It's that time of year again, people are beginning to get underway with their New Year's resolutions, and some people have decided that it is time to focus on the place they call home. In other words, people are tired of living in their cluttered, unorganized homes that have devolved into utter chaos.

Most people look at the work they have in front of them and just get overwhelmed, choosing to never start because they believe that they will never be able to get through it all. But that's not true, there are simple ways to go about de-cluttering your home so that you can reclaim it.

Here are five simple steps that can help you get underway.

1. Purge.

The first step should always be to get rid of what you don't want or need anymore. You will be utterly shocked at the amount of space that will open up after spending a few hours getting rid of all the useless crap lying around your home.

You might be asking, "how do I figure out what I should be getting rid of?" My rule of thumb is, if I haven't used it in six months (and it's not something seasonal) it's time that I get rid of it. You can donate stuff, sell it online, or simply just toss it in the trash, the choice is yours. Purging this way is strangely satisfying.

2. Go room by room.

This can be the rule of thumb for when you are purging as well as for when you are cleaning and organizing. Instead of looking at the big picture (which can be wildly overwhelming) start small and pick one room and go from there.

Just completing a single room so that you can see the results will be great for how you feel, plus it is likely to inspire you to keep working so that you can have the home you really want. This also helps if you don't have a huge block of time to get a lot of work done, going room by room will allow you to get the work done over a course of time without disrupting every other room in your home.

3. Organize those annoying things like paperwork and charger cords.

Stacks of paperwork and a drawer filled with random charger cords and adapters might not look like they take up a lot of space, but they are still taking up space that could otherwise be used constructively. It's time to figure out if any of the cords actually go to anything that you use, and it might also be time to go through your old bills to make sure that you haven't put yourself in a major hole.

Keeping your paperwork in order will not just save you some counter space (or wherever you happen to keep the stacks), but it will also help you organize your life going forward. It's time to be an adult LOL.

4. Have designated spaces for things.

Assigning things a designated space in your house will help you figure out what needs to go and what needs to stay. It will also help you keep clutter under control moving forward. We have this inane need as humans to fill up whatever available space we have, with whatever we can seemingly fit in there.

Once you have your home de-cluttered, and everything has it's own space, you will be able to tell if you are falling back into old habits if you try and put something new where it doesn't belong.  

5. Stop it before it starts again.

Once you have successfully de-cluttered your house, it's time for you to be able to enjoy your new freedom that an organized living space will bring. Now comes the truly hard part, keeping it this way and not reverting back to old habits.

You need to be able to check yourself at the door to make sure that everything you are bringing into your home serves a purpose, and that you just didn't decide to own another useless thing. If something new is coming in, it either serves a new purpose, or it is replacing something old! Don't let all your hard work go to waste.

Share this with your friends so that they can get their purge on as well. Do you have any tips and tricks? Share them with us in the comments.