Image: Clair Strong Interior Design

It’s coming up for spring cleaning season. For me, spring cleaning isn’t just an opportunity to finally defrost the freezer and dry clean the curtains. It’s time to get the entire house in order. I’m talking decluttering and organising cupboards, drawers and wardrobes like my life (and sanity) depends on it. Now, I’m no professional when it comes to organising, so I naturally head to Pinterest for advice. I’ve gathered some of my favourite tips for you and will be sharing them this week and next. I hope you’ll find them as useful as I did!

Start Simple

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, or have no idea where to start, set a small goal to get you going. Ashley Murphy and Molly Graves, founders of the NEAT Method recommend starting with throwing away out of date items in kitchens, bathrooms and garages. You should include food, cosmetics, cleaning products and even gardening bits like fertiliser. This is a relatively easy task because there’s no sentimental attachment, and you can easily see which items need to go. As an added bonus, the satisfaction of completing this job will spur you on to do more decluttering. Read more about this at Oprah.com.

Ditch the Junk Drawer

We all know the drawer. The one in the kitchen filled with pens, batteries, takeaway flyers, used birthday candles, half a box of matches, twelve assorted paper napkins and your old Nokia 5210. Professional organiser Regina Leeds tells us to ditch this clutter catch-all. Most of the stuff in the drawer can be thrown away. The rest of it, the actually useful stuff like stationery and spare batteries, should be stashed in labelled sandwich bags until needed. Now you can use that drawer for cutlery!

Keep on Top of Your Wardrobe

According to the National Association of Professional Organisers in America, we wear 20% of our clothes, 80% of the time. To prevent clothes cluttering up your wardrobe, Ann Sullivan recommends decluttering your collection twice a year and donating or selling unworn clothing. As well as the bi-annual clear-out you can also keep your wardrobe organised by colour coding from light to dark, investing in slimmer hangers to maximise space and using shelf dividers. Get more info here.