How to spring clean more mindfully in 3 easy steps

In this new series, professional mindful curator and organising queen Laura Davison walks us through the steps of curating our homes.  

With our increasingly hectic lives and lack of time, it might feel as though your home is a dormant volcano full of unnecessary clutter ready to erupt at any moment. It’s time to act. The truth is that everyone has chaotic cupboards and disorderly drawers; piles of paperwork turn into towers on your desk and clothes and shoes wedge open your wardrobe.

Preparation is Key

The key to tackling the mayhem is to start small. Choose a cupboard or drawer (it could even be as small as a spice rack) to practice your organising skills. Remember that preparation is key, so make sure you have a few empty boxes, sticky labels and a marker pen to hand so that you can easily assign items to ‘recycling’, ‘donation’, ‘selling’ and ‘waste’. And it is called spring cleaning for a reason, so grab your vacuum, duster and damp cloth too. 

Step 1: Collect and Identify

The first step is to remove everything and place it on a clean surface where it won’t be damaged. Once all of the items are out of the cupboard or drawer, try to group similar items together as this will make it easier to identify any duplicated items to be considered for removal – nobody needs 14 snowflake shaped cookie cutters for festive baking. 

Step 2: Mindfully Curate

As you consider each group of similar items, be brutally honest with yourself and consider when you last used each item, when and if you’re likely to use it again in the future and how often you will use it. This will vary from item to item and depend on your individual lifestyle. Choose which of the repeats you will use the most and donate or sell the others online.

Step 3: Put Everything Back in Its Place

Once you have assessed your items (and hopefully assigned many duplicate, underused or undervalued items to one of the four boxes) you should be left with your final edit – a mindfully curated masterpiece.

There should now be plenty of space for all of your items in your clean, empty cupboard. As you put things away, try to create logical zones, such as a shelf for baking equipment or a drawer for hair accessories, products and tools. Store infrequently used items on the highest shelves or at the back of the cupboard, and keep the everyday items front and centre where they will be seen and accessed easily. Use labels to mark boxes, storage containers and even shelves – this always helps if you are living with other people, who might not share your new-found love for organizing your home!

Hopefully this has given you the confidence to start countering the clutter, controlling the chaos and curating your home into an organised oasis.