Put Your Home on a Diet.

How to Declutter... "Put Your Home on a Diet."

How great is this idea!  I need to put everything on a diet! 

I think that #2... "Decluttering Equipment; You will need garbage bags, boxes, magic markers, and a dust rag. Label the boxes "Give Away", "Throw Away", and "Put Away". Line the "Throw Away" box with a plastic garbage bag"... is great and might save the bed in my guest room from being the largest hop spot in our house.  I just cleaned out E's closet.  It was ugly.  It is not done, but it is on the way.  Unfortunately the bed in the guest room is back to its normal full of crap-ness.

#3.  "Set your timer:  for 1 hour (or 30, 15, or 10 minutes - it doesn't matter how long). Just do the job as fast as you can and do not pull out more stuff than you can put away in that length of time. This means just one drawer, one closet (or even one shelf in one closet), one magazine rack, or digging under just the furniture in the zone. Not all of them at once!"... This is really hard for me.  I can't really organize something until its empty and I start from scratch which is why I tend to make a bigger mess before its gets better.  Hence the guest room bed hot spot.

#4.  "Start at the entrance to the room: Then, work your way around the room clockwise. Do not skip a spot. Whatever happens to be next, just do it"...  GREAT IDEA, and the entire guest room is going to need it by the time I am done with E's room!  My closet is in the guest room and it looks like it is going to be last.

#5.  Declutter Away! With boxes at your feet and dust rag in your waistband, start off by cleaning out and getting rid of the things that do not belong in this room. Put garbage in the "Throw Away" box, donations in the "Give Away" box, and stuff that goes somewhere else in the "Put Away" box. Don't worry that you do not have a place for everything right now. By the time you finish you will. That's a promise from FlyLady!... Okay, this is sounding better. The "Put Away" box doesn't have to be put away right then.  I wonder if I have a box big enough for the "Put Away" box.  I am going to need big one.

"Cleanse this room of everything that doesn't make you SMILE"....OKAY, that is...well, that doesn't work for me.  I have lots of things that I need that don't make me smile.

#9. Donations: When the "Give Away" box gets full, seal it off, and put it in your car. The next time you are out, you can donate to the area thrift shop. Do not save your clutter for a yard or garage sale, you will be blessed by giving it away. The value can be deducted on your income tax. Remember you are trying to get rid of clutter - not relocate it somewhere else in your home. Now, grab another box, label it "Give Away", and get back to work... AMEN FlyLady.  I hate yard sales.  I don't like saving stuff or pricing it.  I am horrible at pricing it.  I do not care for the back and forth of yard sale sales.  Maybe its from owning and/or working in retail but I figure if there is a price on it, that is what it costs.  The part about deducting the value from your income tax means that you have to price the stuff, which is similar to yard sale prep and then you have to keep the receipts...and that is another blog all together.

#10 "Put Away" Stuff: When the "Put Away" box gets full, take the box in your arms and run around the house (good thing you have shoes on - right?) and put the items in the room where they belong. If they have a place, put them there, if not put them in the room where they logically belong. By the time you have finished you will have a place for everything and everything will be in it's place... sort of contradicts #5.  I know that it really is the best way to do this, but I really have to be careful about putting stuff that I am just not sure about somewhere else and it turns into clutter in its new location.

How did I get this way.  Is there a gene that is hereditary?  I really don't want E to be like this.  I want him to want everything to have its place and for him to want to put it there so things will always be nice and tidy.

When we moved I really wanted to have a clutter free house, sort of like the houses in Japan that you see on TV, but seriously where do the Japanese put all of their stuff.  Maybe those bamboo paneled walls really slide open to reveal utter clutter and disorganization.

So here is to putting my home on a diet! ~Lisa