News You Can Use

‘De-clutter’ your house and keep it that way

University Relations
News Bureau (662) 325-3442
Contact: Pam McTeer
May 11, 2005

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Is the homeplace piled high with useless clutter—old magazines, items of clothing and the like?

Cleaning a cluttered home can be exhausting, but “de-cluttering” should be considered more than a cleaning process. According to Robin Carroll, an interior design instructor at Mississippi State University, it can become a lifestyle.

“We all seem to be on the go and never have the time to keep our homes clean, but a home that is uncluttered is much, much easier to keep clean,” Carroll says.

For a start, she recommends ridding the interior spaces of those things that haven’t been used in the past year—or even the past six months. Don’t throw everything away, however, because, “You need a few things to personalize your home.”

Carroll provides several tips for achieving and maintaining a clean and orderly abode:

—First, take time to consider your taste, style and the home atmosphere you wish to create, then set goals to create them;

—Give additional consideration to the purpose of each room and which items they should contain to be most convenient;

—Keep windowsills free of clutter and minimize the number of items on kitchen counters;

—To better utilize space, use hooks to hold smaller items, boxes to organize stored items and pictures, and baskets to hold magazines or compact discs.

—Add shelves to keep books off the floor and for additional storage.

Once the clean-home routine is under way, Carroll says it’s important to keep the momentum going. Procrastination or lapses only mean a return to clutter and a potentially bigger to-do list in the long run.

Finally, she urges making the organization—or, more precisely, reorganization—effort a family or group affair by insisting that each member participate.