I’m amazed each year at the colorful  transformation spring brings from brown and drab to green and lush. It motivates me to transform my home into something lighter and brighter. What about you? Do you get motivated to make changes and improvements to your home? Do you get motivated to organize and declutter?

Here are 10 things I do to keep clutter at bay.

1. Have a do-it-now attitude. I do my best to make decisions and take action in a timely manner. This helps prevent piles from starting and growing.
2. Make bed every morning. This small act helps me jump start my day creating order.
3. Have a morning and evening routine, and include activities essential to health and well-being. These routines allow me to start and end my day with calm focus. Two activities included in my morning routine are eating breakfast and meditating. Two activities included in my evening routine are preparing for the next day by reviewing my calendar and planning my outfit.
4. Have a place for everything and put everything in it’s place. If you struggle with this, I recommend establishing a home for important items that you use daily, for example, wallet, keys, pocketbook, and toiletries.
5. Have a return-home-routine. I allow myself time to put things away each time I enter my house. This prevents me from littering my entryway with piles of clutter and facilitates an organized home.
6. Process mail daily. If you struggle with this, I recommend that you collect all incoming mail into a specific container and pick two days a week to processed what is in the container.
7. Use personal daily calendar that keeps track of important actions that need to get done. A calendar is a great tool for keeping appointments and remembering birthdays, but I find it’s real value is prompting me to take action on tasks and projects.
8. Use weekly tickler files. I use pocket folders to collect notes and papers that would otherwise be all over the place. The system I created for myself is one folder for the current week, two folders for the following two weeks, and a folder for anything beyond 3 weeks. I schedule time on Sunday night or Monday morning to organize all 4 folders.
9. Use a donation box. This is a box that holds what I wish to get rid of until I can drop it off for donation. This box performs the important task of helping me separate what I don’t want from what I’m currently using.
10. Spend time every day reclaiming order.