1.08.2009

C L U T T E R.......the dirty word!

Clutter is the nemesis to organization!
Clutter can be stopped. De-cluttering is prioritizing what matters most to you and what makes you happy to look at, to use, and to maintain.

I have an old friend who would place in front of me a drawer from her kitchen when I would go to her home to visit. As we visited, I would organize the drawer. After I would sort through the drawer, she'd call her five children to the room and I gave them each a pile of miscellaneous things to deliver to the place where they belonged. She would impart her wisdom and I would organize her drawers, it was a wonderful friendship!

It didn't take much time to do one drawer and over time her whole kitchen was organized. (And I was wiser too!)

Follow these little steps and you'll be able to get organized one step at a time......


The first step to getting organized is to start removing clutter. Choose just one space (a closet, drawer, toy chest, etc....) to go through the items in that space and determine:
1) Do I need this?
2) Does it belong in this space? Remember the Sesame Street song, "One of these things don't look like the others...." Okay, get my point?
3) How many of these items do I really need?

After doing this, you'll have the keeper pile, the garbage/donate pile and the doesn't belong pile.

Group the like items to see how much room you need for the items you're going to keep in that space.

Next take the "doesn't belong pile" and place those items where you think they belong.
Don't get distracted, remember the story, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", don't stop and wipe your milk mustache and trim your whiskers, just put the items away. Don't worry if the new place isn't organized, you'll soon get there.

Return to your decluttered space and give yourself a "high five" and take in the view. You'll be renewed and proud of what you have accomplished. Life is made up of these little moments, take it in!
Look around your home for usable storage containers or make a list of containers to purchase. (January is a great time for great buys on organizing bins)
That will be the icing on the cake when everything is in it's place and labeled. You'll think you died and gone to heaven.....at least that's what I think every time I organize a place, that's heaven to me...peaceful, orderly, ahhhhhhhhhh!

5 comments:

Twinlinebackers said...

So my mom and I are both dying to know if we know your friend whose kitchen drawers you organized or if that was before our time....

Jenn G. said...

It was after your time, still in Omaha. :-)

Anjeny said...

Hi...I'm new to your blog. I found your blog through the mommy blog, the name of your blog is catchy. I like the idea of an organized home and I try to do that in my home, I'm not that good though.

I am always running out of space to put things but unfortunately, living far from really good stores, I often missed out on the good deals on the organizing containers.

I like your site, it's very helpful so if you don't mind, I'm going to be stalking for you, not in a creepy way or anything. I'm sure I'm going to like every helpful posts you put on here so I will try and use your ideas to better my home. I will be dropping comments here and there so I guess I will be more of a semi-stalker...hope you don't mind.

Love the post btw.

Jenn G. said...

Thanks, Anjeny, for your wonderful comments! You can stalk me anytime!

Anonymous said...

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