An organized home feels like a haven It does not have to be completely feng shui ala Marie Kondo. It should not have clutter on every surface. Somewhere between a hoarder's heaven and detached feng shui perfection is a lived-in yet organized place. We spend most of our non-work hours in our home, so making it a place we enjoy being is important.
If you look at the condition of things in your house and feel overwhelmed, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to change things. My family has lived in our home for more than 15 years. Without making a conscious choice to do so, we can accumulate a lot of items. The key to bringing sanity to a cluttered home is taking organization one area, one step, at a time. I have found many free helps for this at flylady.net.
For this installment of my blog, let's begin with what flylady calls "hot spots". These are those places we tend to drop items "for the moment" as we enter and leave the house and as we go about routine activity. These spots have gotten cluttered over a period of time, so first, don't expect them to become perfectly clean in a day; second, realize these are spots we subconsciously clutter up habitually and they will require regular maintenance.
Most of us have busy schedules and limited daily time for housework, so the most effective way to go about decluttering is to take it in short, regular bursts. For instance, if we have put dinner on and cleaned our prep dishes but have some waiting time while it cooks, we can set a timer for five minutes or choose a couple of motivating songs from our playlist and spend that time focusing on a kitchen hotspot. Toss junk mail, expired coupons, and manuals for appliances we no longer have. Go through phone messages and eliminate ones we have already responded to and place ones we need to respond to on our priority list. Throw away any other trash that has found its way to the counter. Wipe the handset, headset, screen, dial pad, etc of phones down with a disinfectant wipe. Wash the counter clean. Don't bite off more than you can chew; do only what you can manage in five minutes, realizing that you will return to this hotspot regularly and that it will continue to improve.
If laundry tends to pile up and you have a washer/dryer, begin to make a habit of popping a load of laundry in the washer as soon as you are showered and dressed. If you work outside the home, begin the habit of transferring washed laundry to the dryer first thing when you arrive home. After dinner, you can get it out of the dryer and sit down to fold it while you watch a favorite show. As soon as your show is over, put everything away. In the morning, after your shower, take your towel and give the tub/shower and surround a quick wipe down. This will make your job easier when it is time to do a full cleaning. Designate a single spot for mail to be deposited, and since it requires little extra effort, go through mail when you retrieve it from the mailbox. Immediately throw away junk mail and any coupons you will not use. Designate twenty minutes once or twice a week for responding to mail and clipping coupons. Throw away everything you don't need to keep and file anything you must keep. An option to cut down on paper and organize for easy location is to scan or photograph receipts and organize them digitally. This is also a good option for retaining your children's artwork and cards you have received as well as gifts received so you can send thank you notes and put a notation on the file to keep track. Anything you use often should have a neat spot that is easily accessible where it lives.
Use the hot spot principle with each room of the house and try to hit each spot once a week. Designate a different zone in your house for each day of the week and spend 15 minutes cleaning there on the designated day. You will gradually work your way from cursory to deep cleaning. Designate 30 minutes on a day you are not working outside of the home for maintenance. Tighten knobs and screws, make minor repairs, change lightbulbs, inventory supplies and put any you are low on on your shopping list.
Adding these things to your daily and weekly routine will take very little time, but will eventually make a big impact on the organization of your home.
Organized surroundings make everyone in the family feel that things are under control and decreases stress. Each person in the family can be given an age appropriate duty in the day to day cleaning of one zone (15 minutes of cleaning). This will make a bigger impact more quickly. Don't forget to rotate duties in the yard and garden as well as doing dishes and cooking meals. Additionally, note whether you need to explore options for storage, plan what you need, add items needed for the project to your shopping list, and follow through during maintenance time.
Try this for two months and enjoy your well organized home!
Next time: Sorting through the wardrobe.
If you look at the condition of things in your house and feel overwhelmed, it can be difficult to motivate yourself to change things. My family has lived in our home for more than 15 years. Without making a conscious choice to do so, we can accumulate a lot of items. The key to bringing sanity to a cluttered home is taking organization one area, one step, at a time. I have found many free helps for this at flylady.net.
For this installment of my blog, let's begin with what flylady calls "hot spots". These are those places we tend to drop items "for the moment" as we enter and leave the house and as we go about routine activity. These spots have gotten cluttered over a period of time, so first, don't expect them to become perfectly clean in a day; second, realize these are spots we subconsciously clutter up habitually and they will require regular maintenance.
Most of us have busy schedules and limited daily time for housework, so the most effective way to go about decluttering is to take it in short, regular bursts. For instance, if we have put dinner on and cleaned our prep dishes but have some waiting time while it cooks, we can set a timer for five minutes or choose a couple of motivating songs from our playlist and spend that time focusing on a kitchen hotspot. Toss junk mail, expired coupons, and manuals for appliances we no longer have. Go through phone messages and eliminate ones we have already responded to and place ones we need to respond to on our priority list. Throw away any other trash that has found its way to the counter. Wipe the handset, headset, screen, dial pad, etc of phones down with a disinfectant wipe. Wash the counter clean. Don't bite off more than you can chew; do only what you can manage in five minutes, realizing that you will return to this hotspot regularly and that it will continue to improve.
If laundry tends to pile up and you have a washer/dryer, begin to make a habit of popping a load of laundry in the washer as soon as you are showered and dressed. If you work outside the home, begin the habit of transferring washed laundry to the dryer first thing when you arrive home. After dinner, you can get it out of the dryer and sit down to fold it while you watch a favorite show. As soon as your show is over, put everything away. In the morning, after your shower, take your towel and give the tub/shower and surround a quick wipe down. This will make your job easier when it is time to do a full cleaning. Designate a single spot for mail to be deposited, and since it requires little extra effort, go through mail when you retrieve it from the mailbox. Immediately throw away junk mail and any coupons you will not use. Designate twenty minutes once or twice a week for responding to mail and clipping coupons. Throw away everything you don't need to keep and file anything you must keep. An option to cut down on paper and organize for easy location is to scan or photograph receipts and organize them digitally. This is also a good option for retaining your children's artwork and cards you have received as well as gifts received so you can send thank you notes and put a notation on the file to keep track. Anything you use often should have a neat spot that is easily accessible where it lives.
Use the hot spot principle with each room of the house and try to hit each spot once a week. Designate a different zone in your house for each day of the week and spend 15 minutes cleaning there on the designated day. You will gradually work your way from cursory to deep cleaning. Designate 30 minutes on a day you are not working outside of the home for maintenance. Tighten knobs and screws, make minor repairs, change lightbulbs, inventory supplies and put any you are low on on your shopping list.
Adding these things to your daily and weekly routine will take very little time, but will eventually make a big impact on the organization of your home.
Organized surroundings make everyone in the family feel that things are under control and decreases stress. Each person in the family can be given an age appropriate duty in the day to day cleaning of one zone (15 minutes of cleaning). This will make a bigger impact more quickly. Don't forget to rotate duties in the yard and garden as well as doing dishes and cooking meals. Additionally, note whether you need to explore options for storage, plan what you need, add items needed for the project to your shopping list, and follow through during maintenance time.
Try this for two months and enjoy your well organized home!
Next time: Sorting through the wardrobe.
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