Kitchen clutter

I don't know about you, but my kitchen gets dirtier faster than any room in the house. Maybe it's because it's a tiny kitchen. Maybe it's because 3 meals are made in there every day. I'm not sure the reason, but I'm getting very tired of the mess.

I get behind on dishes just one day and it looks like an explosion happened in there! And to be honest, a messy kitchen gets me down and makes me feel guilty. So I want no more of that! But how to keep the kitchen manageable?

Okay, we're going to start with the FlyLady, because all cleaning eventually comes back to her, doesn't it? Her first tip of all is this: Shine your kitchen sink every day.

I guess the secret is that in order to shine your sink, you've got to get the dishes out of there first. And once the sink looks nice, you'll be inspired to keep your kitchen looking nice all day. Or so her theory goes...

My problem is that once I've made lunch or dinner, I'm tired! I don't feel like doing the cleaning as well. That's the first hurdle I need to overcome. Here are the things I'll be trying in order to keep my kitchen clean and organized:

1. Clean as I cook. Putting stuff away and cleaning up as I go seems like the best solution for me. I'm already in the kitchen, so adding in a little cleaning will hardly be noticeable.
2. 15 minute timer. FlyLady had this one right - 15 minutes of cleaning is not that bad! And you can get a lot done in 15 minutes! I'll do a 15 minute session a day in the kitchen.
3. Enlist my husband's help. This might be the hardest one of all to implement, but I think it's time my husband did his fair share. :)

And that's my plan for the kitchen. I'm going to try it for a week and see how it goes. I'll let you know what comes of it. How about you - what are your secrets for keeping your kitchen in good shape?

Organize Your Life

My life has been busy lately. We recently moved to Georgia and at first I didn't have a job, so I felt as if I were between lives. I had stuff to do, like find a job, but nothing too strenuous. Then out of nowhere I found freelance writing work, took on a position of responsibility in my church, and I'm suddenly busier than I was before we moved. I realized I would need to organize my thoughts, my paperwork, my home, and my life in order to accomplish all that is required of me. Here are the areas I plan to focus on.

My thoughts. I have a million things in my head at any one time, and it's easy to forget them or miss out on an important detail because I haven't written things down. From now on I plan to keep a notebook with me at all times and write down absolutely everything as it comes to me. I will also need to keep a pretty thorough 'to-do' list. I may go back to using todoist.com, but for now, I'm going low-tech with the notebook and paper calendar.

My paperwork. I don't know about you, but we've got papers everywhere in this house. The dining room table is the repository for recent mail items. My work desk is littered with bills, documents, and important scraps of paper. Our filing box has a stack of documents six inches high on top of it, none of it organized at all. This is one area of my life that will require a lot of changing on my part.

My home. I constantly battle dishes and clutter in my house. Things are not where they should be, so I'm constantly wandering through the house looking for an item that I searched for (and found) just the day before. It's frustrating, to say the least. I would like to organize my home in such a way that everything has a place, and is there when I need it. I would like to find a system in the kitchen so that I don't fight mountains of dishes all the time. (It doesn't help that our dishwasher is minuscule!)

My life. I need to organize my life so that I use my time wisely. I've got a lot to do, and I'd like to maximize my efficiency so that I can accomplish a lot but still have plenty of free time for relaxing.

I think I will write longer posts on each of these four areas. I'll let you know what I do in each area to organize myself, and hopefully share some good tips for keeping things running smoothly. I hope you will share your ideas as well.

I'm back and ready for action!

Posts have been scarce during my two-week vacation for Christmas. But I got back today and am ready to do great things in 2008! It's really hard to work on goals when you're at someone else's house living out of a suitcase, so I'm glad to be back in my own house so I can get started with my plans.

I already mentioned many of my goals in my previous post, but I came up with another one that is really key to achieving all the rest - ORGANIZATION! I want to organize my life in such a way that I make time for the important things.

That means staying on top of cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. (the stuff I don't currently enjoy doing). It also means setting a work schedule and sticking to it (I work from home, so I've been known to work until midnight before. But not anymore!) It also means that I have to stop procrastinating projects and tasks I need to accomplish.

2008 is the year that I get organized and just do it!

Tips for Quitting the Clutter Habit

I recently moved across the country to Georgia, which means I had to deal with all the 'stuff' that accumulated in my house. It wasn't pretty. We got rid of truckloads of things we just didn't need. But the question is, why did most of it make it into our house in the first place?

I'll post later about ways of dealing with clutter you already have, but first, to prevent more clutter from getting into your house, stop the bleeding! This means you'll have to stop accepting and buying things that will become future clutter. Here are some quick rules:

1.Most things are not worth buying. That's the truth. If you feel you must have it, give yourself a couple of days to think it through. Do you truly need it? Is it a quality item? Will you use it multiple times to make it worth the purchase?

2. Just because it's cheap doesn't mean you need it. It feels good to get an item on sale or for cheap. But if you didn't need the item, the good feeling doesn't last long. Think just as long about whether you need a sale item as you would if it were full price.

3. Freebies abound, but they are not without cost. Think of the cost of your time -- you put these items away, you dust them, you move them, you sort through them when you don't want them anymore. They also cost you tranquility and peace when they clutter up your home. Don't accept a freebie unless it's something you truly want and need.

4. Do you really need gifts for every birthday and holiday? Most of the time, you forget who gave you the gifts and didn't need them in the first place. We have asked our family members to cut down on gift-giving and give us their time instead. It is hard for people to honor that request (gift-giving is quite a tradition), but why have them waste money on something you won't value?

5. Do you already own one of these? How many of one item do you need? If you do own another at home, do you love the new item enough to throw out the old one? If not, perhaps you don't need the new one.

6. Consider the environment. Most of the stuff you purchase today will eventually end up in a landfill somewhere. Is the item worth it?

7. When in doubt, don't buy it! It is rare that an item won't be there tomorrow, so there's no rush to get it today. It's likely that you'll never miss what you didn't buy.

Keeping clutter from getting into your home in the first place will save you time, money, and contribute to a peaceful, clutter-free home.

Decluttering and moving across the country

I moved across the country two weeks ago with my husband. While there are many great things about this move, several things are not. One of them is being far away from family, and the other is packing everything up and unpacking it! While there's nothing I can do about family, I can make life a little easier by decluttering our place for the next time we move.

We already did some decluttering and held a garage sale before we moved, but there's still more clutter to work through. I'm emotionally attached to a lot of the stuff, so it's very hard to let go of. I've learned a few things from this experience, though. Here are just three.

• I'm going to think twice about wanting more stuff. Possessions aren't what make me happy, people and experiences are. I'm going to focus less on acquiring things and more on the things that really count.

• I'm going to say no to freebie gifts. I don't get emotionally attached to something until it's in my house. Once it's in the house, it's so much harder to say no to.

• I'm going to deal with clutter on an ongoing basis rather than save it in piles to deal with the next time we move! It takes a little time every day to take care of mail, paperwork, clothing, etc. It will require me to set up habits and overcome procrastination. But it will be worth it if I don't have a house full of clutter. Well worth it.

It took a move across the country to get me started on my decluttering journey. Don't wait that long to start yours!