Category: Home Organization

Clutter has a sneaky way of accumulating, especially in the midst of our busy lives. Before you know it, your surroundings are filled with piles of stuff, leaving you wondering where it all came from and how to swiftly eliminate it. Fear not! Here are some clever hacks to declutter in no time and prevent the chaos from resurfacing.

Conquer the Chaos in the Worst Room First

Begin your decluttering mission by tackling the messiest room. Confronting the most challenging space first provides a sense of accomplishment and makes other cluttered areas seem more manageable. It sets the tone for a clutter-free environment.

Three-Point Clutter Attack

Conduct a thorough room-to-room assessment and categorize items you no longer need into three groups: garbage, recycling, or donation. Bag each pile separately and promptly dispose of them or drop them off at a local donation center. This efficient three-point clutter attack streamlines the decluttering process.

Embrace the Principle of ‘A Place for Everything’

Adopt the mantra of ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’ to maintain a clutter-free home. Designate logical spots for items you use daily and make a habit of returning them to their designated places after use. This simple practice is a swift and effective method for conquering clutter.

Deploy Clutter Baskets

Strategically place clutter baskets in every room. Items without a designated storage spot can be temporarily placed in these baskets. Regularly empty the clutter baskets, returning items to their proper places or deciding to part with them. This proactive approach prevents clutter from accumulating.

Prioritize Decluttering over Cleaning

Distinguish between decluttering and cleaning. Focus on decluttering first, resisting the urge to get sidetracked by cleaning tasks. Eliminating excess clutter before cleaning makes the entire process more efficient, as there’s less stuff to maneuver around or move.

When in Doubt, Move It Out

For items you want to keep but don’t require daily access to, consider renting a self-storage unit. Safely stow away furniture, sports equipment, family heirlooms, seasonal items, and other meaningful belongings. This keeps your living space clutter-free while preserving the things that matter most to you.

When we decide to add an item to our home or an event to our calendar, it’s usually because we think we need to, or that that thing will help us enjoy life more. If we take an honest look, though, these extras end up being the cause of additional clutter and stress in our lives. It’s become almost second nature in our culture to think we are going to enhance our life with something new when inadvertently we have made it more complicated.

We’ve added more debt by buying things we really didn’t need. We’ve created more clutter. We own more clothes to choose between, and we bring in more furniture and toys. Then we wonder why we are so disorganized and overwhelmed.

Simplifying your home and life starts with getting better with our decision-making process! Here are some basic mindset shifts that will help you simplify your home if taken to heart.

Avoid temptation

When you can, don’t go to places that will cause you to buy more stuff to deal with or tempt you with more decisions to make. Try consolidating shopping lists and trips so you don’t make multiple visits in a week. It’s amazing how much less you buy and how much easier your subsequent decisions are when you spend less time going into stores.

Simplify your daily options and choices

If you are a busy person or struggle with excess clutter, you have too many decisions to make. Why complicate life with unnecessary ones? Instead of keeping thirty outfits in your closet, try to create five you love and use accessories to change them. You’ll save daily stress and lots of laundry!

Instead of having four sets of dishes in various colors and patterns, keep one basic set in a neutral color and fancy it up with colorful salad plates or glasses. Embrace one item that has multiple purposes rather than several specialty items.

Rent a storage unit

If you have belongings in your home that you want to keep but don’t want to necessarily keep them in the house (e.g. old photos or sports equipment), consider renting a storage unit. If you have a few more items you want to store alongside your photos, you can go with a bigger storage unit size such as 5×7 feet or 5×8 feet. At U-Lock Mini Storage, we have storage facilities across Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Our facilities include storage units Victoria, storage units Parksville, storage units Nanaimo, storage units Burnaby, storage units White Rock and Surrey and storage units Chilliwack.

Make simple decisions

Don’t rationalize a choice that makes life or storage more complicated. If you rarely use your food processor, give it away and don’t give it a second thought. Don’t even consider what you might do with it someday; just let it go. If you find you really do need a food processor on occasion, find a neighbor or relative who will loan one to you. Some decisions might sting for a week, but if you rarely used those items, you’ll soon forget what you gave away.

Make a daily to-do list and set home goals

Defined vision for your day and home will keep you focused on what matters. When you have a clear task, you are able to bring less decisions and stuff into your life by focusing on and finishing what really matters to you.

Get rid of unused items

When you are in the midst of a major decluttering project that may take weeks or months, you don’t have time to analyze every possible item. If I’m not sure if I want something or not, it has to become a firm, clear no. I don’t even let myself think about who else might want it or how much money I spent on it. If time is of the essence and decluttering is the ultimate goal, off it goes to charity.

Decluttering your home can be overwhelming, so here is the perfect place to start. These 9 things to get rid of today are easy projects to tackle, but also incredibly satisfying. Once you complete a few of these, you’ll start to reap the benefits of decluttered spaces. It’ll be just the thing to motivate you to face the bigger projects on your list.

