Transform your home this Autumn with these quick and easy decluttering tips, perfect for busy families looking to create a calm and cosy space for the colder months ahead!
As the leaves are starting to turn golden and the weather becomes wetter here in the UK, your family will start to spend more time cosying up inside. Autumn is the perfect time to refresh and reorganise your home to ensure that it continues to work for your family over the coming months. For busy families, finding the time to declutter can feel overwhelming. But with a few practical tips, you can transform your living space into a cosy, clutter-free haven. In this blog, I’ll share eight simple and effective decluttering tasks that you can fit into your today-to-day life. You can create a warm and inviting home just in time for the colder months.
It can feel overwhelming when you feel that you have so much to tackle so let’s break down your decluttering efforts into small tasks that you can tackle one step at a time.
9 Practical Tips for Busy Families
1. Start with the Hallway
- Create convenient homes for heavier coats, boots and umbrellas. Put away light jackets and summer shoes to make space for winter wear
- Use containers or hang tote bags for easy storage of hats, gloves, and scarves in the entrance of your home so that they are easily available when you leave the house
2. Kitchen Clear-Out
- Work your way around your kitchen cupboards. Remove any expired foods or ingredients you no longer use. Dig out any appliances that you no longer use and donate
- Organise items that you commonly use together to that they are easily at hand (such as baking ingredients) and consider meal planning to use up short-date items and reduce waste over the longer-term
3. Seasonal Wardrobe Swaps
- Pack away Summer clothes and bring out Autumn and Winter wear. Your wardrobe can be a great place to start because you can easily identify those items that you won’t wear over the coming months and put them to one side or pack them away to create more space. You may also move a bulky coat to your hallway for regular wear over the cooler months, which will make it easier to see what you have available in your wardrobe
- Donate or recycle items – quickly filter off items that no longer feel great to wear, don’t fit well, are well worn or just not your taste any more. You don’t have to empty out your entire wardrobe or work through every item to make an impact – when you have little time, you can skim off items that are clearly no use to you and this will make a difference
4. Tidy Up the Living Room
- Make space for indoor living – move around your lounge and review any magazines, books, and decorative items you find. Keep only what you use or love, donate the rest
- Take the opportunity to review DVDs, CDs, computer games and any tech used in this room. Trade or donate anything that your family no longer enjoys
5. Bedroom Refresh
- You’ve reviewed your wardrobe, now take a look at your bedlinen. Work out how many sets you need and donate or repurpose the excess and older bedding
- Review surfaces and bedside-table drawers, decluttering things that you don’t need to have by your bed to create a calm sleeping environment
6. Bathroom Blast
- Quickly go through your bathroom cabinet, clearing out any expired toiletries. Donate any unused products to a charity shop or food bank
- Organise remaining items by person in containers for easy access. (Just so you know as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
7. Toy Tidy
- Make tidying toys a family activity. Assign age-appropriate tasks to children to teach them the importance of organisation
- Micro decluttering sessions are good to help children review their toys (allow them to make decisions about what they no longer play with). Set a timer and plan a little reward to keep everyone motivated and focused
8. Paperwork Purge
- Gather paperwork from around the home and review. Recycle/destroy envelopes, leaflets and paperwork you no longer need
- Create a landing area to intercept paperwork as it enters the home; process, diarise, file or destroy it here to prevent it piling up around the house
9. Finally, adopt a “One-In, One-Out” Rule
- When a new item is brought into the home, prompt yourself to find an item that is no longer used or loved
- Keep a bag in the car boot or hallway cupboard for items to donate – when it’s full pop it to your local charity shop to help maintain a clutter-free home
It is possible for busy families to enjoy a clutter-free and cosy home this Autumn.
Decluttering doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By breaking down the tasks and involving family members, you can transform your living space into a warm and inviting retreat just in time for the colder months. The key is small, practical steps.
Which task will you try first?
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You might also like to read Declutter your Towels with this Formular.
