When it comes to city lifestyles, we all hate the thought of unclean, suffocating, smelly and messy spaces, and love rooms kept well-maintained, neat and tidy. Then why not design our own living spaces in the same way? The feeling of 'home' is something warm, cosy, comfortable and treasured, especially for the introverts. However, we often miss the basics of keeping our homes as neat and organised as they deserve to be. At this stage, you might want to consider our services of interior designer in Salt Lake Kolkata.

Your first step to living organised is to consider downsizing your own requirements and desires. You can make it a habit to live minimalistic, and downsize only as much as possible. For instance, consider owning only 4 pairs of socks instead of 10, or 4 sets of bed sheets for a 2-bedroom house. Apply this logic to all your belongings, for example cosmetics, stationery, shoes, kitchen utilities, books etc. An early downsizing helps keeping your home streamlined, and makes way for more functional space, in a way that makes your daily life much simpler and more organized.

The entire process of decluttering your home can be a massive, and sometimes daunting task, the hardest part being getting started. Here, we've put together a no-fail strategy for decluttering, that will sure-shot help you to take control over your space, as well as create about 20% extra space in your home- it can be applied to every single room in your home.

First, identify a category of things that need to be decluttered, for example papers, that are often lying everywhere- be it in the home or office. Papers are unwanted items, and their overwhelming presence can make your home feel messy all the time.

Now, the task is to simply identify 20 things in the category of 'paper', in order to confirm if our space is overcrowded with the item. So, consider adding items like old newspapers, wedding cards, greeting cards, birthday invitations, business cards, property catalogues, old investment papers, shopping receipts, cookbooks, old bills and envelopes, appliance manuals, expired coupons, parking tickets, show or movie tickets, magazines etc. to this category. Then, look carefully at different areas in your home- dressing table, study table, garret, wardrobes, bedroom, bathroom, etc., and start the process of decluttering to get yourself feel more organised.

While you're in the midst of this task, you can also follow the below steps to make the process somewhat easier.

The “love test”

Although this may seem obvious that sometimes we only keep things because we love them or have some sentimental value or emotional connection attached to them, they may have no utility at all, yet we spend money on them, refuse to throw them, and allow them to become rusted and dusty over the months and years. When deciding whether you should be holding on to such items, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Have you used it in the last 6 months?
• Do you still love it?
• Is it damaged in any way?
• Would you buy it again?
• Is it easily replaceable or affordable?

The 80:20 rule

If you look around your home carefully, you'll find that 80% of the time, you end up using only 20% of the items you own- for instance, bed linen, towels, clothes, shoes, jewellery, etc. This calls for some self-introspection to find the remaining 80% of these categories of items, and getting rid of them.

Home for each Item

Often, you might think you're creating space-efficient homes by throwing out or discarding items that are actually useful. This may not be termed as cleaning in the real sense. Cleaning means that every useful item in the house should have a designated place for itself, one that is functional, easy to access and use, and where the item can be returned smoothly after use.

In its true essence, getting organised requires both physical and mental decluttering. Because, the physical clutter is merely a representation of what is going on inside our minds. If we don’t address the mental clutter first, then we are merely treating the symptoms. By focusing on the mental clutter, we can treat the source of this disorganisation, while also decluttering and organising the physical clutter inside our homes.

An interesting fact is that six out of ten people who decluttered their homes lost weight after their home did. This can be attributed to the fact that decluttering lowered their stress levels and freed up space in their kitchen, so they could easily cook and eat healthy meals at home!

People from countries around the globe are incorporating methods of decluttering to keep their homes more organised and live a more satisfying life. And, you can do it too! Simply ask yourselves - don’t you already own what you need? The objective here is to purchase less and let go off your burden in a satisfactory manner. But no matter how disorganised our home is, there is always a way to make it free of the mess- you can hire our professional interior designer in Salt Lake Kolkata, or other interior decorator companies that are gaining ground in this metro city nowadays.