Five hacks to declutter your house

Need to tidy your house for day 16 of the Yahoo News What's Up? mental health challenge but don't know where to start?

Australia's Sally Flower has you covered with some expert decluttering tips that will not only clear your house, but also your mind.

Flower, a master KonMari consultant and founder of Home Sanctuary, says having a tidy home can improve stress levels, productivity and sleep.

"If you go to sleep in an organised room, people have a better sleep, are sleeping longer and falling asleep more easily," she said.

"Tidying increases positive behaviours."

Sally's top 5 decluttering hacks

1. Start simple

Flower says start by getting rid of the things you know you desperately don't need or aren't making you happy.

"This is really good to do for chronic clutterers, and people with hoarding tendencies," she said.

2. Create a purpose

Flower said it wasn't enough to say you want to be tidy.

"There needs to be something you're working towards," she said.

"What drives you? Do you want to have friends and family over, do you want to enjoy the home you just bought, do you want to reduce stress levels?

"You need to get deep and there needs to be an individual trigger for you."

3. Dive into categories.

The KonMarie method tackles decluttering by category rather than location, and Flower says people should do just that.

"Clothes, shoes, linen, kitchen, kid's toys – the reason we do it in categories is it's much easier for the brain to make decisions on like-minded objects rather than walking into a room to make a decision on different types of things," Flower says.

"When we can see what we have it helps you to declutter."

4. Dedicate time

Flower says setting aside time is crucial when decluttering your home.

"You can't just do it at lunch time," she said.

"To tackle problems you need to invest time now to save time later – you can't just say I want to organise the wardrobe before I go to bed.

"You need to treat it like you are training or it's an assignment – it's something really important."

5. Worry about yourself

Flower says to successfully declutter you need to start with yourself.

She said people often made the excuse the house was messy because of their housemate, husband or kids, but Flower suggests organising yourself before having the conversation with those around you.

"I am yet to meet a client who has been absolutely perfect and the family is the problem," she said.

"It's important to minimise the amount of things you have and focusing on that rather than worrying about the people around you.

"Organise and declutter things you are responsible for."

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