Top 10 tips for de-cluttering your work and home life

If the piles of paper and folders on your desk are leaving you with a sinking feeling at the end of the day, take heed of this advice.

Shelina Jokhiya, the founder of Decluttr Me, 36, makes it her mission to clear out other people’s junk. Sarah Dea / The National

Is your desk obscured by a mountain of paper? Is your inbox overflowing with unread emails? If so perhaps it’s time to de-clutter. Shelina Jokhiya, 36, makes it her mission to clear out other people’s junk. Last year she set up her Dubai-based business, Decluttr Me, to organise other people’s homes and offices. “I love tidying up”, confesses the professional organiser. “I’m a big Madonna fan, and have a huge collection of her memorabilia. The CDs and vinyl are in alphabetical order, and the cuttings are arranged date-wise. I am that bad.”

Sharyn Kennedy, an Abu Dhabi-based cognitive behavioural therapist, thinks not all mess is bad. “Often, extreme workplace clutter continues because people get overwhelmed with pressures and deadlines, and their workspace reflects this. But clutter on desks may send a message that suits the messy person, ie: I’m extremely busy and always have lots to do. Or clutter might provoke behaviours from colleagues that benefit the untidy person, ie they might get more attention and support from others.

“While de-cluttering helps most, there will be others who find clutter enhances their productivity and creativity. Pay attention to how you feel. Are you clear and focused when you arrive at your desk, or do you have a sinking feeling? Before you go home, when you look at your desk do you feel satisfied or frustrated? Noticing your feelings will help you decide whether or not you need to de-clutter.” If being surrounded by mess is making your heart sink, here are Ms Jokhiya’s 10 tips for de-cluttering your work and home life.

1. Act, file or toss incoming paper

Act means either dealing with it immediately or sending it to whomever needs to deal with it, so you don’t have to. Then just file it straight away into your folders, or throw it away. Before you leave work, clear your desk. It’ll make you feel much better when you see a nice tidy desk as you enter in the morning.

If you don’t have time to file every day, set yourself a reminder to file once a week at a set time – not at the end of the week when you’re itching to get out of the office, but say for half an hour on a Tuesday.

2. Clear your inbox

Instead of just using your inbox and sent box, create folders – one for each of your work projects, banking matters, home matters and schooling, for example. You can then file emails away as soon as they appear in your inbox so that you do not have to comb through thousands of messages to find anything. Try to get below 10 emails in your inbox. Spend the last half an hour of each working day filing and deleting whatever’s in your inbox

3. If you don’t need to print it, don’t

When you’re doing a presentation, you don’t need copies for everyone. And each department should have a shredder to get rid of documents that are not in use. Also remember to stay safe – if you print out an email that might contain confidential details, shred it afterwards.

4. File and divide

At home, put your papers into different coloured files for work, banking, children’s school matters and so on. Label them properly and place them in monthly dividers. Put them on a bookshelf so you can access them easily.

5. Organise your life

For keeping notes, I recommend Evernote, an app that enables you to keep different notebooks for different themes. It also has a to-do list with tick boxes. I put my shopping list there. And use calendars. Having one that syncs to your phone is useful, so you get alerts to remind you. But the technology isn’t always reliable, so keep a paper diary too. Then you can check your availability while talking on the phone. Get into the habit of checking your calendars in the morning, so you know what you’re doing throughout the day.

6. One room at a time

When you’re de-cluttering an office or a home, don’t try to do all the rooms in one go, as you don’t want to get overwhelmed. Work in chunks of time that you can feel comfortable with, for example 45 minutes, then take a 15-minute break.

7. Wipe the mess away

You shouldn’t really eat at your desk because crumbs attract bugs, but I admit to the occasional biscuit to keep me going. Have disinfectant wet wipes in your drawer to clean up after food and drink. Clean your desk with one every morning too. Don’t rely on office cleaners, who use the same rag to clean all the desks with.

8. Don’t leave it to the maid

At home, people with maids expect them to de-clutter for them. But maids are there to clean. They’ve been told they have to make everything tidy but they don’t know what to do with the junk, so they hide it away in cupboards. Be clear in telling your maid where to put everything, and also have a box for her to put anything she’s not sure what to do with. Go through the box once a week with her.

9. Allow your clothes room to breathe

Leave about 15 per cent of the space in your wardrobe free. If clothes are squashed in, they get crumpled and you will portray a ruffled image in the office. Get rid of whatever you haven’t worn in the last six months, though there are exceptions, such as suits or ball gowns.

10. Be ruthless

You don’t need everything you think you need at work or at home.

Piles of useful pamphlets and work notes probably are not as useful as you think, so have a clear-out every six months or so. At home, don’t go overboard with photos. It’s better to have a smaller number of your favourite pictures to make the room look less cluttered. And once you’ve read a book, get rid of it. If you feel an urgent need to read it again, you can always download it.

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