6 Eco-Friendly Tips to Organise Your Home and Reduce Waste

Have you run out of storage space in your home?  Had enough of the clutter and waste lying around?  Feel like the state of your home is affecting how you feel inside it?  The saying, “Cluttered house, cluttered mind,” has actually been proven to be true in affecting your mental health, as the disorderly home adds unnecessary stress.  Plus, the amount of waste itself has an impact on the environment too.  So, here are some handy ways you can get your home more organised, improve your mental well-being, and reduce waste!

1. Declutter with a Purpose

Choose to donate, recycle, sell, or give away items you no longer need.  Items that are still in good condition can be enjoyed by another family in need, such as clothing, kitchen appliances, toys, and books!  If donating or recycling, do research how and where the items are accepted first to avoid them been wasted.  You may have good intentions, but for example, some charities don’t accept soft toys and there are size limitations as well.

Feeling hard to let go?  I am a very sentimental person too, and tend to hold onto items with cherished memories such as my kids’ baby clothes (they were once so tiny!). But as the amount of clothes grew with only so much storage space, I had to learn to let go – bit by bit – and donated them so that the next family can put them to good use!

2. Organise, Organise, Organise!

After letting go of the unwanted clutter, it’s time to organise spaces into storage with a purpose.  Group items into categories, and store them in a place you’ll both remember and access easily. 

Organising items into places that belong will help you find them quicker, reduce your frustration when you can’t things, helping you feel calmer and less chaotic!  It also makes it easier to check if you need to re-purchase any item, and reduce the likelihood of duplicates, costs, and waste!

If you need more, we love the fabric storage solutions at Ikea with many sizes, options, and designs available!

3. Repurpose Items You Own

Before you run out and shop up a storm for new storage boxes, think about items you already have in your home that can be repurposed as storage solutions.  Shoe boxes or gift boxes are perfect storage containers (just label them so that you remember what’s inside!).  Glass jars from pasta sauces, condiments, etc. make wonderful storage places not only for half-opened packets of snacks, but make great holders for pens, cleaning items, stationery – your creativity is the only limitation!  Go For Zero have gorgeous reusable jar sleeves to help beautify your reuse and helps prevent breakage to make it last longer – purposeful, sustainable, and beautiful!

4. Shop Intentionally

When you do need to buy new products, choose an item that you know will serve its purpose, is reusable and will last, or made with sustainable materials with minimal impact on the environment at the end of use.  Choose items that you need and solve a problem for you. 

Be clear-minded when making your purchase to prevent bringing new clutter into your home that will only go to waste and also impacting the environment.  Remember that your goal is to become more organised and reduce your waste!

5. Use Less, Waste Less

While we are starting to improve on our single-use habits such as straws, disposable cutlery and plastic bags by changing to their reusable alternatives, there is so much more work to do – the takeaway coffee cups, the notebooks we write in once then abandon, the pens we use then throw away, the plastic water bottles – we can waste less by using disposable less.

Only buying and keeping what you love, need, and use, is also better for our environment.  As a society, we use, accumulate, and waste so many products, and yet we complain about not having enough space to store our belongings.  Let’s be more mindful of our choices to keep us more organised, reduce waste and costs, and better for the environment.

6. Prevent Duplicate Purchases

By keeping your home organised and clutter-free, where you can easily find items, you can avoid accidentally purchasing something you may already have (how many diposable plastic single-use pens do you have in your house?!), avoid unnecessary costs, and reduce waste!  Pantry items are often at risk of expiring and going to waste because you may have forgotten you had one hidden behind all the cereal boxes.  Skincare and beauty products are often wasted as a result of been left forgotten in the cabinet, lost amongst the sea of other products you thought you’d try (guilty!). 

If all items are where you expect them to be at all times, you will drive yourself less crazy, feel more organised and fresh, less stressed, reduce tendency to over-purchase, and be more relaxed in your clutter-free home :)