Whatever happened to spring cleaning? Many families never had time to do spring cleaning, and home organization and housekeeping have been suffering ever since. During the summer months when children are out of school, the sense of structure imposed by the school day can sometimes cause a family’s routines, including house cleaning and decluttering routines, to devolve into clutter and chaos. In newspapers all over America, professional organizers are offering their advice on everything from spring cleaning tips, getting rid of clutter, closet organization and closet organizers, organizing everything from children’s schedules to basements, and how to decide what to keep, what to throw out or recycle, who might be able to reuse certain items, and what should be safely stowed in a secure self storage unit or other secure location. Most of all, they are offering tips on time management -- how to make time to declutter, clean, and organize.
Stacie Bowers thought she had a system for dealing with clutter. “I always had what I called a ‘stuff-it room’ so when company was coming, we could move out stuff and put it in that room, and that room got overwhelming,” she told The Columbus Dispatch. Most people begin with the “stuff-it” system of organizing, but eventually they have to move to the “getting rid of stuff” stage, which involves sending items out of the “stuff-it” location to a new home. Stuff can go to a friend who will reuse it (baby clothes can be given to a pregnant neighbor, for example), to a consignment store, to a recycling center, to a self storage unit, or even to the garbage dumpster.
According to Lauren Nemroff, a senior editor for Amazon.com, people have become much more interested in organization and decluttering since the recession began. “Most people are looking to do more with less,” she wrote in an email to Washington Post writer Jura Koncius. For many people, that means organizing the stuff they have so they know what they have, what they can reuse, and what they can put on Craig’s List or eBay to earn a little extra income.
“I’ve worked with clients who’ve had to re-buy things like video cameras and cell phones because they know they have it but they don’t know where it is,” commented Ohio organizer Kelly Yost in The Columbus Dispatch.
Others have just gone through a divorce or separation in which the departing spouse left behind a mountain of possessions that must be sorted through and dealt with. That is what happened to lawyer Sami Atkinson, who was left with a house full of stuff to sort when her husband moved out. “He got to take the things he wanted and everything else got left behind,” she noted in The Vancouver Sun. Then her mother, downsizing her own home, left her excess possessions in Atkinson’s basement. “That was the final straw!” Atkinson said. “It’s mentally burdensome. You just feel weighed down by all the stuff.” Self storage may be a good option in cases where a separating spouse is left with possessions that he or she may or may not be held legally responsible for in the the final divorce decree.
Some people want to get organized because they have spent so much time working and dealing with tasks that must be done quickly (like cooking dinner for a family or meeting work deadlines), that they find they have let clutter pile up around them. Canadian Chronic Disorganization Specialist Kim Eagles commented in The Brunswick News that “When the stuff in your house starts to affect your life and your health, that is a big sign it is time to ask for help....If you cannot find your kitchen, have not seen your floors in years, or cannot safely move throughout your house, then maybe it is time to get some help.”
All in all, the organizers agreed that a person who is feeling overwhelmed by clutter should keep the following tips in mind:
· Start small--do not try to do everything at once. If possible, divide each task into “mini tasks,” that you can do when you have just five minutes or less. As you accomplish your “mini tasks,” you will start to feel a sense of accomplishment. Online cleaning/organizing guru the Flylady strongly urges people to divide their homes into zones, and divide each zone into small “baby steps.”
· Prioritize. Decide which areas of clutter bother you, or impede your day-to-day functioning, the most, and start there.
· Set a timeline for completing the project, and make appointments with yourself on your calendar (send yourself text message reminders if need be!) to spend 30 minutes here and 45 minutes there working on decluttering.
· Give yourself time to develop good habits. “It takes 21 consecutive days of repeating an action before it becomes a habit,” says organizer Regina Leeds (the author of One Year to an Organized Life) at FavStocks.com. Her favorite habits are: “make your bed every day; put your keys in the same place the minute you enter your home; wash dirty dishes immediately and put them away.”
· Store whatever you can digitally. Photos are a good candidate for digital storage, but you can also scan and store documents ranging from your tax returns to children’s report cards. You can also photograph children’s artwork, so that you don’t feel such a need to keep physical copies of so many documents. Just make sure that you have back-up files for whatever you put into digital storage. Professional organizer Judy Parkins of Gently Organized advises families to have three digital files, one on a DVD or external hard drive, one on a computer’s hard drive, and one at an online photo-sharing service such as Flickr, iPhoto, Picasa or Snapfish. You may want to store the original photos or artwork in a self storage unit, where they are less likely to succumb to wear and tear that can result from humidity, fluctuations in temperature, or the depredations of insects.
Sources used:
Flylady.
Goulder, Marcey. “Pro organizers can help dig you out of clutter.” The Columbus Dispatch. June 27, 2010.
Heist, Vali. “Ask the organizer, Vali Heist: following through is key to success.” The Reading Eagle. July 4, 2010.
“Interview with The Zen Organizer and Best Selling Author Regina Leeds.” FavStocks.com. June 28, 2010.
Koncius, Jura. “Tips to help de-clutter your home.” The Washington Post. July 10, 2010.
Lee, Jenny. “You know it’s gotta go, but where?” The Vancouver Sun. June 21, 2010.
Ottenstein, Marla. “Get organized: organizing yourself isn’t an instant process; take it in small steps.” The Naples News. July 8, 2010.
“Reality TV show highlights common problem.” The Brunswick News. July 7, 2010.