The new year in Dubai can only mean one thing…it’s time for the Dubai Shopping Festival! But before you head out to the shops, take some time to clean out your home. We are all guilty of having ‘junk’ in our homes and we can all benefit from getting rid of all the extra things we have not seen or used in a while.
It’s time to organize your home and make space for all the new things you’re about to bring in!
1. Set De-cluttering Goals
De-cluttering is an immense task! Make it easier by setting yourself goals. This will make you feel less irritated as you tackle the mess. Try making a list of the rooms you want to organize and clean them one at a time. Give each room a rating based on how much clutter there is and then decide how long you want to spend cleaning it up. Dedicate about to 2-3 hours to cleaning each space, more time than this will make most of us frustrated!
2. Organize the Easy Stuff First
Tackling the easy stuff first will give you the courage to begin organizing the more challenging rooms in your home. We believe the kitchen is a good place to start when you’re de-cluttering. Get rid of all those old plastic containers, the ketchup and mayonnaise sachets! Throwing away old food, pots and pans is much easier than throwing away precious clothing. While you’re at it, why not read our tips on how to create more space in your kitchen.
3. Fill Up the Garbage Bags
The easiest way to get rid of the clutter in your house is to start filling up the bin bags. Open up your drawers and see how fast you can fill the bag with all the rubbish you have accumulated over time. Get rid of all the broken sunglasses, chargers and remote controls, magazines, scraps of paper, old keys, lamps that don’t work, the promotional bags and the make-up you never use and so on…Then throw away all the bags immediately so you can finish the process!
4. Be Generous
Do your good deed of the day and de-clutter your home at the same time. Make it a point to give away an item a day. Donate your old clothes, scarves, shoes, toys, books and linen to charity. You can even set yourself the target of giving away one thing for each new item you buy.
5. Not Sure What to Throw Away?
Oprah Winfrey has a useful tip to help decide which clothing items you need to discard and which you need to keep. The trick is to hang all your clothes with the hangers facing one direction. After you wear the item, hang it back up in the reverse direction. After a couple of months you will know which items you can throw away and which should be retained. The same trick can be used to clean various other things in your home such as toys and linens.
We also have more tips for those of you who are keen to organize your closest.
6. Box It Up
Once you begin the process of decluttering you will realise having a sorting system helps quicken the process. Place four boxes in each room you go into, label them; ‘Trash’, ‘Give Away’, ‘Keep’ and ‘Relocate’. Every item in the room should be placed into one of these four boxes and nothing should be ignored. Though this might be time consuming it will ensure that all the clutter is dealt with in an effective manner.
These tips are guaranteed to make the process of organizing your home much easier allowing you to take full advantage of the Dubai Shopping Festival without feeling guilty!
And if it all gets too much and you need a hand to help you out, we’re just a click away!
Happy Decluttering!
