Dealing with disciplinary records
The longer you live somewhere, the more stuff you’ll accumulate. And if you never throw anything out, you could find yourself lost – in extreme cases, literally – amidst the clutter.
But if you follow our advice on how to declutter your house, you’ll soon be able to reclaim your valuable space.
1. Fill a bin bag with stuff you no longer use
A great first tip on how to declutter your house is to fill a bin bag with stuff you no longer use.
So why not take a quick tour of the house, looking for things you don’t need. This may include:
- Kitchen – Check cupboards and drawers for out-of-date food and condiments, broken utensils, or equipment you no longer use.
- Living room – Common offenders in shared living spaces include old newspapers and magazines, unwanted CDs and DVDs, and broken decorations or ornaments.
- Bedroom – Make sure bedside tables and drawers are clutter free, and check your wardrobe for clothes you no longer wear.
- Bathroom – Chuck out any out of date medicine, or abandoned toiletries and cosmetics.
One bin bag might not be enough to achieve peak decluttering, but it is a start. And doing this every now and then will help you shake the habit of holding onto things you don’t really need.
2. The four-box method
If you’re ready to really thoroughly declutter your house, we suggest using the four-box method. This involves going over a room and placing everything into one of four boxes:
- One box for items you want to keep in the room
- A box for things that should be elsewhere in the house
- A third box for things you want to throw away
- And a final box for things you can donate to charity
It might be tricky to decide which box to use for some things, but try not to put everything in the ‘Keep’ box.
We also suggest disposing of anything you choose to throw out quickly. Leaving it sitting around in the ‘Throw Away’ box for too long just gives you more time to change your mind!
3. Get rid of one thing every day
If clearing out everything at once is too much to bear, you can always take a gradual approach. Even getting rid of one thing every day can make a big difference, after all.
It’s also easy to make this part of your routine: pick a time each day to have a look around your house for something you don’t need. If it’s broken or useless, chuck it out right away. If someone else might want it, add it to a ‘donation pile’ that you will give to charity.
Over time, you’ll find you have less clutter to worry about. And getting into a daily decluttering habit will make it easier to have a bigger clear out if you need more space.
4. Never leave a room empty handed
Another way to make decluttering part of your routine is to never leave a room empty handed. Instead, look around for something that is out of place and deal with it.
This could be as simple as taking a dirty coffee cup to the kitchen to clean it up, moving last week’s TV guide to the recycling, or putting an abandoned toy back where it belongs.
As well as helping you declutter, this can help prevent clutter building up in the first place. And if prevention is better than the cure in medicine, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be here.
5. Outsource personal records management
Finally, if you have trouble deciding which personal documents to keep – and are worrying the important files could be lost amongst other clutter – you can avoid the problem entirely. These can range from medical records to wills and deeds, which are very important to your future.
The answer? Outsourcing your records management to a self storage specialists.
At Access Records Management, we specialise in storing, scanning and destroying your records in a safe, efficient, and compliant way. As such, we can save you the time and hassle involved in finding somewhere safe and sensible to store your important personal records.
To find out how we could help you with your records management, contact our document storage specialists today. Learn how to get in touch.
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