Stand in the middle of your living room. Try to get a feel for the area. But before you start to imagine beautiful things, your thoughts get interrupted by the alarmingly growing clutter that is threatening to engulf your house whole. All around you see books, piles of books, some dating back to your elementary school days. There are stacks of papers and magazines but you aren’t exactly sure what they are about or the last time you even read them.
As you glance to your right and you see your children’s toys scattered all over the floor, the empty chinese food box from last night’s late movie marathon, or maybe the accumulated pizza boxes of several movie night marathons. There’s trash in paper bags, maybe some odds and ends, candy wrappers, hair brush, miscellaneous pieces of clothing. And is that the corner of the wrapped baby gift (for your best friend that you thought you sent 4 months ago) sticking out from under heaped piles of the unfolded laundry in a chair?
You might wonder what to do first. Burn down the house? Hold your head and cry? Sadly, there is no easy way out. Burning down your house or crying won’t help you accomplish anything. As long as you don’t burn down the house, there will still be clothes to put away, books and papers and mail to sort through, trash to be thrown away. You made the mess. You have to clean it up.
As frightening as it may seem, clutter clearing is not that hard. The first thing that you have to do is to stay focused. Failing to prepare to succeed is like preparing to fail. If possible, send the kids to the house of a friend or family member so that you can work in peace and without interruption.
Next, create a list all the clutter that you see, prioritize the list from most to least. Where is the most clutter amount? Where is the least? This will give you an idea about where you need to begin first. Before you know it, you’ll have cleaned a lot of your clutter, you will just need to put your mind and full effort to it and stay on course.
When you’re done with your list, take out everything. Place things no longer wanted or needed into large bins for later sale, donation, or trash. Next, gather all your cleaning materials. Once the area is clear of items, sweep or vacuum the floor, dust the cabinets or shelving, use glass cleaner on any mirrors or glass surfaces.
Removing the clutter from your home or a room may be a tough choice, however it’s a good one. Once you’ve experienced the positive results of having a well-organized, clean and tidy home, the better you will feel about the room and your home, and even yourself. You’ll be pleased you took the time to clear the clutter.
Diana Carter
DeClutter Coach
http://www.howtodeclutternow.org
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