Choas to Organized

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FROM CHOAS TO ORGANIZED IN 15 MINUTES  Photo Credit Rubber Maid For some, summer may conjure up images of lazy days poolside engaged in a good book, but in reality it means kids running through the house looking for popsicles, sibling feuds, camping gear still unpacked at the back door and piles of used beach towels waiting to be laundered.   These glorious sunny days of summer can wreak havoc on our normally organized homes. Okay, so in reality it may not actually be as organized as you like, but a few months of summer fun and your home is out of control.   Time to take back the household! Clutter and chaos can back up the flow of a home faster than clogged plumbing.   Disorganization and clutter cost you time and money. Every day, time is lost searching for missing keys, cordless phones or a favorite sweater. A cluttered desk loves to play hide-the-utility-bills. Of course, the bill will only reappear after late fees are involved.  Belongings lost to clutter must be replaced, with the original surfacing as soon as its replacement enters the house.    Time to free your home from the clutter monster so that you can reclaim your time, keep your money in your wallet and save your sanity. Fifteen minutes a day is all it takes to go from chaos (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) to organized.     It’s halfway through summer vacation, and our clutter tolerance levels have most likely reached their all time low.  Even if you feel like you have become one of the Slob Sisters, start slow (15 minutes a day) – resist the urge to go all out on a cleaning binge.   Winning the clutter battle requires changing living habits, setting anticlutter goals, finding strong motivation and energy and establishing a rigid schedule of regular decluttering sessions. Don’t you wish we all went to wizard school and could whip up a cauldron filled with anticlutter venom?   Since we have no magic wands, and there are no such things as cleaning fairies, we need to take charge of our own clutter. Create a daily and weekly cleaning schedule for yourself (yes, write it down) and include 15 minutes a day for clutter therapy sessions. If you adhere to this schedule, you’ll never have to indulge in another exhausting week-long cleaning binge. Head to the stereo and crank up some motivating tunes (try Dolly Parton’s version of Please Release Me, Let Me Go) and get ready to declutter.   With a garbage bag in hand go room to room and pitch it – go ahead and aim to fill that bag. Spend the next five minutes searching out garbage; don’t be afraid to throw "stuff" out. Set a goal for yourself – perhaps that the bag is half full every day, or that you can find a specific number of items to throw out.    Take the garbage out and return with a box. Repeat the same process – go room to room and look for stuff to give away. If you have two of something, keep the best and give away the other. Our homes need to breathe, and they cannot breathe if they are overpopulated with stuff - clutter breeds clutter. Lighten your load and make room for new energy and new stuff to come your way.   After five minutes take the box straight out to the car and put it in the trunk. On your next trip downtown drop the box off at the Goodwill Centre. Stay strong and resist the urge to rescue an item from your box - strong willpower and determination may be needed.   With only five minutes to go, head to your home’s hot spot – the one place in the house that seems to collect the most debris. This is most often the family room or the back doorway. Pick up, clean up and clear away the clutter and dirt.   As the month progresses you’ll find that you will need to dig deeper and look harder for garbage and stuff to give away. You’ll start to go through drawers, closets and areas of the home that you haven’t seen or had time to organize for years. By September you’ll have battled the clutter monster and won. Now, keep it that way by committing 15 minutes a day for the rest of your life. Good habits make for a great home.