Articles

Domestic Downsizing loves to write helpful articles for our readers to share around the world to help keep you all clutter-free, organised and stylish!

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Five Feng Shui Tips for Christmas

Feng Shui is all about creating a home that has healing and nourishing energy everyday, especially on Christmas day. Here are five easy Feng Shui tips for Christmas to help minimise your stress levels, relax and promote a happy and balanced flow of energy in your home.

1. Place your Christmas tree in the best Feng Shui area of your home. The tree belongs to the Wood element, so place it in an area that is either compatible with the wood element, or benefits from its energy. Here are the best Feng Shui areas for your Christmas tree: East (Health & Family), Southeast (Money and Abundance), or South (Fame and Reputation).
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Prepare Your Home For The New Year With Feng Shui

The Chinese New Year starts January 23 this year – will you be ready?
If you missed the January 1st New Year deadline, don’t worry: the Chinese New Year isn’t until the 23rd of January so you’ve still got time! To greet the New Year, set aside a couple of hours to give your house a New Year Blitz with our suggestions below.

Out with the old!
1. De-clutter: Grab a box, set a timer for five minutes and take it with you from room to room. Throw out old newspapers, magazines, empty bottles of shampoo, old clothes you know you’ll never wear again.

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7 Steps to Declutter for the New Year

Here are 7 quick steps to get you started
1. When organising, it’s best to unclutter first. Pull everything out of a space and sort it into piles: keep, purge and other.

o “Keep” obviously means that you plan to continue to store and/or use the item.
o “Purge” can mean that you intend to throw, shred, recycle, or donate the item to charity.
o “Other” is for objects that need to be repaired, relocated, returned to a friend or family member, or some other special action needs to be taken.

2. Once all of the objects from the space have been sorted, the garbage and recycling items need to go, donate the objects that can be donated, return items to friends, and drop off objects that need to be repaired at the repair shop.

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10 Days to a New Year’s Transformation

10 days is all it takes to a new you!
DAY 1 Purse: go through your purse and clean it out. File all old receipts, dispose of all expired / unused cards. Does your purse reflect who you are now…perhaps it’s time to consider a new purse which is functional and fabulous! Your attitude toward money and abundance is reflected in your choice of purse.

DAY 2 Keys: symbolically unlock your hidden potential and open the doors to new opportunities. Ensure all of your keys are facing the same direction and are on the key ring from largest to smallest. Remove any unused keys from your key ring and add a positive symbol which can enhance the energy of your keys.

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How to get organised for Christmas

Are you stressed out about Christmas?
Do you have 1001 things to buy, cook, clean, organise before the big day?
Here are five top tips to help get you organised:

1. Lower your standards
Make peace with imperfection. You are not Martha Stewart in the kitchen or Clark W Griswold from the movie “Christmas Vacation” when it comes to putting up the Christmas lights. Give yourself permission to buy a Christmas cake rather than making one. Trying to do every task perfectly is the easiest way to get bogged down and super stressed.

2. Make a list like Santa (& do a bit each day)
Rather than wait until Christmas Eve or when we have a “spare minute” have a schedule in place each day leading up to Christmas tackling tasks that need doing, and make sure you assign tasks to all members of the family – not just you! Kids are very good at cleaning silverware, putting up Christmas decorations (it doesn’t matter if they aren’t perfect – refer to point 1. or helping to make/write the Christmas cards.

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How Decluttering Can Improve Your Life…

Everyone knows they need to declutter, but many don’t realise the benefits that will result when they finally do. Some can do it on their own and some need a helping hand from someone like a professional organiser, but whichever way you do it everyone in your life will benefit.

So in no particular order, here are my top four reasons why decluttering will improve your life – and the lives of those around you!

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Decluttering Dilemma – The Linen Cupboard…

Reader question: My dilemma is how to organise my linen closet, which is very small and only has 3 shelves. There are so many sheets and towels and a couple of quilt covers that I rotate through the seasons. In summer, electric blankets and doonas need to be stored until winter comes around. Every time I open the linen closet a doona springs out at me and it’s difficult to actually get to things that are right at the back or up high. Unfortunately my bed goes right to the floor and there is no room underneath to store anything there and my wardrobe is neatly organised but at capacity.

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What To Do If You Are Organised And Your Partner Isn’t…

When I asked my friends and family for their decluttering dilemmas, I had responses varying from paperwork in the home office to tackling Tupperware in the kitchen. One recurring challenge that really struck me however, was the problem of what to do if you are organised and your partner isn’t.

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7 Top Tips To Organise Your Photographs…

So many of my clients have this very problem – countless envelopes filled with photos that have never been sorted, filed, stored, looked at and are now getting way out of hand. “How on earth can we get on top of all these year’s worth of memories?” they cry! Here is a recent blog post I wrote on the 7 top tips to organise your photographs.

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10 Top Tips To Help Downsize Your Home…

It is a common occurrence that we accumulate items over the years and the longer you are in one home the worse it is. We have cupboards and drawers full of stuff; furniture we don’t really need but keep “just in case”; and items that we’ve had for years and may be difficult to part with due to a sentimental attachment.

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Conquering Kitchen Clutter

Would you like your kitchen to be a calm cooking and command centre? Here’s how:
The perfect pantry: Get rid of expired items or food you will never eat. Make it a kid’s game and let them search for the expiration dates.

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How Your Clutter Can Create Financial Chaos…

  • Have you ever gone to the shops to buy an item (again) that you already had but you couldn’t find?
  • Have you ever cleaned up your desk and found a gift certificate or cheque that are now out of date and can no longer be cashed?
  • Have you ever gone through the pantry for an ingredient or the bathroom cabinet for a lovely perfume and found they are expired?
  • Have you ever lost a valuable item such as jewellery or a treasured heirloom due to clutter?

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7 Top Tips To Organise Your Jewellery…

Everyone has their own organising style so therefore when it comes to something as simple as jewellery, there are as many different options as there are colours! There are some great ways to organise your jewellery – hooks on doors, compartmentalised jewellery boxes, tool boxes from the hardware store, cutlery trays, etc. Don’t know what the best solution is for you? Here are 7 tips to get you started:

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Fabulous Feng Shui – Water For Wealth

One of the key elements for wealth in Feng Shui is water. From the most ancient times, an abundance of water has been equal with an abundance of wealth. Water enabled farmers to grow and nourish their fields and reap great crops and profits.

Follow these guidelines to help you activate your wealth-producing potential by introducing water to your home and landscape.

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