Is your house a mess? Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of clutter in your living space?

Live life clutter-free with our clean-up tips to help you organise your home.

Make time

Don’t be vague about when you’ll get round to cleaning up. Set a time and date and stick to it. The longer you delay, the more likely you’ll keep putting it off.

Break it up

Don’t look at the whole picture. It can be a scary thought especially if you haven’t had a clean out in a while. Break your house up into rooms and tackle one by one. It makes the job much more manageable. When you do a clean up, make sure you don’t just move the clutter from one room to another.

Sort it out

Make piles to keep, throw out, recycle and donate to charity. If you find broken things that are waiting to be fixed, decide if it’s worthwhile fixing them. If it’s missing one or more parts, throw it away.

Be firm with yourself

If you haven’t used something in a while, chances are you probably won’t use it in the future. Be firm with yourself and either throw it out, donate it to charity or take it to a recycling centre.

Take your time

De-cluttering can be fun especially when you come across old photo albums and memorabilia. Don’t rush through the clean up. Take your time and enjoy remembering the good times. However, don’t get too distracted and lose sight of the task at hand.

Make a ‘decide later pile’

Some decisions to throw items out are easier than others. If you really can’t make up your mind or the item belongs to someone else, make a ‘decide later pile’. But don’t be tempted to put everything in this pile.

Kitchen clean up

Clear out any mismatched plates and bowls, odd cups and old mugs you don’t use anymore. You can also de-clutter your herbs and spices cupboard. You might be surprised at what’s lurking in the back. Throw anything away that has passed it’s use-by date.

Thin out your wardrobe

If you haven’t worn a piece of clothing in a year, it’s fairly safe to say you’re not going to. Look at each item of clothing in your wardrobe and decide if you could see yourself wearing it. Anything you have doubts about or answer with a definite no, it’s time to give it away.

Make some money

You can make a little extra cash from your clean out. You could have a car boot sale, take your better quality items to a thrift store or sell them online at an auction site like eBay. On the other hand, you could donate your unwanted items to a charity shop, take them to a recycling centre or advertise them on www.freecycle.org.

Be tidy

Storage is a great way to organise and effectively hide your clutter. Make use of filing cabinets, bookshelves, under-bed storage, cupboards and wardrobes. Your house will feel de-cluttered just by putting your things away.

De-cluttering doesn’t have to be a grudge job. Just think of all the new space you will have without the clutter. Once you’ve finished cleaning up your house, it’s a good time to make sure your home insurance is up to date. Check that you have enough home insurance to cover your house and all its contents.

For more information about the types of home insurance available from Direct Line, visit http://www.directline.com.