If you need additional space to store items that you don’t want around your home, consider renting a storage unit. At U-Lock Mini Storage, we have storage facilities across Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island. Our facilities include storage units Victoria, storage units Parksville, storage units Nanaimo, storage units Burnaby, storage units White Rock and Surrey and storage units Chilliwack. Contact us if you have any questions!

Cookbooks and Recipes

First, open those kitchen cabinets. How often do you consult that shelf full of cookbooks or the box full of recipes? My guess is not as often as you used to since a majority of us find new recipes on Pinterest or Google these days. Pull out cookbooks you never reference and toss recipes for dishes you’ve never made (and honestly aren’t going to) or that your family simply didn’t like.

Single Socks

Many of us have a drawer (or laundry basket) full of single socks. We never seem to find the time to try to match them up, so the pile grows and grows. Now is the time to let those single socks (and the discolored ones with holes!) go and maybe treat yourself to a new pair or two.

Misshaped Candles

Do you have drawers and cabinets full of old candles that you never use? While it’s a good idea to keep a few candles around for a power outage, enjoy throwing away the ones that are warped, partially melted, or that no longer fit in your candle holders.

Old Nail Polish

Nail polish that has separated or that has gotten full of clumps will not give your fingers and toes a “polished” look. Get rid of these bottles and any colors that you simply don’t like.

Excess Office Supplies

Be honest with yourself. Are you really going to use the 10,000 staples that crowd in your desk drawer? Is your junk drawer overflowing with pens and pencils? It’s time to purge what you don’t need or won’t use in a reasonable amount of time. You can donate your extra supplies (if they are in good condition) to a local school or church.

Receipts

Is your wallet or purse overflowing with paper receipts? Sort through them and trash any that you don’t need for budgeting, business expenses, or your taxes. This will probably be about 99 percent of your stack.

Dried Out Pens and Markers

Remember that overflowing junk drawer, stuffed desk drawer, and the kids’ art bucket? Let’s pull out all the pens and markers and make sure they work. This is a great job for the kids. Throw away any that are dried out or unusable. Donate any extras to your local charity.

Expired and Unused Spices

Next, turn to the kitchen. Spices lose their flavor over time. Who wants to add old parsley that resembles dried grass to your grandmother’s special spaghetti sauce? Take the time to sort through your spices and get rid of the old, expired ones. This is also a great time to get rid of that strange spice you bought for a single recipe and never used again. Chances are you’ll never miss it.

Empty Boxes

Having a few empty boxes around for gift wrapping and packages can be handy, but it’s way too easy to save all of those Amazon boxes. Things can quickly get out of control. Learn which boxes are really worth saving for things like storage or moving (we’ve got a handy guide for everything boxes), and then recycle all that don’t make the cut. One benefit of this is that you will be getting rid of a much-loved home for lots of creepy, crawly critters.

A bathroom without storage space can really cramp your style. If you find yourself constantly knocking over toiletries and bathing supplies, some extra storage space might just be the solution to your problem. Without too much effort, you could optimize the space that is already there, or you could get creative with your space-creating solutions.

Use a Door-Hanging Shoe Caddy for Added Storage

If the back of your bathroom door is available, a door-hanging shoe caddy can contribute plenty of storage space. These can be bought at most general retailers and they simply hang from a door.

Fill the pockets of your hanging shoe caddy with toiletry bottles, bathing supplies and more.

Create a Towel Holder from a Wine Rack

The shape of many wall hanging wine racks is perfect for holding rolled towels. In addition to providing a classy look, these are usually generally easy to install. In most cases, all you will need to do is screw the rack into the wall to create a wall holder for towels.

Before you screw in the wine rack to the wall, be sure to check that it is level. To do this most efficiently, you may want to ask a friend to help.

You should be able to find suitable wine racks at big box stores, general retailers and hardware stores.

Once the wine rack is mounted on the wall, roll up your towels and place them in the slots where the wine bottles would normally go.

Store Spare Toilet Paper in Oatmeal Canisters

Toilet paper stacked precariously in your cabinets can be easily knocked over and can contribute to clutter. Large oatmeal canisters can store up to three rolls of toilet paper — depending on the kind of toilet paper — giving you a nifty spot to stash your TP.

You can add some flair to your oatmeal canister by covering its outer surfaces with a wrapping paper that matches the decor of your bathroom.

Using oatmeal canisters is one option — any kind of large, colorful kitchen canister will work.

Consolidate Magazine Storage with Hangers

Stacks of magazines can rob your bathroom of valuable floor and counter space. To avoid this, you can place hangers on door knobs and towel racks in your bathroom. Hang the magazines by opening the magazines to their middle pages and draping them from the hangers.

