Get Your Home Organized

Think sooner rather than later. Unless you are one of those organized persons who makes a cleaning schedule and then does it, most of us prefer to put off cleaning and organizing projects as long as possible.

Thus, we avoid attending to obvious needs around the home by thinking we’ll get to it during spring cleaning, fall cleaning, or another day, another time.

Face it. If cleaning really should be governed by the seasons, wouldn’t all the shakes fall off the roof at the same time the leaves fall from the trees? Well, maybe not.

Since spring time is seen as nature’s time of birth and rejuvenation, it is a perfectly good idea to choose a nice spring day for renovating, cleaning and organizing your home, inside and out. But keeping your home orderly and clean is easier on a daily basis and you don’t need to work as hard to keep it organized.

What The Pros and Successful Amateurs Know:

The best organized and tidy persons I know all share a secret. They pick one project a day, a week or a month and religiously complete that one thing. It may be cleaning a drawer in the kitchen, a storage closet in the hall way, the cabinet under the bathroom sink.

Once a particular area is free of clutter and organized, all that’s needed is to return the items to their proper place – as soon as you are done using them.

Planning Your Cleaning Strategy:

There are many books written about strategy – from winning political elections and sports games to being successful at business, overcoming hardships – you name it. It all takes having a strategy.

Here are some steps in planning your successful cleaning strategy: Take time to think of a strategy before you jump straight into a conclusion.

1. Clear your thoughts of everything except the task at hand. Get a piece of paper and write it down – the area, the problems, the solution or goal.
2. What’s the obvious problem? Is it clutter? Cleaning surface dirt? Is it organization?
3. After identifying the issues, then work to eliminate them tackling one at a time until finished.

It isn’t necessarily simple to come up with a strategy that works in every venue. However, getting into the habit of identifying problem areas, learning where you need to improve to avoid clutter and chaos, and then strategizing a way to avoid the pitfalls, is a huge step in making your entire home organized.

Assemble Your Cleaning Supplies All In One Place:

Here’s another area where a list is the first tool. Identify the products and items you need to accomplish the cleaning goal effectively.

Write them on a list – then, prior to beginning your cleaning task, gather each of the items and make sure you have enough on hand to finish the jobs you plan to do.

If you locate your stepstool, rags, etc. beforehand, then you won’t waste time by having to look find them when you are ready to use them.

Make A Cleaning Schedule and Focus On The Task- No Excuses!

Use a calendar that provides space to enter notes on each day. Then schedule different tasks on different days. Look at the calendar every day and plan a time for that day’s task. Stick to it.

It’s easier to get jobs done early in the day, before you are side tracked, and before you begin to feel tired. Jump into the chores with enthusiasm. Gather your tools, use them, and put everything away when you are done. Then pat yourself on the back and take the rest of the day off.

Declutter Ruthlessly:

Don’t overbuy! In these days when merchants specifically cater to your purchasing habits, attractive merchandise is deliberately placed where you will see it, want it and buy it before you get out of the store. Don’t buy it if you don’t need it.

Make it a point to regularly go through your home and throw out things that you simply do not need. A good place to begin is in the hall storage closet or cabinets where seldom used items tend to be stashed.

If “out of sight” actually means “out of mind,” you don’t need it. Throw away everything that is worn out, broken, unloved and/or unused. The “bare necessities” doesn’t mean going without – it simply means use it or lose it.

Keeping Clutter At Bay:

There are only a few valid reasons to “store” things.

• For rotation as in storing seasonal items, (garden tools, clothes) to be used the next year.
• When moving from one home to another, storing furniture and household goods.
• When storing a supply of items you use on a regular basis, extra soaps, tissues, canned goods.

Other than those reasons, unless you enjoy collecting stamps, knick-knacks, etc., don’t hoard. There are scrapbooks and containers specifically designed for collecting some items, such as stamps; other items are stored in display cases – China and curio cabinets, cupboards, shelves, etc. If they don’t fit this special criteria, don’t store them.

De-cluttering your home might be painful at first. However, the end result will make you very happy. An orderly and organized environment is to be desired – a nice place to come home to.