How To Have A More Simplified Home

Are you wanting to create a more simplified home?

If you are feeling stressed out, overwhelmed, or exhausted by the state of your home, you may be searching for a way to have a more simplified home that will work for you, and not the other way around.

How Simplifying has helped me

Years ago, I came across the concept of minimalism and living more simply. Since then, I have been on a journey to pair down my belongings to get more time back in my life, and to save my sanity. It wasn’t until this past year that I have made some big changes in our home that have made really big impacts in our day to day lives. These simple changes have given me back time, energy, and even saved me money!

My Top Tips to Having a Simplified Home

These are my top tips to having a more simplified home that is easy to manage.

Tip 1: Declutter

The most important tip to having a home that is simplified and easy to manage is to declutter. Clutter can cause stress, anxiety, and even depression. By decluttering, you are freeing up both physical and mental space to focus on what really matters in your life. Every item in your home requires a certain amount of time to be spent maintaining that item. You may think that a shirt hanging in your closet amongst other shirts is not taking up any extra time or space, but if you are looking at a closet full of clothes and have nothing to wear, that may be a sign that you have items that are not serving you, but instead taking up physical space and mental energy. That single shirt may be telling you, I don’t fit, I need to be repaired, or it’s not the right season or occasion. Every item in your home is telling you something. Wash me, dust me, throw me away, fix me, or finish this project. If you add up all of the things in your home, and what they are requiring of you, you may start to reconsider what is important enough to take that energy from you. Seconds spent on a single item adds up to minutes and hours in your lifetime. Once you start decluttering, you will immediately begin to feel lighter and more relaxed in your home.

Tip 2: Have a Home For Everything

Tip number two to having a more simplified home is to have a home for every item. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “A place for everything and everything in it’s place”. By having a home for each item in your house, you are telling that item where it belongs. Items that have a home, are easier to find and easier to put away. For example, we keep the pens in our home in one place. When anyone in the house needs a pen, they know exactly where to find one. This same rule should be applied to every single item in your home. It may seem overwhelming, but after you have decluttered all of the excess, having a home for your items relieves so much stress in your day to day life. My kids rarely ask me where to find something that they need, because they have learned where those item’s homes are. They also are able to pick up after themselves without asking me where something belongs.

Tip 3: Practice Put Back Rule

A good habit to practice is to put things back immediately after picking them up. I have heard this called the ”One touch rule”. The concept of this is that you only touch an item one time after picking it up before putting it into its designated home. For example, if I pick up a sock, I am going to take it straight to the dirty clothes basket, instead of throwing it into the kids bedroom. If I use a plate, I am going to wash it, or put it into the dishwasher, instead of letting it sit in the sink, just for me to have to load it i to the dishwasher or wash it later on. By practicing this rule, you are saving yourself time and energy. I also remind my kids of this when they are tidying to ”put it in its home“. They have heard this so much, that most of the time, they take an item straight to its home after picking it up. This keeps us from picking up the same item twice, saving time.

Tip 4: Have Tidy Times

Another tip to having a more simplified home is to have a few tidy times each day. This doesn’t mean that you will constantly be cleaning. This just means that by doing a few quick pick ups throughout your day, you are preventing the need to do a big and stressful whole house clean when the mess has become too much to handle. It is far easier to tidy a few items throughout the day than to wait until you become overwhelmed. How I do this is by setting 2 times a day as our “Tidy Times”. One before nap/quiet time and one before dinner. I usually turn on a fun song for the kids to get energized and challenge them to see how much they can clean up in one or two songs.

Tip 5: Pare Down on Knick Knacks

Tip number five to having a simple and more minimal home is to pare down on knick knacks and small decor. Years ago, when we first moved into our home, I was so excited to start decorating every single corner of our house. I loved collecting little antiques, and accepted hand me down items from anyone who was giving things away. The Dollar Tree and Target dollar spot were my weakness for cute and cheap things. After years of collecting knick knacks, I only felt more confused about my decorating style, and all of the clutter began to effect me in a negative way. If you want more simplicity in your home, I encourage you to get rid of small decor items that don’t mean that much to you, and only keep the items that bring you joy.

Tip 6: Pack Away Holiday Decor

My next tip is to pack away anything holiday themed during other seasons of the year. For example, if you have a christmas mug that you love, but only use it during the winter, pack it away with your christmas decor so that it doesn’t become extra clutter throughout the year. This is especially great to do with themed dishes and kids accessories like Santa hats and elf ears. By packing those things away, they aren’t floating around getting messed up, and you won’t be tempted to buy more when next christmas comes around, saving you money.

Tip 7: Continuous Decluttering

After decluttering the first time around, you will have to continue decluttering as things enter your home. I do about 4 big decluttering sessions throughout the year, usually at the turn of each season. I also am constantly decluttering daily. An example of how I do this is by keeping a small basket in each of my kids closets. Whenever I open my daughters closet and come across something that no longer fits her, I simply throw that item up into that basket to be donated later. I can now clearly see what items she does and doesn’t need when I am buying clothes for her. That item is no longer telling me “I don’t fit!” and I also never have to wash and hang this item again. Continuous decluttering simplifies your day to day life, and will give you freedom from the chaos of unused items taking up space in your home.

Final Thoughts On How To Have A Simplified Home

Those are just a few of my tips to simplify your home, giving you back more time, energy, and money for the things that you want to do. You will still have every day mess and every day clutter. Everyone does. It’s not about having a home that is never messy, but about having a home that can be brought back to a calm state in minutes, giving you more time for what is truly important.

I hope that this post has given you some inspiration to simplify your home this season.

I would love for you to leave a comment below telling me what area in your home you would like to simplify.

Thank you for being here!

-Courtney