Out of clutter, find simplicity.
Albert Einstein
Ever need to clean up a room right quick and just sort of sweep everything into a big bin, and throw it under the bed or in a closet?
But then forget about the big box in the closet, until one day you’re looking for something and you open it up to discover the huge jumble inside?
And it’s just too much for you at that moment, so you pretend you didn’t see it and quietly put it back?
How about that time your house got robbed, and the fingerprint guy was totally overwhelmed by all the stuff falling out of the bedroom closets and said, “Whoa. They really tore this place apart, huh?”
And you just looked at him, slack-jawed, and then nodded yes, totally blaming the robbers for your unholy mess?
No? Just me?
That day with the forensics team was a turning point for me. It was, quite simply, the most embarrassing moment of my life, on an already difficult day.
I am physically incapable of leaving the house a mess now. Rooms need to be picked up, laundry in baskets at the very least, beds made. You just never know when your house might get robbed and people are going to be asking you, “Was this here when you left?”
I dug in, buckled down, and ruthlessly decluttered. I was flyin’ with the FlyLady. (That was short lived. Too! Much! Enthusiasm! for! Me!) I set up daily chore lists and enforced nightly ten-minute cleaning drills. I was a lean, mean, housekeeping machine.
Only… that was over five years ago.
And… then I got a job working from home full-time.
And also… I started a blog, in my “spare” time.
And did I mention… my brother and his family stayed with us for a few months, while they settled on a house for their growing family. So everything that we used to store in those rooms… came to live upstairs with us for a while.
Yeah. Somehow the clutter has crept back up on me. And set down roots.
You know when the clutter has grown out of hand and you don’t know what to do with it? And you go to the store and you buy all these fancy organizers that you think are going to solve the problem, but they don’t fit in the drawer right or you just don’t get around to using them?
You know how you empty three rooms of craft supplies and Christmas decorations and never-used wedding china and handed-down-waiting-to-be-grown-into clothing into a corner of your office and you have no freaking clue where you’re going to put it all?
So your husband builds a loft in your bedroom?
No? Just me?
The stairs are twisty-turny
view from bed
One day there will be a door to the attic, but for now it's a fancy piece of foamboard
So. I have this loft. And I know it was very handy and nice of my husband to build it, but… I feel like we have turned into crazy people, suitable for reality tv. I call it Elton’s Folly.
And I have all this STUFF. Most of it is stuff I actually need to keep. It was semi-organized when spread out over three rooms— I knew where to find things, even if it looked messy to the casual observer— but when Jeff moved it, he just dumped it all into one big pile on the floor.
And I don’t know where to start. I have an extra room and I still don’t know where to begin.
I just keep thinking of The Cat in the Hat.
And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
We can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!
Well, I don’t know about you, but when I’ve got a mess that’s staring me in the face that I can’t quite deal with, what I like to do is… read a whole lot of books about decluttering and organizational techniques! I’ve become quite a connoisseur over the years.
Pretty Neat: the buttoned-up way to get organized & let go of perfection by Alicia Rockmore & Sarah Welch is a fun-to-read, practical, usable approach to getting your life in order. First of all, the authors get the mom schedule, how we have to work in ten-minute increments around the rest of our lives. They get the fact that no matter what we do, our houses are going to look lived-in, not like a magazine spread. And they are OK with that, and that is the place we begin from. Amazing!
Their first pieces of advice:
- develop your own meaning of organized
- prepare yourself for imperfection
- prepare rebuttals in advance
Can I get an amen?
The following family-friendly chapters include tons of personal anecdotes from women who have been there, done that, and found a working solution; as well as helpful tips for delegation of duties, learning to say no, mastering your to-do list, settling schedules, taming toys, winning the battle of the overflowing inbox, and mastering home-cooked meals.
This last chapter covers picky eaters, menu planning, the issue of time, and “how to hit the trifecta: healthy, good, and easy.” One of my favorite passages points out that processed food does not reduce average preparation time, it just gives that illusion since it reduces prep work like chopping.
This chapter all by itself is worth it. This is news you can use, friends.
And you can win it!
All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me something embarrassing that’s happened as a result of a cluttered house, a cluttered schedule, or a cluttered mind, so I don’t feel like the most disorganized slob in the world. (I didn’t even tell you about the day I missed my son’s parent-teacher conference.)
Or, an extreme you or someone close to you has gone to to try to overcome the clutter.
Or, if you can’t think of anything that fits, you can just tell me why you’d like to win this book. I’m flexible like that.
This giveaway will end at 11:59pm on March 20. One U.S. commenter will be chosen at random to receive a copy of Pretty Neat: the buttoned-up way to get organized & let go of perfection.
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And that’s not all! Know what else is pretty neat? Several other bloggers have also posted reviews and giveaways of this book. Once all the giveaway winners have been reported, one will be chosen at random from across all blogs to receive a $200 gift card (same as cash) plus a selection of Buttoned Up products (ARV: $50) to be used towards her own reasonable organizational goals for her life.
Yeah. That’s awesome. I totally hope you win.
