Your home might feel clean and organized, until you go looking into these areas where clutter can sneak up on you. These areas can hide clutter well because we don’t always look in these spaces.
Sneaky Spaces for Clutter in Your Home
You might of noticed the clutter building up in some of these spaces, but closed the door or drawer instead of decluttering. Since we don’t often look in some of these areas, we can forget how messy it really is.
It is best to go through drawers, closets, baskets, and cabinets every couple of months to keep on top of it before it gets out of control.
Nightstand Drawers
Your nightstand is probably loaded with random phone chargers, USB cords, boxes to old cellphones, books, and random loyalty cards. Well, I will be honest I am describing my own nightstand here.
I don’t know why but I feel the need to keep the original packaging from my old cell phones. I haven’t had a need for these boxes ever, so I decided it was time to quit saving these and I recommend you do the same.
Everyone has a pile or random cords stashed somewhere in their home. It is always good to have a few extra USB cords or HDMI cords, but we don’t need a hundred different cords laying around tied in a knot. Consolidate the cords to what you will most likely use then get rid of the rest.
Jewelry Box
Ever try to grab a necklace in a hurry, but everything is a tangled up mess? Your jewelry box is one of those places that we don’t think to organize or declutter. Take a look at what you have and decide if it should stay or go. Most likely you haven’t worn it in years, so that might be a good indication that it is time to donate it or trash it.
Consider organizing your jewelry items in a different way other than a box. This jewelry frame is a beautiful way to display your jewelry and keep it tangle free.
Medicine Cabinets
The medicine cabinet is another sneaky space for clutter to accumulate. It is one of those small areas that we rarely think to declutter, but you end up stashing the weirdest items in this cabinet. Go through your medicine cabinet and get rid of expired medicines, perfume or colognes that you never wear, and other various items.
Under the Sink
The kitchen sink and the bathroom sink are both known to hold a ton of clutter beneath them. Especially the kitchen sink because it is dark and hard to see what is stashed in there. Most of the items in there are leaking all over the bottom of the cabinet and should be thrown out.
Quickly scan through which items you rarely ever use and should consider throwing out. Even some cleaning products can expire, so they should be discarded. If you still have a ton of items left after decluttering, consider ordering an under the sink organizer to keep things neat and easier to find.
Below the Basement Stairs
Maybe it’s just me but below the basement stairs are where things go to die. I place so many random items below the basement steps because I don’t know what to do with them, but I think I might need them one day. Most of this clutter will be expired, dusty, and rarely ever used so it should be an easy clean out.
Lazy Susan Cabinets
The idea of a rotating cabinet sounds smart for organization, but it is just the opposite. Most of the time a lazy Susan style cabinet is placed in a weird location in the kitchen. Items easily get trapped below the lazy Susan or in the back of the cabinet.
Not to mention that most lazy Susan cabinets aren’t very wide either, so only small items or organizers will fit in this area. So, this doesn’t make for a great place to store items.
Awkward Corner Cabinet or Hard to Reach Cabinets
Similar to the lazy Susan, an awkward corner cabinet or higher up cabinets contain items that are rarely used. For instance I have a set of cabinets above my caddy corner kitchen sink filled with miscellaneous junk because I can’t easily reach items in this space. Whenever I attempt to grab an item, something always falls into my sink full of dishes.
I started placing items that I rarely ever need into this cabinet after I dropped a cook book into pot filled with water in the sink. So, take a look in your cabinets and if you never use it, it might be time to get rid of it.
Media Cabinets
Media cabinets are another sneaky area that clutter can build up because most of the time this is a place to store old DVDS, unused cords, random remotes, and other various items. Take a look at that DVD collection and see what you can donate and get rid of the cords that are a tangled up mess.
Random Baskets
We all have baskets for random items that we don’t know where to put or we just can’t part with it, so it stays in this basket. Make it a habit to go through this basket every so often and get rid of items that you no longer need.
If possible, try to separate some of these items into categories, so you can better organize them into separate containers.
Totes Full of Toys
Another sneaky place for clutter to build up are in totes for toys. Many toys come with several parts that get misplaced and mixed up with other bins of toys. Every few months go through the toy bins and get rid of the items that aren’t popular with your kids.
I suggest to avoid having several totes labeled as random toys because it doesn’t make things easy to clean up. One or two totes labeled as random are okay because there are some items that just don’t require an entire tote or you don’t know where else to put them.
Every so often go through the random totes and see what you can get rid of before this tote overflows with junk. Then label the remaining totes or baskets and continue to place new toys in these categories.
My kids have a bad habit of dumping every tote out to find the same size action figures. To avoid this, I separated the action figures by size and type so they could find what they were looking for.
For some reason labeling and organizing all of the toys makes the toys brand new to my kids. They are so excited to have everything together for each type of toy. My kids also clean up after themselves more often when they know where to put things and it makes it easier for me to keep things organized too.
Create totes or small baskets with labels for puzzles, game pieces, blocks, cars, and other toy items as needed to keep things organized.
Conclusion
Clutter can add up quickly in any home, so make it a habit to check these areas every couple of months. Keeping up on the clutter helps prevent overwhelm and stress. It can be overwhelming when you have a mountain of stuff to sort through, so going through things more often can help break the task up. Remember when we have less stuff, we have less to clean and organize!