My dad always used to say that he could stand an inch of dust on the furniture as long as the house was not cluttered up. And isn't that so true? Even if your floors are swept, your windows and mirrors are clean, and your furniture dusted, a home doesn't look or feel clean if there's stuff laying around everywhere.
There are lots of things that attribute to a house being cluttered. The biggest problem at my house is mail. Magazines, newspapers, and just plain old junk mail. And I used to be the world's worst about stacking those types of things on the desk or countertop with intentions of sitting down and going through them. But it seemed like I never actually got around to it until the stack was so tall and unsightly that is was driving me crazy. Finally, I decided to put an end to that kind of mess before it happened again.
When I go to the mailbox, I immediately throw away the junk; stuff that I know has no importance and that I am not interested in. Next, I open bills and take them to the "bill" drawer. I, then, write on my calendar when that particular bill is due. This step keeps me from having to go back and do it later and possible forgetting to write it down or even pay it.
At this point, generally what's left is magazines or newspapers. I put the magazines next to my bed and make it a point to look at some of the magazine before I turn out the lights. To keep magazines from piling up, I will carry them with me when I go somewhere that i know I am going to have to site and wait, such as the doctor's office, when I get my oil changed, or even while I am waiting to pick up my son from school. Making it a point to go through the mail as soon as you get it will keep it from causing an unsightly and unnecessary mess.
I also used to be bad about wanting to keep everything that my kids made. And don't you know, that pile grew really large, really fast. But, although I love every single thing they make, now I only keep the very special one. I write their name and the date it was done on it and place it in a storage container. I have a storage container for each of my children so that it doesn't have to be sorted at some point in the future.
Storage containers are a wonderful thing for organizing clutter. I store items in containers that I don't want to get rid of but don't necessarily want sitting around the house. I, then, label the container with what's in the box and put it in my shed. That way, if I am ever looking for something specific, I don't have to go through them all until I find it, I can just look at the labels on each box.
And what do you do with stuff that you don't know what to do with? Do you have a drawer or a cabinet that you toss these types of things into? I still have a big problem with that. It's really best if EVERYTHING has a place and everything is put into that place instead of some junk drawer. Yeah, I know, that's a hard thing to do but believe me, you will be glad that you did. It just prevents another cleaning job that will have to be done somewhere down the road.
Autor: Kimberly A Gibbons
Kim is a housewife who is continually looking for ways to clean and organize her home in the most time efficient manner possible. Visit her website to find many of the ways you can organize clutter and help you get your home clean and organized and have extra time to do other things that you love to do. Visit http://www.tisptospeedcleaning.com
Added: July 4, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
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