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Full disclosure: I received no compensation for this post, but I did receive a copy of the book to review (and highlight and dogear and otherwise get full use of). My participation in this Global Influence campaign puts me in the running for a $100 gift card (same as cash) plus a selection of Buttoned Up products (ARV: $50). I hope I win, too!
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Cluttered house – I can’t find anything. After two days of turning the house upside down (because my husband puts things in mystery places when we “clean for the cleaning lady”), I had to order a new charger for my camcorder.
My schedule is absurd. Lawyer. Blogger. Wife. Stepmom. Kitty mom. I have fibro. Speaker. It goes on and on. I have about ten different organizational apps on my phone. I don’t remember to use half of them.
Cluttered mind. The best is wearing different shoes to court because I wasn’t paying attention. Or showing up to the wrong courtroom for a hearing.
Your experience with the forensics team is one of my greatest fears! I am a sucker for all the crime shows, particularly Forensic Files. In one episode, perfect prints had been lifted at a crime scene because they were left in such a thick layer of dust. After that, I could actually hear Peter Thomas’ voice in my head whenever I looked at my dusty house! I’m just a tad bit better about keeping up with the dusting and vacuuming these days. Just a tad. But don’t look under my furniture.
Cluttered mind? Yeah, before one of my 4:30am runs recently, I was going over a checklist in my head of all the things I needed before I went outside. Reflective gear? Sneakers? Cell phone? Pants? Pants? Yes, I had to check TWICE to see if I remembered to put on pants. I did, by the way.
I’ve never been a neat and tidy person and the fact that we had to move into a bigger house to hold my old timey knick knacks sorta solidifies my place in horderdom. Right around this time of year I start getting the spring cleaning itch — this sticks for about three days. It’s just enough time to clean my house from top to bottom and throw a fit when my husband leaves something out of it’s newly assigned spot. The only way I can encourage myself to do daily chores is by following this : http://www.vintage-homemaking.info/2009/11/the-daily-details-of-a-vintage-weekly-schedule/
I’m like a child and have to make cleaning time fun and do a lil role playing. It’s working though, and with all the extra time I have with modern tech I spend my time watching all of the Roseanne episodes on netflix (plus I do my mending and silver polishing then). With all this being said — My basement is in such a state that I don’t even know where to begin to when I go down there I just sorta blur my eyesight and pretend I’m not climbing over anything to get to the washer and dryer.
I have the usual growing family clutter — toys, old clothes I’m determined to keep around for Baby #2, scrapbook material (I swear one day I’ll put it together!), etc. The worst, however, is the paperwork. I’m holding onto paperwork from 2005 for crying out loud! All because 1. I’m afraid I’ll be audited and will have to supply to the IRS, 2. I can’t just throw it away and we don’t have a paper shredder. So, I’ve been hauling them through every move (and there have been a lot of these recently). In my mind, I’m happily shredding six years worth of utility bills and piling something else in the space they left empty.
I have always been a fan of clutter. I like books and mementos of trips and all that good stuff – I like it out where I can see them. But, stuff in boxes or laying on the floor drives me insane. Luckily, I live with someone who is a de-cluttering freak. It makes my life so much easier. We also had crawl spaces opened up in our attic when we finished it and it was the best idea ever. WE keep all outgrown (someday to be worn again) kids clothes and toys up there. Plus a giant container of my junk, mementos from childhood, etc. That said, if it wasn’t for her, I’d probably be a secret hoarder (in my basement and attic, places I don’t go on a daily basis), while the rest of my house would look pretty neat.
I’ve been a clutter hound and pack rat my whole life. Something similar to your forensic situation happened to me when I was a kid. We were out of town and had a friend checking on the house. He suspected a break in and called the police. When the police showed up and saw my room, he too made the comment of “wow, they really ransacked the place…” to which my parents’ friend replied…”no it always looks like this.” Unfortunately, I haven’t learned my lesson and it’s the cause of constant tension between my husband and I. I’ve tried many systems, including FLYing, but so far, nothing has stuck.
Uh oh. I was counting on handing off 1/4 of our stuff to you and Jeff when Tim and I downsize to a condo in just 4 years! You need more dishes, right?
Hmmm… your story seems to take the cake on this one. I am having a hard time decluttering my kitchen because it is kind of the dumping ground for purses, diaper bags, mail, etc when we first get in the house.
One way my husband and I have found to cut clutter is to live in a 1-bedroom apartment. We downsized from a 3 bedroom house, so a ton of stuff had to go. I’m not a packrat, so I had a blast getting rid of things – even all those boxes of memories from high school. Once we went through everything, we realized how little we really NEED in our lives. We don’t have a storage unit either – if that’s what you were thinking. My sister is the opposite of me (clutter and stuff everywhere!) and she tells me that our place looks like a “model home” (she means it negatively) because it doesn’t look “lived in”. Well, my husband and I try to keep things neat – but we definitely have areas that we struggle with too, which is why I’d love to win this book!
Embarrassing truth – my husband bought me a key finder for the holidays because I can’t ever find my keys due to the piles of “stuff”. Nuf said!