Living a clutter free and bare-bones minimized possessions lifestyle would be great and easy to manage in single or adult couple homes–but here are 10 practical tips for mess-free family sized living:

1. Regularly Junk Hunt: Practice the 27 Fling Boogie made popular by FlyLady. Race through the house and grab 27 items to throw away. Then race again, this time picking up 27 things to give away. Doing this regularly really works on keeping the “stuff” level down!
2. Create Necessary Storage Solutions: This one’s a no-brainer–if you don’t have a place to put something (or a bunch of different somethings), of course it’s going to pile up in places that just add chaos to the home. It can simply be a matter of creating an inbox for incoming mail, magazine holders to contain magazines, a bookshelf to hold your books or setting up a recycling center. The rule of thumb is to create spaces for “like items”…you won’t need to think twice about where to put something (as well as where to find it).
3. Choose Effective Storage Solutions: Having a place to put stuff isn’t the whole answer–you also need to find ways to maximize your space without overpowering it. Use drawer dividers, choose CD file boxes (see this example and this one) instead of large CD racks (my gosh I’m a recent convert to this and I *love* the space I’m saving!), place storage cubicle shelving in a spare room closet (another recent addition to my home that made a huge difference). Think outside the box to find ways to organize your things in the most efficient (and hopefully space saving) manner, the less packed and crowded your living space is, the easier it is to clean and manage.
4. Running Out of Room: If your storage solutions are adequate but they’re getting packed, it’s time to sort and toss–not go bigger. Going bigger just makes more room for more stuff to manage (ie. clutter), so when your bookshelf gets too full and there’s no room for anymore books, it’s time to purge. If the toybox doesn’t close–give away what’s no longer played with. Closets, cupboards & drawers bulging? You know what to do–get rid of stuff!
5. Use Found Minutes To Regularly Clean & Declutter: Pull out a junk drawer to sort and organize while on the telephone or while watching television, tackle 5 minute jobs while waiting for dinner to cook.
6. Purge Closets & Dressers Seasonally: Before adding any new clothes for the upcoming season, pack up the clothes that are too worn, outgrown, outdated and give them away. Pull linens and towels that are worn out before adding new. If you do this each Spring and Fall, your closets will always be in good shape.
7. Purge While You Clean: See 5 Easy Steps To Clutter Free Living. One of the rooms my family spends the most time in is our living room–and it’s one of our cleanest areas in our home! Clutter control takes 5 minutes since everything is put away when the room is wiped down each night.
8. Test The “Must Haves” With The “Wannabes”: Transfer things like all your kitchen gadgets to a box. When you use one, put it back into a drawer or onto a shelf. After a month or two, pack up what’s still in the box to give away (watch for seasonal needs). See: 6 Ways To Clean Up Your Home. You can do this with all sorts of things: toys, clothing, tupperware, etc.
9. Stop Impulse Buying: Pretty much the biggest culprit to a cluttered and messy home, we just accumulate too much stuff! Try practicing a Wish List to help break the impulse buys. Less stuff coming into the home = less stuff to organize & clean. This practice can be life changing.
10. Develop New Habits For Yourself: If your house is out of control on a daily basis, it’s time to develop new habits for yourself–that’s it, no big drama. Regularly master one new house rule for cleaning and organization. After you’ve successfully implemented it into your daily schedule and do it faithfully each day, choose another one to add to your routine. FlyLady suggests cleaning your kitchen sink every night to keep your motivation up, or you can try refrigerator cleaning in 10 minute daily chunks of time, or choose one room of the house that has to be picked up and wiped down nightly. Find new ways that are workable for you to manage the hot spots in your home and encourage the rest of the family to join in. Even if you’re pretty good at keeping things under control in your home, watch for new tips and methods to implement into your daily home management routine–your household will just get more efficient and less messy as time goes on.

If laundry is a big bugaboo in your home, this system really does work: Sorting & Organizing Laundry Tip. Find more organizing tips here and also check out these 10 Easy Household Time Savers.

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