10 Creative Ways to Declutter Your Life and Stay Organized

The majority of us come to an age where we feel so overwhelmed by everything that's going on. There are things happening in our personal life, we're drowning in work, and it feels like life is coming down on us in full force. Whenever we feel this way, we'll start to be less organized and try to juggle everything in our hands at once.

I'm definitely at that part of my life where so much is happening and my living space says it all. I'm misplacing certain things, my clothing is either all over the floor or lost, I have a ton of unopened emails, and have letters that are stacked on top of each other. I'm not the best at scheduling so I'm always rushing to places, making a lot of commitments, and I have zero alone time. After realizing my situation, I really wanted to get my life in order and be more organized.

I came up with great ways to declutter your life and become more organized in both your personal and work life. After I thoroughly followed through with these methods, I've never been more on top of my game and so you should be too!

Before I had a bookshelf, my books were all over the house. I stuffed my drawers with books, kept a pile of books in the corner of my room, and even left some on the living room table because I couldn't think of other places to store my college and personal reading books. After noticing how many books I had and where I was storing them, I knew I needed to get a bookshelf. This way, I can neatly organize and store all of my books properly without having to look for a specific book.

There are so many different bookshelves out there that you can buy, but this one by Furniture of America really caught my attention because of how unique and modern it looks. Since it's a slim bookshelf that doesn't need to take up much room, you can place it in any corner of your house and fill it with all the books you have. It's thick, very sturdy, and styled in a zig-zag design to make it very fitting in your modern environment! It's also a pretty cheap way to organize your apartment.

Go through your mail and emails.

Properly going through your mail and emails is definitely one of the ways to declutter your life. When you receive mail, you should open them right immediately. Don't wait a couple of days to open them up because when they're bills, they should be taken care of on the spot. If you happen to not look over them that same day, there's a chance that you might forget about paying them—especially when you're dealing with a lot.

This also goes for the emails you get on the daily. You could be receiving emails from clients, your boss, etc., and it would be so unprofessional to respond days later. You should thoroughly go through your mail and emails every day to stay on top of your work and life as a whole; it'll help you organize your life in one week.

Reduce your commitment.

People who constantly say yes to nearly everything don't notice that all that time and commitment can clutter their life. I've also learned this the hard way. When I was in college, I was already overwhelmed with the workload since it was my junior year. However, outside of college, I always said yes to almost everyone's requests. While having to write three essays literally every week, I said yes to joining a play, I said yes to helping others with their essays, I said yes to babysitting, and I always made commitments with people. Then, I was slowly burning out and realized my grades were slowly dropping, too.

Reducing your commitment is without a doubt one of the ways to declutter your life. You should start focusing on yourself and what's really important to you. It can be tough to say no to the people you care about, but you don't have to say yes to everyone's requests. The more you make commitments, the harder your life will be.

There's nothing I hate more than having to search through my wallet to find a discount card. The worst was when I actually lost a card. Since I shop nearly everywhere, I have a ton of discount cards on me and they consume so much space in my wallet. Then I heard about the Key Ring Reward Cards app and I never relied on my actual discount cards again.

This great app is capable of carrying your cards, coupons, stores’ weekly ads, and even your shopping lists! It’s like your most loyal partner whenever you're heading out to shop for anything. When you’re about to purchase something, simply open this app, click your discount card, and the cashier can scan the barcode! Now you’ll never have to worry about losing your cards.

Set a daily routine.

One of the ways to declutter your life is to set a daily routine every day and stick to it. List all of the tasks and chores that you need to complete every day at certain times so you get everything out of the way. This is also a great method to schedule time if you're constantly late to everything. I know I'm always late to almost every event, even meeting up with someone for dinner. Now that I have a daily routine, I know how to manage my time better so I'm never late to anything again.

To start, you should place your most important tasks first to get them out of the way. If you have a meeting or a dinner sometime during the day, fix your schedule around that time. Always give yourself time before an event to be fully prepared, too.

Always make your bed.

It's like they say, your day hasn't started until you made your bed. After you wake up, the first thing you should definitely do is make your bed. This will show that your day has fully begun and you can't go back to sleep anymore. It also makes your room look more organized because the sight of a tousled bed is never appealing.

I used to never make my bed and whenever I would walk into my room, my unmade bed was such a tease to look at because I always just wanted to get in it and nap for the rest of the day. Even if it's your day off, the second you wake up, make your bed. You'll be more productive this way to get work done!

Doing all of your work at a desk is one of the best ways to declutter your life. I never, ever did my work on a desk because I didn't own one and I thought that working right on my bed was the best spot to get everything done. I was very wrong. You should never work where you sleep. If you're trying to get homework done while sitting in bed, the chances of you taking forever to finish one assignment are pretty high.

You'll become sleepy, doze off, and slowly fall back into bed and take a nap. Instead, you should really start doing all of your work on a desk. If you don't own one, this desk by The Container Store is ideal. You can get so many assignments done just by working on it and the desk gives you the chance to organize all of your work, files, notebooks, and much more with the featured cubbies, drawer, and slots! Always know where you're leaving your work and where you'll be working with this desk.

Focus on one thing at a time.

If people tell you that they "multitask," it's not true. It's almost impossible to put 100 percent attention into two things at one time. When you're dealing with two stressful assignments, always put your full focus to finish one assignment before starting the other one. You want to try your best for both assignments and you can't do this if you're doing both at the same time.

Schedule your time according to how long you believe it will take you to complete one assignment. If you're doing both at once, there's a high chance that you won't perform your best. It's best if you take your time on each because quality is very important in any work!

Make a list for literally everything.

Have you ever walked into a grocery store and knew what you need to buy in your mind, but walked out of the store with the things that you really didn't need? This has happened to me multiple times until I stopped mentally making a list and actually wrote down what I needed from the store. Making a list of what you need whenever heading out somewhere is one of the best ways to declutter your life, plus it's a money lifehack you need to know!

The next time you need to take a trip to the grocery store, jot down the important items you need from there. When you have a checklist in your hand, this will prevent you from buying things you didn't intend on buying, but purchase the ones that you do need. You're also saving money when you have a checklist because you're focusing on what's on your list rather than what you see in every aisle.

Schedule a time for yourself.

Lastly, setting a time for just yourself is one of the most important ways to declutter your life. We all need some quality alone time with ourselves to clear our minds, relax, and do what we enjoy doing. Even if it's just one hour, it's very important to unwind and clear your thoughts. If you're constantly doing something and your only relaxing time is going to bed, you're making it much harder for yourself.

Relax a little! Everyone has to have some alone time or else we'll lose our minds and burn out. Even if you have a lot on your hands, you should still make the time to push it all to the side and kick back to watch TV, read a book, surf the Internet, or anything else that you know will make you calm down.