17 easy habits you need to keep a clutter-free home

Winner, are you looking to cultivate some easy habits to keep a clutter-free home?

Then you’re in luck. Because I’m about to let you in on 17 habits that work wonders for me.

And they’ll most likely work wonders for you too.

Here’s why you might want to keep a clutter-free home:

Clearing your physical space:

• clears up your mental space. And frees you to think about the most important things in your life.

• saves you TONS of money. Because now you think each purchase through thoroughly. Plus, now you no longer shed money for the upkeep of all those unused items in your home.

Remember these 130 genius frugal living tips? Well, decluttering your home is one of them.

Because it not only rids you of those items that suck your hard-earned money. But it can also put a lot of that hard-earned money back into your pockets.

• helps you maximize your living space. And opens it up. Which is great if your living space is small to begin with.

• helps you cultivate a strong identity that is no longer tied to your possessions, but more to your values. Thereby promoting healthy self-worth.

The above reasons, and more, are what inspired me to maintain a clutter-free home.

What about you, Winner? Are you inspired too?

Having said that, keeping a clutter-free home can be way can be easier said than done.

After all, it’s essentially about starting to live with less than what you’ve always known. Which can make you feel somewhat poor.

But Winner, know this: it’s not the amount of your possessions that make you wealthy.

In fact, wealth has very little, if anything at all, to do with how many possessions you have.

You know what? Why don’t you learn how to build an abundance mindset? So you can start seeing your clutter-free home with the right attitude

And now, here’re:

17 easy habits tips for a clutter-free home

Habit #1: Make a home for every item

Essentially, giving every item a home ensures that your whole house is ALWAYS organized.

And you know exactly where to find every item if need be.

Habit #2: Wash every kitchen utensil immediately after use

This is one of the habits that changed the game for me completely. And I practice it religiously.

I wash every spoon after use.

In fact, if you walk into my kitchen when I’m cooking, apart from seeing the pots on the stove, or inevitably taking in the beautiful aroma, you wouldn’t even know I was cooking something.

Just the other day, I made scones. And cleaned everything up.

My little brother later said to me, “I can’t believe you made scones and I didn’t even know.”

Winner, what do you think about cultivating this habit?

Are you on it? Or currently working on it?

Habit #3: Keep all your surfaces clear

There’s something about cluttered surfaces that just clogs my mind and makes me feel claustrophobic.

Even if it’s a neat pile, it just doesn’t belong on the surface.

So what do you do?

Go back to Habit #1 which is about making a home for every item in your home.

Now you can take your books to the bookshelf instead of leaving them on the coffee table.

Habit #4: Keep your floors clear

This habit works great to maintain a clutter-free home, especially if you’re living in a small space.

And by keeping the floor clear I mean eliminating even the use of carpets.

You and I both know that carpets are very hard to clean.

Not to mention, you can never really get them 100% clean, especially if you live with kids and/or pets.

Solution: just don’t have carpets. It saves you a lot of money not having to buy a carpet. Or puts back that money into your pocket if you sell the carpet(s) you already own.

Plus, now you cut your cleaning time by more than half.

Yet another plus, the seamless floor adds an illusion of a bigger space for that small space you call home.

Habit #5: Keep your old photos in photo albums

Rather than buy multiple frames for your photos. And then cluttering your surfaces with your framed photos, why not keep your photos in a photo album?

Or even better, in this age of technology, just keep them in a digital format.

If you’re worried about losing the digital copies (which is understandable given computer crashes and viruses), you can always make multiple digital copies.

Habit #6: Stop collecting so much memorabilia

OK. So you’ve been to places. And seen people. But do you have to have a reminder of each and every one of them cluttering your living space?

Memories are great, of course. But how about committing them to where they belong: the brain?

It actually gives your brain much-needed exercise remembering all that stuff from way back, trust me.

Habit #7: Don’t own too many kitchen gadgets

Are you the kind of person that must have a kitchen gadget for pretty much everything?

You must have measuring cups, thermometers, dough mixers, graters that cut your fruit and vegetables into cute shapes?

Because if that’s you, then you’ll most likely always struggle with a cluttered kitchen.

Especially if you’re living in a small space.

Solution: how about substituting your gadgets for some good old intuition and common sense?

