I tried, I really did.
Last year my goal was to have the entire house decluttered and organized by Christmas. I made a good start on our clothes, the pantry, the garage, and the homeschool books/ supplies, but that's about it. Pathetic.
I know what went wrong, though, so this year I'll try again.
1. I will not plan on huge, time-consuming 'binge declutters'. I will take things slowly, working on a room or area each month.
2. I will not even entertain thoughts of organizing while myself or the children are recovering from sickness/ surgery, even though we'll be taking time off from schoolwork anyway (I can be so thick...).
3. I will not try to be Superwoman and do everything myself. I have a bad back, am allergic to dust, and I'm too busy to do it all. Many hands make light work, and all that...
So here's the long-term plan (more detail will be added as I flesh out needs and ideas, and I may change the order):
January: all closets, drawers, under beds, and my school/ homekeeping shelves in the kitchen (my notebooks, guides, etc.)- in other words, all of the clutter "hot spots"
February: laundry area (main floor, but not really a room- a closet off of the kitchen), cleaning supplies, The Boy's bedroom (Hubby will be ripping out the carpet, putting down laminate and painting- an ideal time to clear everything out)
March: basement playroom, guest bedroom, warm-weather clothing, jackets and shoes
April: upstairs library/ family room (painting as well)
May: main floor living room (painting as well)
June: kitchen, pantry
July: my bedroom and walk-in closet (painting as well)
August: school shelves, books, and supplies (and vacation!)
September: art and craft supplies (including my knitting- eek!), cold-weather clothing, jackets, shoes, boots, hats, mitts, etc.
October: the girls' bedroom
November: files, photos, magazines, recipes, all other paper clutter
December: Christmas and winter decorations
Just thinking about leaving the paper clutter until November is making me sweat, but I need to stick to my plan as much as possible- otherwise, I'll pull out a few things from each room, make piles in other rooms, and have more of a mess than when I started.
I will not touch the paper. I will not touch the paper...
Friday, January 02, 2009
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2 comments:
I think your plan looks very good for decluttering. I have been trying to use the same philosophy of small bites because I get overwhelmed with the bigness of the task and the huge mess I make when I try to remedy the whole thing at once.
I noticed on your needles section that you were making Tasha Tudor shawls. Would you bless us and post a picture? I am love to see how they turned out!
Yes, a huge mess when I'm trying to clean up is what usually happens here, too ;-)
And I'll take a picture of the shawls and post it. We love them, and use them daily! I made one for my mom for Christmas (but couldn't post that, obviously), and she wears hers all the time, too.
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