Look around your room. Even if you’re not a hoarder, you own a lot of things. And while your home had plenty of stuff to start with, your room in a PG in Wakad has also accumulated a lot of clutter. And with online orders at the tip of your fingers, your treasure trove of belongings is only growing. So, even if you spend your free time watching Marie Kondo videos and planning a minimalist lifestyle, the reality is far from perfect. Then how can you ensure that your living space is actually organised to its best? Well, our top organising tips are going to set you on the path of a clutter-free life.
Start at the top
When it comes to whipping your room into shape, it can sometimes be difficult to figure out where to begin. There’s your overflowing cupboard, the storage compartments below your bed, your shoe rack and your desk and… aaaah! You’ve become so overwhelmed by the mountains of items that you give up on decluttering them before you’ve even started. Well, a trick that can get you on the right path is to treat organising the way you would reading a book. Tackle your furniture from top to bottom, left to right. This will give you a steady pattern to follow and make it easy to reorganise your belongings according to priority and frequency of access. Make sure you keep the things you need on a daily basis (like your laptop or your walking shoes) in the most accessible positions because otherwise you’ll end up messing-up the system.
Discard as you go
When you’re organising your belongings, you might come across items that you want to get rid of eventually, but that probably still have a few uses left in them. And since organising is a continuous process, you should give your future self a head start. Mark the items that you won’t keep around for long with bits of washi tape or sticky notes so that you have visible reminders around you. This means you’re not stuck taking out huge piles of garbage in one day, but you don’t forget and push them to the back of your cupboard for another year either. Then over the next few weeks you can work through the items that you’ve marked out, discarding them as and when the time comes.
Identify usage patterns
When it comes to clothes and cutlery, we tend to own a lot of stuff. But at the same time, we don’t actually use more than a fraction on a regular basis. So, if you’ve got a huge stockpile of items but you only use a few of them, you might be labouring under the assumption that you’re not overwhelmed with clutter. To get yourself to understand the gap between what you use and what you own, you need to take steps to visualise your usage patterns. An easy way to do this is by flipping items. When it comes to spoons and plates, why not turn the ones you use upside down every time you use them, so that you’re able to spot the regular favourites versus the untouched ware (great for donations or reselling). Similarly, when it comes to clothes, flip the hangers of outfits to the opposite direction of the rest of your wardrobe after each wear. In a few months, you’ll have a clear picture of what you use and what you don’t so that you can organise, sell or donate anything unused that you no longer need.
Digital declutter
Once you’ve sorted out the physical space in your PG in Pune, you might think you’re done with all your organisation, but you’ve actually got one last space to sort. And that’s the digital world. With the amount of time that we spend online on our phones and laptops, it’s important to look at the digital space that we’re occupying too. On your phone, this takes the shape of WhatsApp forwards, old screenshots, or even apps that you no longer use. Deleting these can free up a lot of space and make your device run faster. On your laptop, going over your downloads and deleting old documents, flyers or photographs, as well as clearing cookies on your browser can enhance your digital presence. If you use an online cloud to store data, browsing through it every few months and removing unnecessary or outdated content as well as blurry photographs can help you save more space for future use.
And there you have it. These organising tips will help you declutter your life in Pune. Whether you’re living in a PG, a hostel or a flat, these are suggestions that you can put into practice anywhere. So, go ahead and try them out.