efficient. If you spend time finding a lid for the pan every time you’re cooking something, you’re wasting precious time. Especially when you have to make several snacks a day for the little ones, prepare lunchboxes and respond to their every whim, you can get lost in your kitchen. Dedicate a theme to each shelf: one for plates, one for pots and pans, one for plastic and glass storage containers, etc. Next, use hooks, open shelves for condiments and baskets for kitchen tools and utensils for a clutter-free and organised kitchen.

Dedicate an area for play

Kids can hardly be steady and sit in one place, which is the main reason your house is a mess. The answer to this challenge is to dedicate an area for play only. Store kid's toys in boxes or baskets and teach them to store them away after playing. Add in a small kids' table they can use to draw, craft things and play while sitting down. This will help you keep children's toys at bay and allow them to use their area for play as creatively and freely as possible.

Centralised message board

Every routine, schedule, plan, and to-do list should be on a centralised message board. For example, the fridge door can be a so-called family command centre. This is probably the most frequented appliance in every home, so kids won’t be able to use the excuse “but I forgot”. Explain how you expect your family members to use the message board and their daily and weekly house responsibilities.

..or go digital

You can also do the same by creating a shared family calendar with scheduled duties and responsibilities. You can also use tools to delegate responsibilities and have your children reminded by their phones that it’s time for them to unload the dishwasher.

You can also rely on apps to bring order in your overwhelming and chaotic days. You can stay organised even when you feel like any sense of order or a routine is impossible.

Lastly, learn how to delegate. This can mean to have every family member included in house chores or to include a professional like a maid to help you.