Once the days start to draw in, the bad weather ramps up a notch and the kids are back at school, you may discover that autumn is the perfect season to have a good clear out.
Start in your bedroom
Before any reorganization can take place, you’ll have to de-clutter. Open your wardrobe and your drawers and take a hard look at your clothing collection. Unlike the celebrity, Amanda Platell, most people only have the one wardrobe, not seven.
Try and be realistic, that dinky little number that you bought 10 years ago, the one that no longer fits you and will never fit you in the conceivable future … it’s only taking up space and can be passed on to a local charity shop. Sentiment can be great but it can also make tidying up tricky.
Check on your valuables
Also check that your jewelry is stored in a safe place. You don’t want your children’s curious little fingers playing with Grandma’s valuable necklace; neither do you want to advertise to burglars, that in common with the rest of the population you hide your sparkles in your underwear drawer.
Invest in a home safe, they are useful for documents as well as baubles and they’re also competitively priced. Jewelry boxes look great but they also make the life of any opportunist thief a lot easier.
This is also a good time to ensure that your More Than home and contents insurance is up to date. You may well have added to your jewelry collection, bought a new laptop or phone and not informed your insurers that the value of your contents has increased.
Clear out the children’s rooms
During the course of the long summer holidays it’s often impossible to tidy the kid’s rooms. They may have even offered to help but all too often cups are left under the bed, broken toys are stuffed into the back of a cupboard and sometimes it’s just easier to get on with the task yourself without their assistance.
You could use this opportunity to move some furniture, give the room a really good clean or invest in some new bedding or curtains. On their return from school, the kids should notice your efforts, and even be pleased with their reorganized rooms.
9 Comments
Thanks for the reminder, I need to clean out the garage, again!
@Paul – Yes, garages always seem to get filled up with “stuff.” It’s some sort of, “If I don’t see it, it doesn’t exist” mentality.
I have so much organizing to do it’s not even funny. The good thing is that it’s all concentrated on the ‘behind the scenes’ areas of the garage and basement. Our living space is actually very well organized.
@Money Beagle – As long as you can park a car in the garage, I think you’re doing okay. If not, it’s time to chuck stuff! (or sell it).
sentimental value is probably the hardest part of decluttering for me. One of my friends recommended that I take pictures of anything I felt sentimental about if I really cared, that’s when I realized that while certain clothes that I had fond memories of I didn’t care enough to take pictures of to remember.
@Zee – That’s a good idea. I seem to keep the photos, but get rid of the rest.
Wow. What a timely reminder. I find that living with two hoarders (my son and my husband) de-cluttering is hard. Only thing that is organised around here is my clothes and my jewellery.
@Maria – I live with the opposite of a hoarder; he once threw away my degree while “de-cluttering!” Yet, I find that there’s always room for organizing. 😉
Autumn is indeed the best season to renovate the home also. If you are willing to make any changes within your home or update any appliances, it is the best time. 🙂