Are you ready to get your home organized in 2013? One of the best ways to start is with some simple, daily routines. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we look around our homes, taking in all we have to do! There are growing piles of paper in the kitchen, crazy amounts of laundry to be washed, dried and folded, too many miscellaneous boxes of junk to sort through, daily meals to prepare, dirty dishes crowding the sink, overdue bills to pay, and a mounting fear of the possible avalanche in our front closets. Not to mention, many of us are working to earn a living and don’t have enough hours in the day to keep up on housework.
Sometimes it can feel like we end the day with just as much mess and clutter as we had when we began! That can be discouraging if we really want to make progress! I don’t know about you, but feeling overwhelmed makes me want to hide under a blanket with a bowl of ice cream. And while that might make me feel better in the short term, it won’t solve any of my problems in the long run.
So how can we break the cycle of disorganization and chaos and start to get our homes and daily lives in order in the new year?
The answer is simple: commit to taking specific action, one step at a time.
When I feel overwhelmed, I have to isolate every task, separating each one into a few manageable steps that I can tackle in a day or a week. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the impossibility of what I want to accomplish—and likely giving up before I even start—this helps me feel empowered to create tangible goals that I can manage right away. Even one feeling of accomplishment energizes me to accomplish more!
Many years ago, I established a few daily routines that help me feel in control of my day and capable of keeping my home in order, one step at a time. It is still a life-long endeavor to keep my house organized, but discovering the power of daily routines changed my perspective and gave me more confidence.
Every day, I keep up with four basic, daily routines. You can read more about them at The Inspired Room. These routines don’t solve all my clutter problems, obviously, but they do keep my home from spiraling too far out of control. They are simple and feasible, and they give me the satisfaction of being on track with my day!
The best part about committing to a month of daily routines is that doing those routines will soon become a habit. And once they are a habit, the day-to-day upkeep of a house will be much more practical. Big sigh of relief! Now we are getting somewhere!
Once we have our daily routines, we can identify specific goals for organizing and decluttering our homes. This is how we can realistically tackle the most problematic areas of our homes!
To simplify this step, I like to identify a home’s clutter hot spots. I tend to have four or five spaces in my home that always seem to get out of control. (I think we all do!) You can check out the new clutter heat map tool at “The Decluttered Home“ to see where clutter tends to accumulate and to find tips for dealing with those areas!
Before I add those problem spaces to my daily routines, I like to start with a clean slate. A tidy room inspires and motivates me, so I set aside a couple of days to tackle the key hot spots one at a time. This is not the time to declutter the entire house; this is an opportunity to deal with a few of the key hot spots. Perhaps I’ll choose to tackle my desk, my bathroom counter and maybe my closet floor! I don’t overthink it or try to color code my entire closet or clean out every single drawer in my desk or repaint the whole room. I just focus on decluttering the closet floor or the desktop or the counter.
Once those key areas are clean and free of clutter, the whole room looks better! Now I’m more motivated to keep it that way. I can add those specific clutter hot spots to my daily routine to make sure they stay orderly. So if my closet floor starts to pile up again, I deal with it right away before it gets out of control! Again, I’ve created a manageable task I can handle in a day or throughout the week. Another big sigh of relief!
Establishing manageable daily routines and dealing regularly with clutter hot spots will help get your year of decluttering and organizing off to a great start! You’ll feel more empowered by your accomplishments and energized to continue with of your home.
Let’s get going! Let me know what routines you decide to establish and where your clutter hot spots are!
Thanks for the great advice!
Great Advice Melissa! I think you and I are soo much alike, right down to our names! I saw a post over on your blog that implied you are “vertically challenged” as well. I’m barely 5’2″!!
Pingback: Top 10 Home Organization Resources
I need help badly! I’m 94 yrs. old with the maladies that go with it. I live in an apartment (one room) over my son’s garage. I am still capable of doing my own food shopping and my own cooking. It’s the clutter that has become completely out of hand — in my kitchen area and my two closets. The advice I need is whether to attack one area at a time, completely, like kitchen sink, or one of the closets, etc, or do a little bit of all the areas every day. I do hope you can help. And thank you so much!
Woo-hoo, Ida!!
I just HAVE to say hello to you!
I am 64 and I share the same woes…but no doubt MUCH worse than what you are dealing with! I am a procrastinator. Having trained myself over the years to be supremely indifferent to wanting things tidy, I guess I’m just stubbornly resistant to becoming “organized” because I’m a housework hater!
I can step over the most horrible messes and keep going, but …I know on some level I am STRESSED because the thought of having someone “drop by” makes me really antsy so I know I feel embarrassed by my sloth…sigh.
I am gearing up to start following my (very organized) sister’s advice and start doing 15 minutes—somewhere!– at a time and then stopping to do something rewarding to myself.
Then 15 MORE minutes….until my goal is accomplished.
The irony is, I ran my own cleaning service for 8 years and I was really focused and detail oriented when it came to cleaning and de-cluttering OTHER people’s houses…lol.
But my hat’s off to you!
I have an entire house fitting the description you gave:
“the clutter has become completely out of hand”
arghh….
But I SO admire your independence, and being ONLINE even You obviously are staying in tune with the times!
But at 94 you are WELL entitled to hijack a younger member of your family to HELP you! Beg, borrow, bribe or steal their youthful energy—you DESERVE it!
You’ve inspired me!
I’ll be thinking of you and emulating your DESIRE to organize as I FORCE my LAZY self to get moving!
Kindest regards!
Barbara
Great advice Barbara! I love the 15 minute at a time idea and the reward afterward!!
