by Emilie Barnes, 101 Ways to Clean the Clutter
It’s a Family Matter
Involve the whole family. Learn to delegate jobs and responsibilities to other members of the family. Work with the children to de-clutter their bedrooms and bath. Dad can also be a big help, especially when you begin to clear out all the unused stuff in the garage. Set a date for a cleaning bonanza and purchase all the cleaning supplies in advance.
As a surprise for your family cleaning day, purchase a fun organizational tool for each family member—one that suits their individual personality. Or plan a relay cleaning day. Designate several projects that need to be done and assign a person to each task. Set a timer for 30 minutes and start working. When the buzzer sounds, each family member rotates to a different chore station.
This plan keeps the energy high and nobody becomes bored. Allow your family members to choose the background music for the work day and promise them pizza when everything is done. You could also reward the hard workers with a movie night and a walk-through tour to see how the rooms look with their makeover.
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Labels Are Helpful
Use lots of labels and signs. If containers, bins, drawers, and shelves aren’t labeled, the family won’t be able to spot where things go. Use color coding to help identify items belonging to various members of the family; red bins for Christine, blue for Chad, and yellow for Bevan.
Keep your family involved in the process of simplifying the home life. You might be pleasantly surprised by how much they flourish in an uncluttered environment. Give your kids cleaning responsibilities at every age so that they get used to the benefits. Keep the tasks age-appropriate and be sure to acknowledge them for their efforts. Most of all, model the behavior yourself.
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You will achieve grand dreams, a day at a time, so set goals for each day—not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won’t have to drag today’s undone matters into tomorrow. -OG MANDINO
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A Place for Everything
Without too much detective work, we can figure out that most clutter happens because there isn’t a set “home” for each item. Remember the old saying, “Everything has a place and everything is in its place.” When everything has a place, you know where to find it, where to put it back, and you don’t waste time searching through items to retrieve it.
Designate an easily accessible spot for your most used items. If those spots are filled with infrequently used items, clear them out and move them to storage (after you see if there is anything you can give away). Choose a room and spend 30 minutes assigning a place for each item that fills the corners, clutters the surface areas, and blocks doorways.
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Our neighborhood has usually two massive garage sales in the spring and late fall. Like the article says, all the clutter is brought out and is available for someone else. “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” 🙂 It does help get reorganized and it is a joint effort from the neighborhood. The only thing, though, you just might come back to your own house with other stuff. 🙂 But you get to meet your neighbors too. 🙂
Garage sales and thrift store shopping has been a God-send for me as my kids were growing up. As the years went on I realized that garage sales can become a place where you get “everything you never needed.” So I don’t go very often anymore. But then my kids are older now. Sounds like your neighborhood has a wonderful thing going, Mary!
I love garage sales and thrift stores!!!!! Although it is more difficult for my sweetie. 😉 He is more inclined to say we could use this or that “thing” for a really cool futurist idea…….that doesn’t usually work out or happen. So like the article, it becomes clutter. My poor sweetie, he has good ideas though. <3 🙂
We ended up with health issues (mental health) due to clutter. My husband comes from the “let’s keep it for the future” idea, being that his aunts, mother, etc. came from the Depression era and saved everything from bits of old string to empty cottage cheese containers. He assumed everybody did this, and due to my exceptional needs, I ended up in depression due to clutter.
The husbands who need to save everything need to really keep this in mind — your wife can end up — literally — in therapy and on medication due to clutter depression. I am now super hyper vigilant over clutter to the point that I get paranoid if I see anything cluttered. I can’t do anything under those circumstances.
Thrift stores can be a clutter trap, as can garage sales. I am so passionate about this, do not ever purchase anything you don’t have an immediate use for — don’t fall into the trap of “this would be great someday”. It is a deadly trap.
http://momintheshoe.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-commentary-on-overwhelm-and.html
I agree, clutter can really bring a person down. It sounds like you have had quite a journey with it. 🙁 Not too big of a bug-a-boo, but the one area I have trouble with is my books. I don’t consider them clutter but my bookshelves are bursting and it can get to looking quite cluttered…..I tell myself I am going to do something about it, roll up my sleeves and after going through a couple hundred books, I get rid of……one. Whoop-de-doo. 😛 I am looking forward to reading your 4-part posts on de-cluttering, Elizabeth, when I snag a few moments. I like the quote you used “Too many messes equal too many stresses”.
I love books, I can’t part with books! 😀
I used to be unable to part with books also, but after a few years and some really difficult struggles to just “make it” in the mess, I started tossing. Goodwill and the church bookstore benefitted from a lot of my collection. It’s way more manageable now.
Manageable is important! 🙂