General management of household clutter is a common issue in most Australian homes. Piles of stuff just seem to appear out of nowhere – and keep growing.
You spend the weekend sorting the house out and then by Tuesday it feels as if your possessions have spontaneously multiplied. Sound familiar?
Despite how it might feel, keeping your house clutter free doesn’t have to be a painful experience. Here are our top five favourite tactics to employ each evening for keeping things under control at home. 
1. Clean up the kitchen – every single night
One of the biggest culprits of unnecessary clutter is the kitchen, particularly if you live in a house with lots of other people.
Make a firm rule that you don’t go to bed without cleaning up the kitchen.
Try popping on your headphones and listening to podcast – a 20-minute show will easily get you through unpacking and stacking the dishwasher.
TIP: Save your favourite podcasts for when you clean the kitchen and that way you might even start looking forward to the job. 
2. Do a ‘washing basket tidy’
Grab an empty washing basket and walk around the house picking up everything that isn’t in its right place.
Then, with basket in hand, walk back around the house and put everything where it should be.
If some of the items belong to other members of the household, place their items inside the door of their rooms and let them sort it out.
3. Pack your bag for the next day
Half of the clutter in most households tends to be made up of ‘pending’ items.
These are items that no one wants to put away because they’ll be using them again shortly: Things like coats, re-usable coffee cups, plastic containers or sneakers for tomorrow’s gym session.
If you get into the habit of packing the things you need for the next day the night before, it stops that inevitable pile up of keys, wallet and water bottle that seem to constantly clutter up hallway tables and kitchen counters. 
4. Do a 20-minute whip around the living area
Living rooms tend to be clutter magnets – they’re usually covered in toys, craft bits and pieces, books and electronics.
Before you go to bed, do a 20-minute (max) whip around and de-clutter of your living area.
Better yet, if you’re watching something on commercial TV, do the tidy up in the ad breaks.
You can actually give your living room a really good clean during the ads of almost any popular reality show.
5. Split the work
Make sure everyone you live with chips in for the nightly de-clutter and sorting tasks.
Why not set a timer for 20 minutes, split the tasks by room or area and do a power clean together in the evenings? Then you can have a house reward like watching your favourite show together or sharing a treat.
