Inspired by our favourite Organisational-Influencers

If there’s anything lockdown gave us, it’s a load of new ways to reshape your life, and with this came decluttering experts telling us the best ways to clear up our space.

From documentaries to TikTok vids, organisation influencers came in all shapes and sizes. And this advice was actually quite useful, especially when we had nothing better to do.

Now life is beginning to return to normal, it can be easy to fall back into the trap of cluttering up your space with no time to stay organised. But keeping your space clutter-free can do wonders for your wellbeing so staying on top of things is just as important as ever, especially whilst you’re at uni.

So, we're here to remind you of some of the best organisation tips and tricks to come from the decluttering influencers of the past few years.

1. Marie Kondo Style - Ask yourself 'what Sparks Joy?'

It would’ve been difficult to talk about decluttering your things without mentioning the queen of organisation herself. In her Netflix documentary 'Tidying Up with Marie Kondo', Kondo gives us some pretty useful tips on how to go about getting rid of things that you don’t need. For those of you who haven’t had a chance to watch the Netflix documentary Kondo’s main tip is this:

Get out everything from the place that you want to organise. Whether that’s your wardrobe, shelves or cupboards. Start separating these things into two piles; things that spark joy and things that don’t. Everything that doesn’t needs to go.

This is only Marie’s Kondo’s general philosophy, so you don’t have to take it literally. There are still things that might not exactly spark joy but you still need, so you can't start throwing away your uni textbooks. But what she means by this is only keep the things that either you genuinely enjoy or the things in which you see an actual purpose in. Everything else is just excess!

2. Anita Birges - Reverse Hanger Trick

This tip has come from a few different influencers, one being Australian decluttering-expert Anita Birges. Whilst this isn't a quick fix for decluttering your room, its a great trick for finding out what you do and don't need clothes-wise.

You simply hang all your clothes up with the hanger facing the same way and every time you wear something you flip the hanger around. Give yourself a good amount of time (Anita advises six months) and see what items are left ‘unflipped’. These are the things you don't wear that often, and from this, you can decide which of these clothes need to go. This way you can’t convince yourself that you’ll need that top soon, because if you havent worn it now then chances are you won't later.

find out more about the hanger trick here.

3. Emily Mariko - Organise your fridge

Whilst Emily Mariko didn’t start the fridge organising trend, her videos are great if you need some inspo.

If there's anything Emily Mariko has taught us, it’s that even your fridge can do with a declutter and the best way to do this is by food prepping. Like Mariko, get yourself some Tupperware and plan your meals and plan your food shop. Then prep what's needed for the week. This way you don't have any wasted food sitting in your fridge and you can make your dinners a lot quicker in the week.

4. Becoming Minimalist - Get help from your friends

Whilst minimalism is a more extreme decluttering lifestyle, there are still some useful tips and tricks you can use. Like Kondo, Minimilaists gave us visual guides on how to clear your space through various documentaries and Tiktoks, but if you don’t feel like watching these documentaries Joshua Becker has a blog (here) that is gives some useful decluttering tips.

In the article, Becker tells us how a second opinion is great when it comes to decluttering your space. Getting a friend to come and help you whilst deciding what going to stay and what's going will give you an objective point of view on whether you actually need to keep some things or whether it’s just your inner-hoarder talking. This is a great idea if you're someone who gets a little too sentimental with your belongings...

Decluttering doesn't have to be a life-changing process, but it's great to do if you're looking to simplify your life by only keeping things that you genuinely need.

Even though life has started to pick up again it’s really important to make sure you keep your space clean and clutter-free. 

If you do choose to downsize your possessions, try to get rid of things responsibly. Taking things to charity or passing them down to friends and family are better alternatives to throwing away perfectly good items.