Have you ever paused and thought about the relationship between you and the environment around you? Can the physical space that we find ourselves in everyday make us feel a certain way?

Let’s take a look at some of the ways that I’ve found, impact me positively and lead to a reduction in stress. With the help of Allah, being organised and tidy at home has helped me to modulate all spheres of my life and has given me energy and positivity to do new things (such as this coaching blog). All because there isn’t an excess of clutter or mess at home that take away my attention..It all comes down to creating systems that help you get towards your desired destination.

I’m not saying that I invented these techniques all by myself, but wherever I picked these up from they seem to be beneficial in my home….so I thought I’d share them with you too.

#1 Make things accessible.

Storage vs. everyday items should be treated differently so that you can quickly access the most essential items on demand. It may not be the most visually appealing set-up and you may need to move your home décor around, but it is a real time saver. ESPECIALLY for families with small kids. Consider buying transparent storage containers of different sizes so you know what goes where without forgetting about it. But if you aren’t able to do so, then just prioritise on keeping the handy things around you and nothing else, even if it looks like a jail cell.

#2 Get ahead of the game

Whether it is preparing a meal, dirty dishes in the sink or fresh or used laundry, if you auto-mate the routine and keep things down to for e.g one load, then you will never get too overwhelmed, which saves both time and energy in the long run. When you do things in manageable portions there is room for flexibility and you can prevent burnout.

#3 Free up space

What I like to do, is to put things that are of no use in the bin immediately. For example if I get a parcel,before moving it through the house I take off the packaging straight away and dispose of that. Similarly, if I come across broken things or things I don’t understand the purpose of, I don’t leave it lying there for decades..I put it in a drawer designated for items to be potentially disposed, which I only do after assessing the drawer in my spare time or when I get the chance to do a clear out.

# 4 Pace yourself

I used to get myself in a frenzy when I had my first child and I have pin pointed this to; not switching between tasks that were urgent and tasks that can be put off till later. If a child has had an accident on a carpet, you shouldn’t be focusing on making your kitchen counter spotless or wiping off smears on the windows, but instead you want to soak up as much of the urine as possible and sprinkle bicarbonate soda on the affected region within a few minutes to avoid a smelly odour in the house.

# 5 Collective responsibility

If you can get everyone in the house to take ownership of chores, it makes all family members conscious of the effort it takes to keep the space clean & tidy and they are more likely not to cause havoc. There are plenty of resources online about age appropriate chores but even little children are more than capable of keeping things in order if you show them a couple of times. If they are in the habit of creating a mess, just make them clear it away a few times so they realise that a quick mess takes a very long time to undo.

I hope that these tips are beneficial. Perhaps we can take it to the comments section, if anyone else has useful hacks that they would like to share with other sisters and brothers who aspire to have a harmonious environment at home.