Local Life - Wigan - June 2019

28
Conquer the Clutter
One of the keys to a
beautiful home is seamless
storage and organisation,
ensuring that everything
has a place, and that
everyone knows how the
home operates.
Let’s face it, there’s nothing
worse than spending time
and money styling up
your home to find that on
a practical level it doesn’t
work because you haven’t
thought through where
your day to day ‘stuff’
should live.
But fear not! Here are some tips to get your home
functioning beautifully and with great style.
Declutter - Imagine you are about to move house.
(It’s good to get into this mindset because it helps
you to be really ruthless). Tackle one part of a
room at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. Go
through your belongings and think about whether
you really, really need the ‘thing’. Creating three
piles - keep, bin and charity - quickly filters your
belongings and reduces to a manageable amount.
Act on the declutter - It’s really easy, once you’ve
gone through the above exercise, to leave the bin
bags or boxes in a bit pile in the hallway and then
not quite get round to moving them. Do this part
immediately otherwise before you know it, those
ruthless decisions you made earlier will be undone
and you’ll find yourself pulling bits out of the bags
as you slowly change your mind.
Storage - Now comes the fun part. Assess what
things you’re left with and take a look at their
purpose. Do you actually need a kitchen drawer
full of screwdrivers and string, or are those things
better off in the garage so that you can use your
kitchen drawer for teatowels and herbs? Treat
yourself to new storage solutions. Do a stocktake
of what you have to store before you leave. Make
sure you measure the dimensions of shelving or
cupboards first and always buy more containers or
baskets than you think you’re going to need. Even if
you don’t fill them immediately it’ll save a trip back
to the shop when you do need them (or worse, find
that you can’t get matching items when you need
them).
Set up a family command centre - This doesn’t
have to be as scary as it sounds. A console table
in the hallway is perfect for this. You can store
keys in small drawers, hang family planners on the
wall to keep everyone on track and use the space
underneath for slippers or shoes to ensure the
hallway stays tidy. You can have a post tray here,
and baskets to pop bits in like lunchboxes or sports
kit to go in/out of the house.