Oh Barbara, I think I’m your twin sister. I’m 63, and have EXACTLY the same issues. I love your comment “I can step over the most horrible messes…” I really had to laugh at that. It’s so me. I have a 3 floor home, and more “stuff” than any 3 families combined, and I live alone. I so need some ideas. Not only do I procrastinate, I can’t bear to throw things away. I just know I’ll “need” them the moment I do. HELP, I’m being swallowed alive by my “stuff”!
Miss Lindsay,
I try thinking about two things when “clearing out” and letting a few things go… When I am ready to get started and get rid of something or lots of things, I try not to worry that I might need it someday, I remember that what I really need is space to breath and live life. So by decluttering, I am getting something much more valueable than what I am getting rid of.
The other thought that I use to try to stay on track is to estimate te value of my home, divide that by the square footage, and decide how much of the house can’t be used the way it should because it is too full or if I let it get too full. So a $100,000 house that half the house is too cluttered for guests to use the guest room, cars to use the garage, etc, has $50,000 of its value wasted by excess stuff. In our area, 10×20 storage units rent for $100 a month. Oh,but I would never want to have to pay for a storage unit, oh yeah, I am paying much, much more than that by having parts of my house unusable! These two things help me stay on track, based on how my brain works!
Hi Ida! So glad you wrote in!
I think what I would do is get a few paper file boxes and start going around the apartment every day filling boxes with things you don’t need. Ask your son to pick up the boxes as you fill them and keep what he wants or drop the contents off at the Goodwill (and bring you back the boxes to refill!).
In a small apartment you really don’t have enough room for a lot of excess and that is probably why the clutter gets out of hand. Filling a few boxes every day will make a big difference.
Start by deciding what you really need in the kitchen or closet and ruthlessly get rid of the rest. For instance, you probably only need a few coffee cups and plates. If you have too many dishes, things will get piled up all over the kitchen. Simplify your daily routines so you just have what you need and nothing extra.
Same with clothing, pick out your favorite clothes and get rid of the rest. Go closet by closet, drawer by drawer, area by area and keep filling those boxes until your closets and kitchen feels manageable again.
Good luck and I applaud you for wanting to get organized (and for being online seeking advice!)! You are inspiring!
Melissa
I sooo need help. I have read articles, even books on de-cluttering, but my house is still an embarrassing junk pile. Even though Ida’s space is small and I am dealing with a large house, full basement, and garage, maybe I can apply your tips to Ida and get started. Thanks !
Keep what you truly Love, get rid of things not used in three years. Keep the things that give you enjoyment and things that are worth passing down (photo’s) Sometimes I think people keep things because to replace is expensive,and times might get worse. I do feel people are too concerned about appearances . Your home should be your haven of rest refreshment to regroup. It should have what you and your love ones like.
I like the thought but the article is a little ambiguous. I have always used the “3 square feet” theory when I feel overwhelmed and it has worked well for me but now that I am retired and have more time on my hands, I’m more easily distracted for some reason. I guess I was hoping for fresh ideas.
Thank you for the article, though. I know it will be helpful to someone a little less scatterbrained than me.
I see I have some friends here whom I have not met. I am 69, semi-retired, work part time as a hospice nurse.
I have always had disdain for cleaning, but it is not getting easier as I age.
I live alone, and many tasks are difficult, such as climbing up to change a light bulb, if there is a fixture on it.
My dryer is broken, my vacuum cleaner is dead, so I have dirty, and clean, laundry, scattered about.
In addition to my distaste for cleaning, I have been a pet rescuer, and through the years have acquired 3 dogs and 10 cats. Re-homing them is not an option. They are my kids, and will be with me always.
I had a housefire several years ago, and some of the storage boxes still are piled in my bedroom, and are buried under my clothes, which I never hang up.
When I sweep up the kitchen floor, I look at the dried spills, and go to the other room.
I know if I am ever motivated, to toss or donate what I don’t use, to keep special treasures, and to file mail as it arrives.
But I get so overwhelmed, it is hard to get started.
I am also fatigued a lot from my work, even though I love the work I do.
I appreciate knowing there are others who live similarly, but I bet my house is worse than yours
Thanks for all of the good information. Think I’ll try the 15 minute approach. I’m 63, work full-time, often need to go into the office on Saturdays, work some evenings doing child care to bring in some “extra” that we need. So that leaves Sundays to do it all. My husband is disabled; he tries, usually does too much in one attempt and then is laid up for 2-3 days. Okay. 15 minutes @ a time. I want to declutter and have gotten rid of some stuff, there’s just so much more to attack!
Just wanted to add that DISTRACTION is a big problem for me, too. Also, opening a container, let’s say, of photos and getting lost in looking at them. Or going to clean a bookcase and ending up sitting down and looking through a book. Yikes! Any ideas?
I am trying to get rid of things after a move to a smaller place. Am dealing with whether to save things like toys/clothes/linens/furniture/dishes. Things that I took good care of through the years, am not currently using, but which my children could use in their own homes or for their children. They are now in their mid 20s, and live in apartments, so they “don’t have the room” now. I really don’t want to get rid of the stuff, only to have them have to buy it in a few years. Yet hanging on to it is cluttering up my space. I am trying to get them to tell me whether they can ever envision themselves using these things in the future, but they say it is hard to imagine what their lives will be like in a few years – whether they will have a place for a wing chair, or use for a stand mixer, or tablecloths. Any ideas?
Momo, one solution would be to rent a storage unit (or two) for the things your children will need in a few years. Perhaps the children could even pay for the rent on the unit/s, which would make them think more about what to keep. In my experience, furniture and clothes quickly look out-dated and younger people are especially sensitive to that. Perhaps each might pick out a piece of furniture for you to keep. Linens, dishes and toys are used for longer and might well be appreciated in a few years.