It’s the most authentic way to create dishes.

And it stokes your creativity too.

Habit #8: Purge your garage/basement/attic, too

The garage. Or basement. Or attic (or all three if you’re dripping with money), are parts of the house that usually bear the brunt of decades-old clutter.

You say you’ve decluttered your home. But what you mean is, you took all of that clutter to your garage/basement/attic where it’s collecting dust.

Solution: Remove something from your home completely once you’ve decluttered it.

Habit #9: Have a destination for all the clutter

OK. So we’ve established that the garage/basement/attic is not the destination of your clutter. Or at least, shouldn’t be.

Well then, what do you do with the clutter in your hands?

I can think of two main things:

Either one is OK. Or both.

If you want to sell it, don’t let anyone guilt-trip you into believing it’s somehow unethical to resell your stuff (I’ve heard that ridiculousness before from free-loaders).

But remember, don’t be a customer at one of these yard sales if you really want to maintain a clutter-free home.

Habit #10: Never skip cleaning

Cleaning allows you to keep unearthing hidden clutter in your home.

And also to keep your home clean.

So, set up a cleaning schedule and stick to it.

Habit #11: Don’t forget the yard

You know how the garage/basement/attic can become a dumping site for your clutter?

Well, the yard can fall victim too.

For example: when we renovated our house this past fall, my backyard became a collecting site for all the debris that came from the house.

And guess what? It’s been sitting there ever since. And it’s been aomst a year!

I need to go through it soon and see what I can re-use and what I need to get rid of.

Habit #12: Borrow/rent instead of buying

If you have a little bit of room in your budget to buy, you can easily fall into this trap.

But before you buy something, ask around if you can borrow or rent it.

That’s why it’s so important to have a community of people around you, who you can exchange items with.

That doesn’t eliminate buying altogether.

After all, you have to have something to lend out to a friend as well, don’t you?

The point is to not make mindless purchases of things you use only once in a while.

Here at home, we borrow yard cleaning tools like saw, rake , and wheelbarrow.

Habit #13: Go paperless

A few months ago, I decluttered my house. And collected TWO large boxes of books and papers.

And I don’t even touch 99% of the stuff in that boxes. (How crazy is that?)

It got me thinking, I wouldn’t have this problem if I just went paper-free.

Now, I only read books online.

I also have my bills emailed to me.

And I scan important documents into my computer.

Habit #14: Opt for a minimal interior design

Limit your decor.

Better yet, let your furniture be the décor.

The absence of knick knacks will help you keep clutter at bay.

And cut your cleaning time significantly.

This goes for your gardening and landscaping as well. Keep it simple.

Habit #15: Establish an active decluttering system

To keep a clutter-free home you need a system for constantly keeping the clutter away.

So, do set it up, try it to see what works and what doesn’t. And keep revising it to your liking.

Now you can keep clutter at bay.

Habit #16: Own less stuff

A simple life of limited possessions is the best life.

It helps you detach your self-worth from your possessions.

Because it’s when you can count all of your possessions in one hand that you realize you can’t be worth ONLY that. You’ve got to be something more.

That pushes you to define your self-worth in a more concrete, accurate way.

Habit #17: Get your family on board

Don’t be that annoying person who’s always giving away the kids’ favorite toys.

Explain to your children, and other people you live with, that you wish to keep a clutter-free home and you’d like to bring them on board.

But don’t force them. Just as it was a personal intentional decision on your part, it has to be the same on their part.

Most importantly, don’t just talk with words, talk more with your actions.

It’s the actions that will inspire your roommates more than your preaching (just saying).

Final word

Keeping a clutter-free home can help you save money, maximize your living space, clear up your mental space to focus on your values, and cultivate an identity that’s independent of your possessions, thereby boosting your self-worth. And cultivating the habits presented in this post can help you reap all those benefits.

I hope you do find the habits useful and worth cultivating.

By sharing your feedback, you can inspire another Winner out there to also cultivate some habits to maintain a clutter-free home. So they can exercise more control over their lives to.

Last but not least, remember that it’s your life. So, there’s no rush. No right or wrong. Only progress.

Also, remember that in everything you do, you’re a Winner. And in everything that happens, your life is always a win!