How To Clean Up Clutter
We often hear clients lament, "My house is so cluttered. I don't have the time to deal with it. I work, I have kids that need to be taken to sports practice, church outings, school functions. Help. I'm overwhelmed."
Believe it or not, cleaning up clutter is the easiest part of the job. Especially when you're talking about your own possessions. After all, you are the one who assigns the value and knows the importance the items have in your life.
Often the "overwhelming clutter" is simply a matter of organization and putting things where they belong. Don't panic. Grab a laundry basket and lets de-clutter one room at a time.
Start By Putting Articles In Their Place
Go through the room, picking up all articles that don't belong in that particular room. When the basket is full, visit the rooms where the accumulated items belong, and drop them off in the appropriate room. It may help if you place an empty box at the door of the room so that you can use it as a depository until you are ready to organize the room and put the clutter away.
After you have cleaned up the clutter consisting of items that are simply misplaced and don't belong in that room, what you have left should be ordinary trash, old papers, etc., that can be thrown away.
Then go to the next room. Repeat the process until you have all of the clutter picked up and the floor is clean.
Clean and Dust as You Go
As you pick up and remove clutter, remember to clean and dust as you go. If you're in the living room, polish the furniture before you replace items on ends tables or shelves. Finish up with a good vacuuming or, if you have hard surfaced floors, a light damp mopping.
Your dining room probably doesn't get as much junk-clutter as the living room or family room. But the table is often a repository for mail and miscellaneous papers, or even craft projects. Throw away the junk and return other clutter to its rightful place.
If you use a table cloth, put a nice clean one on your table and top it with an arrangement of fresh or artificial flowers. Nothing makes a dining room look classier than a nice table cloth, candles in candlesticks, and a floral arrangement. Don't forget to check the chairs and make sure there's nothing dropped on them; then push them into place around the table and - you're done. That is, after you've cleaned the floor.
The reality is that you might not get every room in your house completed in one day. Don't despair. Just resolve to tackle them one at a time until they are all brought back to a level of organization you are comfortable with. The important thing is, don't walk out of a room and call it "finished" unless it is.
Stay Focused/Don't Get Distracted
A big deterrent at cleaning clutter is getting distracted. After all, how important is it really? Cleaning clutter? Its not going anyplace - you can attest to that. But one of the hazards of picking up clutter is that it's easy to be sidetracked.
Whatever it is, you'd rather be doing almost anything but cleaning clutter. In your heart, you know the job will wait - and wait - and wait. Don't let clutter rule you. The problem is, the longer you put off picking up the clutter and putting it away, the bigger it grows. Then you'll find yourself on the phone calling Mrs. Clean.
