Cleaning up? You came to thegreenlist.nl For cool sustainable tips? How to find Vinted treasures, go through life a little more zero waste and cook deliciously with seasonal vegetables? Cleaning up is another interest, you might say. Nah, that's not quite true though! Learning to tidy and declutter properly is all about a sustainable life. Listen!
Unpacking becomes even more fun with these tidying tips
For most people, tidying up is a household task they prefer to put off for weeks or months. I was like that myself: I hated tidying up and put it off for as long as possible. Whereas, if you look at it differently and approach it a little differently, it can be a totally different experience that I can even describe as ‘pleasant’. It shouldn't be any crazier. Well, so I thought so too. What caused this turnaround? Time for my five tidying-up tips for a more sustainable life. Maybe I'll manage to give you a little greenfluencen To also get started at home.
Cleaning up for a more sustainable, enjoyable life‘ 1.’
It all starts with the right mindset. Hastily tidying up with enormous reluctance will only make you feel stressed and cranky. The trick is to start finding that it is not a household chore that you must do. You have to start seeing it as a job you may do. Moreover, a chore that supports you in achieving your goals of a more sustainable life. It also helps if, for each item, you ask the question out loud (or in your head): ‘do I want to keep this?’ instead of ‘can this go?’. With the first question (keep?), the answer for me is quite often no or doubtful (nice, cleans up nicely). With the second question (get rid of it?) I tend to want to keep things for ‘you never know’ (doesn't really help). I got this wisdom from the book Cleaned up! By Marie Kondo and also her Netflix series Tidying up with Marie kondo is a viewing tip!
What I have discovered is that you can also choose a different mindset for each clean-up. Around King's Day, I set myself the goal of selling a lot of stuff, while in autumn I am often especially happy about the fact that the house is so nice and ready for the winter to come.
2. Take a structured approach to tidying up with small sub-projects
Now that you know I am a fan of tidying guru Marie Kondo, it will also come as no surprise to you that I do the tidying of our house in a set order. And that order is not by room, but by category. And if you follow Kondo's method, you also tackle the categories in a certain order, starting with clothes, followed by books, paper, komono (everything without a category) and finally sentimental stuff. Now I must confess: I don't strictly stick to these categories, but I really like the systematic approach where you work from clusters. This way, I turn house tidying into mini-projects and I can tick something off every day! I use the following categories:
- Clothes (wardrobe, coat rack & clothes rack attic). You will find more tips on how to tidy up your clothes in this article.
- Children's clothes (wardrobe, coat rack)
- Children's room & play corner living room
- Cupboard living room & cupboard garage with overlap in stuff
- Kitchen
- Study with pantry (care) & bathroom
- Loft
- Garages
The idea behind those categories is that in many houses the same things are in different places. For instance, the first time I found nail clippers in five places and envelopes and stamps in three places. You only find these duplicates if you tackle places with roughly the same stuff as one tidying job. If you don't, you are likely to put nail clippers in every room. As a result, you'll still have nail clippers in five places.
Why pile up board games, clothes and laptops when you can also put them away upright like a book? By putting these items away upright, you always have an overview and can easily pull out what you need!
3. Give yourself a deadline
Of course, cleaning up should not be completely non-committal, because then you again run the risk of not finishing it. Set a realistic deadline for tidying up and make sure it gets done in that time. The first time, I took a week off and spent a whole week cleaning up the house from morning to night. On the last few days, my husband helped, as the attic and garage also contained a lot of his stuff. My girlfriends declared me crazy - it was a very nice week in June, but I really needed this tight timeframe to push myself to get the job done. And yes, it was a mega job, but it did make me feel good and very fulfilled when it was finished. We were then able to dispose of so much stuff in a good way: donated to the thrift shop, discarded at the environmental centre and I sold the prettiest gems. The following times, I took a little more time and did it on weekends, but now it has become more of an orderly maintenance job, because I did it so thoroughly the first time. So if you do it right, you will enjoy your tidying project for years.
Clean-up tip
While tidying up, I always like to make four piles:
- A pile for stuff I want to keep. Those items then get a new, permanent place.
- A pile for stuff that can be thrown away, e.g. in the residual waste or at the environmental centre. Useful: download or visit the site Waste separation guide, so you know exactly what to throw away where.
- A stack for sale.
- A pile for donation, think thrift shop, charity or The Clothing loop.
4. Set an end goal
How much do you want to earn from selling? How do you want to use certain spaces and so how empty/minimalistic do you want it to be? Having an end goal works tremendously motivating I find. For example, many women complain about having a jam-packed wardrobe, but at the same time having nothing to wear. If it really is the case that you have the wrong clothes hanging in your wardrobe, it can also be a fun task to say goodbye to all those unworn clothes and start working on that wardrobe. First de-clutter to then work on a small complete sustainable wardrobe for life, which might even include a few cool ‘new’ second-hand items. Isn't that a super cool reward for the hard work of tidying up? Want to know more? Then check out this interview with Laura on capsule wardrobe.
5. Include housemates in your tidying method (and this is how you do it)
The nicest and fastest thing is if you can do the cleaning up together. The first time, my husband also helped. By now, de-cluttering and tidying have become more my domain, but I don't mind. He does enough other things again. In that case, though, it is important to include your partner in your new structure, otherwise it will be a mess again in no time. Give a short tour and first of all make it clear that everything should have one fixed place (this is important information!) and the fixed places of the most important utensils and categories that are used regularly will follow. Furthermore, it is good to include a few details that are important to you. I hate piles and so I want to avoid that at all costs. So I put things away upright as much as possible: not just books, I also roll laptops, games and clothes into shoeboxes, so you can see all your clothes at a glance. My husband also knows this now and joins in nicely.
What tidying-up tips are often not about
What to do with all that stuff you want to get rid of? Unfortunately, many tidying books do not address this in detail. It is a waste to throw things away. Some items will still be good and can be reused, parts of other items can still be used or perhaps recycling is an option. None of that is possible if you throw it in the residual waste. Then it gets burnt and is really gone. A few ideas:
- Sell online (Marketplace, Facebook, Vinted) or sell at a flea market. Need help? Then read the tips on how to get more success from Marketplace.
- Drop in at a thrift shop near you.
- Posting a free takeaway ad on Marktplaats or Facebook often works well too.
- Donate to a (local) charity.
- Upcycling: turn something old into something new fun for your home or garden.
We wish you good luck with tidying and de-cluttering! Go for it! If you have any questions or need a boost, you know where to find us!
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Do you have a lot of data in the cloud? Then it certainly can't hurt to also have your Digital photo and video archive to be cleaned up for once.
- You can also apply minimalism to your energy consumption. Also check out my tips to reduce your gas consumption.
- Even in your bathroom cabinet, you don't need much. With just four natural care products from Botma & van Bennekom you have everything you need to take care of an entire family.
Photo credits: thegreenlist.nl.