For standard-sized magazines, you can expect to be able to drape quite a few from your hanger before it becomes too heavy. For larger or special edition magazines, you may only be able to hang two or three.

You can also place a magazine rack behind the toilet to store your magazines.

Alternatively, you can rent a storage unit to store all your bathroom needs. At U-Lock Mini Storage, we offer a wide selection of storage unit sizes for you to choose from. We offer storage solutions to our clients across Greater Vancouver,Vancouver Island and the Fraser Valley with storage units in Chilliwack (Chilliwack U-Lock Mini Storage), South Surrey and White Rock (White Rock U-Lock Mini Storage), Burnaby and Vancouver (Burnaby U-Lock Mini Storage), Victoria (Victoria U-Lock Mini Storage), Nanaimo (Nanaimo U-Lock Mini Storage) and Parksville (Parksville U-Lock Mini Storage). 
Please contact a U-Lock Mini Storage self-storage facility near you to inquire about our storage units and our team members will be delighted to answer any questions you have!

Have you ever walked into a recently cleaned room that was organized perfectly and decorated to its fullest potential? If so, you know the feeling of being peaceful and at ease that comes with being in such a space.

Nowadays, with more people than ever staying home regularly, it is important to create a space that supports your mental health and encourages feelings of well-being and serenity. Perhaps it is your office space, bedroom or bathroom that needs some extra help. Whatever the case, read on to see how decluttering and organizing your space can have great mental health benefits that impact your lifestyle and day-to-day activities.

Less Maintenance

When you really think about it, owning certain items can mean more work and maintenance. For example, if you have many shoes, you have to constantly clean, organize, and keep them in good shape. If you have a lot of tech and electronics, you have to keep them charged, up-to-date and in good working order. This requires care and attention on your part. If this maintenance work is not a source of stress for you, then feel free to continue doing what you are doing.

However, if you feel weighed down by constantly having to maintain all your collections and items, then you may need to rethink what you own and start decluttering. When you are mindful about each and only decide to keep what you really need, you decrease the amount of attention necessary to maintain your belongings. This way, you can focus more on things that matter: family, friendships, exercise, health and hobbies.

Less Cleaning Time

When you decide to get rid of the things you no longer need or want, and declutter items that are holding you back, you are essentially saving time and effort.. When you constantly bring in items and junk into your home, you must always spend time organizing, cleaning and finding new places for everything. This takes up a lot of your mental energy and precious time! If you make it a point to discard, donate or sell things you do not actually need, then you will free up a lot of your personal time as well.

Reduce Stress

Decluttering goes hand in hand with organization. Sometimes, our homes can be a source of added stress and frustration because they are constantly messy, disorganized, and overflowing with things. Decrease your stress levels today by getting rid of items you no longer need and organizing the ones you do. It may seem difficult to go through everything, but once you get it done, you will feel much lighter. You will not need to go through piles of junk in search of an item or constantly wonder where you have put things. Organize your belongings so that the things you need are visible or within reach; if you only keep what you need in the first place, this will be so much easier.

Create More Space

Perhaps you have discovered a new hobby, craft or something that you would like to make more space for in your life. Decluttering can help you get the ball rolling on activities that you have been wanting to enjoy, but maybe never had the space or time for. By decluttering and getting rid of items that no longer serve a purpose, you can make more room for new things that do bring you happiness and convenience. Even if you do not have a specific hobby in mind, clearing out space is still a good idea that can result in at least a little extra leg room to stretch out.

Sometimes, decluttering and organizing your space the way you want is easier said than done. This is where a Greater Vancouver self storage facility and a Greater Vancouver Island self storage facility such as U-Lock Mini Storage can help. If you find that you still do not have enough space in your home to keep all your belongings, or if your storage space is minimal to begin with, can book a storage unit where you can keep things like seasonal décor, rarely used wardrobe items, or certain supplies and inventory (if you run a business from home).

It is important to ensure that your self storage unit is climate controlled so that your belongings are not damaged by humidity or external elements. At the end of the day, renting out a storage unit can bring you peace of mind to know your belongings are safe while your main space at home is still clutter-free.

It is hard to deny that a clean, clutter-free room is anything but beneficial to your personal well-being and mental health. When you really think about your space and start to use it mindfully, you will reap the benefits of convenience, joy and ease.

We offer storage solutions to our clients across Greater Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Fraser Valley with storage units in Chilliwack (Chilliwack U-Lock Mini Storage), South Surrey and White Rock (White Rock U-Lock Mini Storage), Burnaby and Vancouver (Burnaby U-Lock Mini Storage), Victoria (Victoria U-Lock Mini Storage), Nanaimo (Nanaimo U-Lock Mini Storage) and Parksville (Parksville U-Lock Mini Storage). 

Please contact a U-Lock Mini Storage self-storage facility near you to inquire about our storage units and our team members will be delighted to answer any questions you have!