Organization and Cleaning Up the Clutter…
When my mother went out of town, I cleaned and organized her house. (Yes, I had her permission).
When I found out my nephew was often in trouble because of his messy room, I cleaned and organized his room.
When a friend let her apartment get out of control, I move in for a couple of days and cleaned and organized.
Cleaning and organizing is one of my passions.
When I come home, I want my space to be a place of peace—my sanctuary. I want to be free to enjoy my home and other activities, hobbies, time with family, without feeling overwhelmed by thoughts like, “I need to clean this house.”
My home is organized, but I went through a phase when my office was always a mess. During that time, I was at a crossroads with my career. I had a hard time making decisions, I felt uneasy, depressed, like a failure. Once I clean up my office, everything fell into place. I started feeling better about my direction and I stopped procrastinating.
I was watching Susie Orman on PBS a while back about Women and Money. She talks about “the eight qualities of a wealthy woman.” She contends that the two most important of these are harmony and balance, followed by courage, generosity, happiness, wisdom and beauty. But she makes the most compelling case for the value of cleanliness.
“When you don’t know where your money is,” she notes, “when you have no filing system for your important documents, when you dive into your pocketbook to pull out crumpled bills, when your car looks like a garbage can, when your closets are filled with junk and clutter — I’m sorry, but you cannot possibly be a wealthy woman.”
I believe this with my whole heart… and maybe because I’ve found this to be true, I want to see the people I love also doing well in their lives.
I think a good place to start is by cleaning up our messes.
House… Car… Purse… Room… Closet… Drawer… Cupboards…
What works for me…
- Start small… One drawer, purse, closet, room, car at a time. Conquer one thing at a time to build momentum… it’s good for the self-esteem : )
- If you don’t live alone, make sure your family is involved. You shouldn’t (and can’t) do it alone. Teach your kids some great organization skills.
- Organize once, and stay on top of the clutter, so you’ll never have to do it again.
- Never let something pass through your hands more than once. Don’t “I’ll just put this here for now.” Have a place for everything. Don’t throw a penny in a drawer just because you don’t feel like walking a few steps to your purse to put in your coin purse. Don’t throw a paperclip in a box just because you don’t feel like stepping over to your desk to put the paperclip where it belongs.
- An easy trick for the car is whatever you take into the car you take out of the car when you leave your car. If you go to McDonald’s drive-thru for lunch and have garbage in your car, at your next stop gather your trash and find an outdoor garbage can.
HOME:
If you are going to conquer one room, one floor, or a small home or apartment, these steps worked
for me.
- Take a Saturday for example – get the kids out of the house, turn off the TV, turn
off your phone. Get rid of the distractions!
- Put on some comfortable clothes
- Put on some fun, up-beat music that you can sing and dance to
- Then put everything into four categories:
- Clothes
- Make your bed and throw all your clothes/towels that are on the floor, couch, in the bathroom, etc. on your bed – clean or dirty doesn’t matter.
- Trash/Goodwill
- Get two big garbage bags and start throwing things away, and bagging up what should go to goodwill or a garage sale.
- Papers/bills/magazines/books
- Put all the papers, books etc. by your computer, on your desk or where you do your bills – Have a designated place for this stuff.
- Dishes
- Run around, pick up all the dishes and half-eaten bags of chips, and put them in
the kitchen.
- Once everything is up off the floor it’s time to sort: Don’t forget to dance and sing while sorting! : )
- Throw all your dishes in the dishwasher and start it or soak them in the sink.
- Then start folding/hanging up your clothes and throw a load of dirty clothes in the wash.
- The trick is when you are cleaning and organizing, you are on a mission. There is no time for reminiscing; don’t get caught up in memories—don’t read cards or look at pictures… just put the cards with the cards and pictures with the pictures. Once your house is clean, you can enjoy going through your photos and placing them in albums or picture boxes.
There are many benefits to staying clean and organized. You’ll stop feeling so overwhelmed. You will find you have more time in your day for the things you love to do. You can have company anytime/unexpectedly without embarrassment. You’ll never again have to wonder where something is.
Take a chance, organize and see what wonderful changes happen in your life!
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Lean more about this in The Dumpster: One Woman’s Search for Love and Touchable Love: An Untraditional Love Story http://www.beckydue.com
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