Welcome to Day 10 of my 2014 #Write31Days journey! If you are new here, you can read a little more about me in the sidebar.
It’s always interesting when you have kids and an aversion to clutter. Because we all know clutter happens, right?! One way I take care of myself (and everyone else), is to regularly combat the clutter.
The following isn’t earth-shattering advice, but it’s a little insight on how I keep my cool and the clutter at bay.
Touch it once
This is easier said than done some days, but for the most part, I try to take care of mail and papers immediately. Filing bills and receipts (or placing them on the desk where I remember to enter/pay them), storing the girls’ school papers in their proper bins, rinse out the dirty dishes and put them in the empty dishwasher.
Enlist help
The girls are old enough to pick up after themselves (clothes, toys, dishes, etc), and for the most part they are responsible for this. They do have to be reminded at times, but are pretty good at remembering to clean up when they are finished with something. Cam may only be two, but he is amazing help. He doesn’t always do this, but he is very good about taking his dirty dishes to the sink and picking up his toys. He also likes to clean. {Be still my heart!}
Straighten, rather than de-clutter
Sometimes it is just too much trouble to take all of the DVDs, books, or whatever off of the shelves. When I only have a few minutes, I will work on one area for five or ten minutes and straighten it, discarding what does not belong and putting it away. As for the items on the shelf, they don’t come off, I just reorganize them. It doesn’t take near as long, and the effect is about the same. Win-win.
Purge
I like purging. I really like it when the purging is over, especially if it’s a garage sale. Does anyone really like garage sales? I’m all stressed during the getting ready stages and antsy during the actual sale. And then there is the what to do with the leftovers that brings a whole new aspect of issues.
The only thing you can do to make it even crazier is to have a garage sale one week and get ready for a consignment sale the next. Yep, I’ve been a crazy person getting kids’ clothes washed, ironed, and tagged for a JBF sale that begins on Sunday. Thursday night, the entire family took me an hour and a half away to Norman to drop off bins of toys and clothes. I love that they only take the cleanest clothes, because items that do not sell at the sale have the option of being donated. I chose that option for a few reasons. {I also kept the nicest clothes that did not sell at our garage sale to donate to a local shelter.}
I regularly go through items and clothes, and either donate, give away, or attempt to sell them. With six people in the house, stuff can pile up quickly. A lot of people are utilizing the online garage sales via Facebook, and while I haven’t tried to sell, I have found a few great deals, including two desks and a dining room table!
Toss, toss, toss
Yep, I’m one of those. If you don’t need it or it doesn’t add beauty {beauty is in the eye of the behold, by the way!} to your life, evaluate it’s worth of space in your life.
Keeping the clutter at bay is self-care for me, because when my environment is clutter-free, so is my mind. I love when my mind is at ease… and so does everyone else!
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photo credit (top): juhansonin via photopin cc
photo credit: A Guy Taking Pictures via photopin cc
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