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There's one reason your house always feels cluttered, according to an interior designer.

You know what sucks? A messy house. There's nothing more overwhelming than feeling like you're living amongst clutter — clothes strewn everywhere, cupboards positively bursting, trinkets overflowing the night stand... just a whole lot of stuff.

And there's a reason it's making your life feel like utter chaos. According to research, disorder and mess can actually impact our brains, causing cognitive overload, stress and anxiety. It can even have an impact on our productivity and our choices. 

Read: it's just not a good time for our brains.

But what if we were to tell you that the key to an uncluttered house is actually pretty simple? (Yes, it one hundred per cent sounds like a scam, but stay with us...)

Watch: 4 cleaning hacks to make your life easier. Post continues below.


Video via Mamamia

According to interior designer Caroline Winkler, there's an easy solution to home organisation — it's called the 'drop zone' method. Heard of it? Let us (Winkler) explain.

In a YouTube video aptly titled 'You're doing home organisation wrong: This is why your home is a mess', Winkler shared, "If its not easily maintained by everyone in the home then it's not going to work. There’s nothing more impossible than changing human behaviour."

"It’s hard to create new habits for yourself let alone for me to create new habits for my pretend partner or my pretend kids."

"And if they can’t uphold my new organisation system, then I’m left doing it all alone, and that’s not why I got pretend married."

Hear, hear.

To nut out how to organise your home effectively, Winkler said the key is to figure out where the mess is actually piling up — is it that corner in the bathroom where everyone chucks their dirty towels? The kitchen table where everyone throws their keys/bags/entire lives? The pile of shoes at the front door?

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These are your designated ' drop zones'.

"Watch where you are naturally dropping your stuff when you come home and then put drop zones there," said Winkler. "If the keys are always going on that table put a freaking bowl on that table. If the bag is always being dropped there, then put a table, put a chair or put a stool."

And okay but why is this so simple and why haven't we thought of this before??

For example, if you're someone who has a habit of throwing your dirty (or clean) clothes in a pile in the corner of the bedroom (precisely all of us reading this article), try popping a basket in that space to maintain a more organised space.

See? Neater! More effective! Can still throw stuff somewhere!

As Winkler explained, the same goes for keys, shoes, toys, etc. It's all about making the space more effective by catering to what you (or your partner, roommates, kids, etc.) are going to do out of habit, anyway.

"Good design and good organisation systems are not about making people adhere to your system, it’s about making the system adhere to the habits people already have," she said. "That’s the way they get maintained."

"If we don’t consider the ease of maintenance, then the drop zone could easily be on the side of the room where it would take you four more steps to get there and put your coat down.

"If it’s just a little inconvenient, it’s not going to happen."

Would you adopt the 'drop zone' method to declutter your house? What's your go-to method? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below. 

Feature image: YouTube/Caroline Winkler.

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