Optimizing your home can be a daunting task, but it certainly doesn't have to be! By making a few changes to the way you store and use items in your home, you can create a more functional and inviting space with everything in its right place.
Organizing your home more efficiently can also help you realize what spaces in the home might be underutilized or filled out inefficiently. This can help you understand what areas could be renovated or reconfigured to make your home more practical, more useful, and most importantly, a home you want to live in!
Alright, let’s explore some of the key elements of conserving space and organization improvements. Hopefully, you’ll gain the inspiration you need to optimize your own home!
Streamlining Your Home
It’s important to find the balance that you're comfortable with between making your home look aesthetically pleasing and also being functional and well-distributed. What this means is assessing the layout of furniture and other possessions and asking yourself a few questions:
What do I actually need?
What do I actually use?
What is redundant?
What is taking up more space than necessary?
The first step in organizing is being willing to throw away, give away, or donate items or furniture that’s not serving you.
In the famous words of Marie Kondo, “The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item in one’s hand and ask: ‘Does this spark joy?’ If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.”
One way to start is by organizing your seasonal items. Whether it's holiday decor or seasonal clothing, it's important to store these items properly to prevent damage or decay over time.
Dedicating space in an attic or unused wing of the house can be the ideal place for storing these types of items. Just be sure to secure them in air-tight bins so that moisture, humidity, rodents, or insects don’t harm them.
Speaking of air-tight bins, there are hundreds of viable storage solutions out there, but there’s usually a best use case for every one of them. In the context of home organization, try looking for containers that will help you store things in concealed areas, like clothing storage beneath the bed or closet door hanger organizers.
Renovations at Any Time
Another way to improve the organization and flow of your home is through home renovations. These can range from small updates to major remodels and can be done at any time of year. Maybe you’ve been wanting to add an addition to the house or subdivide the master bedroom into two smaller rooms.
It's important to plan your renovation carefully to ensure that it is done in a way that works best for your home, is financially viable, and doesn’t obstruct you from necessary features of the home, like a bathroom or refrigerator. Begin by considering factors such as weather, your budget, and the purpose of the renovation before beginning any work.
Let’s take a brief look at each season and what kind of projects are best for each season.
● Spring renovations - the most ideal renovations to tackle in the spring would be indoor projects on account of how the time of year can be very wet and cold. It’s also worth noting that since it’s the beginning of the year in spring, material costs tend to go up since demand is usually higher.
● Summer renovations - In most regions, summertime brings the calmest and most predictable weather, making it ideal for outdoor projects. Sure, you can get the occasional rainy summer day, but for the most part, it’s the opportune time of year for outdoor renovations. Just be mindful that contractors will be swamped since it’s typically the busiest time of year for them. Therefore, timely summer projects should be planned out far in advance.
● Fall renovations - Fall can have its advantages in certain regions where summer temperatures are too hot for comfort. Drops in temperatures can make outdoor renovations more palatable, but there’s still the chance for cold rain, which can turn an outdoor project into something unpleasant. Thankfully, fall is a calmer time of year when material costs for projects tend to start declining. It could just be the perfect time of year to plan a project for the sake of affordability and ease of work.
● Winter renovations - And then we reach winter. Winter is probably the most challenging time of year to conduct a renovation, being that many areas will experience bitterly cold temperatures. However, material costs will likely reach their lowest points each year, making it an ideal time to buy. You might opt for simpler indoor projects to take on in the winter, reserving larger projects for any other season. However, if you have storage space, like a vacant spot in a garage or shed, you might want to grab the materials you’ll need for your planned future project while costs are lower.
Mental Health, Clarity, and Calm Through Better Home Organization
It’s no secret that a cleaner, clutter-free home allows for a calmer mind. This is definitely the case for individuals who are neurodivergent and whose trains of thought might be frequently interrupted by stimuli like clutter, fluorescent colors, excessive wall fixtures, and even dirt or dust.
A controlled environment that has a lower density of sensory stimuli can help people with ADHD, autism, and other neurodiverse conditions maintain calmness and avoid anxiety within their normal routines.
Beyond that, a properly organized home can help you save the time you would have spent to find things amid a cluttered mess. It can give you clarity of mind in knowing where things are located around the house. And it can even promote more restful sleep!
It Doesn’t Take Much
Organizing your home doesn’t have to be an ordeal. A few simple tweaks can open up space, help you know where to find things better, and create a happier daily life for you and your family!
Need help? Check out our home organization services.