Guest Post: Reasons to Clear Clutter

Reasons to Clear Clutter — and the Best Place to Start

I’m a bit of a neat freak — for some reason, I’ve always felt bothered by clutter. When I have a pile of junk of my desk, I feel like I can’t concentrate; when my kitchen is littered with dishes, it puts me in a funk. I swear that my kids’ homework-finishing ability is sapped when their rooms are a mess.

As it turns out, science backs me up on this: Neuroscientists and psychologists have found that cluttered environments wreak havoc on your ability to focus and dampen your mood. You might not even think you notice clutter, whether it’s a single stray sock or a pile of junk mail you’ve been accumulating for months — but your brain notices all these things, and the attention it wastes on them drains your mental resources. The results are what you might expect: less concentration, less motivation, less productivity, more general irritability.

If you’ve got a lot of stuff lying around, the prospect of clearing all that clutter away can be daunting. But with well-designed storage areas, you can create a place to store all that clutter and add newly functional space to your home, especially in bedrooms. That’s why the best way to go about organizing your home can be to tackle your closets first. Unfortunately, many closets are poorly designed — an afterthought of a home’s architect — but their space-saving power can be doubled or even tripled with the use of closet organizers.

Every home is different, and every family is different, but closet organizers can be customized to fit anyone’s needs, whether the items in your closet need to be folded, hung, or boxed — even locked — away. You can use adjustable shelves and rods to keep your closet tailored to your needs even if they’re constantly changing. Commonly used items can be kept in plain sight, while seasonal items and treasured possessions can be stored away where they can be easily retrieved without taking up space underfoot. Even spaces in closet corners can be made usable.

Whatever type of closet you have, there’s a system that can make it that much bigger-seeming and better. In walk-in closets, closet organizers eliminate wasted space and make things easy to find. Large walk-in closets can even be turned into crisp, modern dressing rooms where everything is within easy reach. In reach-in closets, organizing systems can help make the most of what limited space there is, preventing you from having to waste time rifling through overflows.

There are several options for setting up closet organizers, whether you want to go the DIY route and buy implements at a houseware store, or get a custom set that matches your home décor from brands like California Closets. Either way, with your newly partitioned space, you won’t get flustered searching for clothes in the morning, and you’ll have more space — serene, clutter-free space — in the rest of your room and home. It just might change your life!