Spring Cleaning The Bedrooms

Most of us spend at least eight hours a day in our bedrooms, it only makes sense that they be a pleasing room to be in. You will sleep better and enjoy your leisure time much more in a neat and orderly bedroom. Here is how you can make your own bedroom or your children’s rooms, the retreat they should be.

De-cluttering the bedroom can be a big job- especially if you are a “pack rat.” Start by tackling the biggest project first…the closet. Use the top down approach, once again, and take everything off the shelves, if there are any.

Sort through the pile of things from the shelf and decide what you need, what you want, and what can be thrown or given away. If you find something that you forgot you had and have no use for, throw it out. Dust the corners of the closet walls and wipe down the shelf before replacing the items.

Move down to the hanging items next. Take everything out and wipe off the hang bar. Now go through the pile of clothes, being blatantly honest with yourself. If it doesn’t fit, is hopelessly out of style, or is in need of repair that will never happen, throw it out or put it in a bag to be given to charity. Though we should all keep a pair or two pants for less-then-slender days, the jeans that were super-snug in high school are never going to go over those hips that bore three children, ever again.

While you are going through the hanging clothes, check your hangers to see if any need replacing. You can buy new ones very cheaply, or recycle those that are on the items you are getting rid of. If you find that your closet is still stuffed full, even after weeding out the old things, try adding a bar beneath one half and hanging tops on the upper bar and skirts and folded pants below.

Finish up the closet by removing everything from the floor and vacuuming thoroughly. Dust the corners and wipe down the walls if needed. Sort through the items here with the same technique of throwing out the old, unnecessary items and only keeping what you need and really want.

6 Steps of Getting Organizing

If you haven’t listened to my PodCast lately, you don’t know that I’m discussing de-cluttering and getting organized. (Subtle hint to go listen)

For this weeks Saturday Six, I’m going to share with you the 6 Steps of Getting Organized. My PodCast shows are more in depth, but the point of this post is 6 – right? This list is the basic steps you need to follow.

1. Plan: create a list of what you want to organize in your home and what you need to organize. Next to each area/room on your list, estimate how much time it will take to do it.
2. Devote Time: again you need to plan your organizing projects, so figure them into your schedule. Whether it’s 15 minutes or 2 hours, make time in your schedule to devote to organizing.
3. Stay Focused: once you start working on an organizing project, do not leave it. Do not leave the room you are working on to go put away the stray items you picked-up while de-cluttering. Just keep them in a box until you are done, then you can put those items away.
4. De-clutter: get rid of all the obvious clutter in the room you want to organize.
5. Sort and Purge: when you pick up an item, you need to decide if you will keep, trash, donate or sell it. Make a decision and stick to it!
6. Group: anything that is staying in your area should be grouped with like items. This make storing easier.

Rinse and repeat.

A couple notes:

• Numbers 5 and 6 can be done at the same time, and you may find that once you do number 6, you’ll do number 5 again!
• Bring your cleaning supplies with you – once you put every thing away and get rid of the items you are not keeping, take the time to dust and vacuum. It should only take a few minutes since you’ve just de-cluttered and organized!
• Reward yourself! After each area/room is completed, take the time to celebrate. This might be going shopping for the organizing bins and gadgets you want or as simple as taking a nap (which is what I did after I organized and cleaned my master bedroom!)

This Week’s Focus: Jan 14 – 20, 2008

If you’re new to my blog, read about this series by clicking here.

This week’s focus is de-cluttering. In this week’s episode of The Household Helper Talk Show, I talk about how easy it is to begin de-cluttering. Here are the tools and steps:

The Tools: A box or laundry basket, trash bag, kitchen timer

The Steps: You’ll be surprised how simple this is!

Pick a room that needs to be de-cluttered and head there with your supplies. Set your kitchen timer for 15 minutes and get going!

• Grab everything that doesn’t belong in that room and put it in your box
• Grab everything that is garbage and put it in the trash bag
• Start putting stray items where they belong in that room

Keep doing these 3 steps until the timer rings. Do not leave the room you are focusing on – losing focus is one of the reasons we live with clutter.

When the timer goes off, grab yourself a drink and sit for a minute. Next grab the box of items that don’t belong in that room and put them away. If your room is still cluttered, repeat this process. Once a room is de-cluttered, move to the next room.

Keep doing this until you’ve de-cluttered your entire home. Why? Because the first step in getting your home organized is to eliminate the clutter. You cant organize clutter!

Places to visit this week:

• MommyCommunity.com is talking about bathroom clutter
• FlyLady.net is focusing on the bathroom and one other room on her flight plan
• For more de-cluttering tips, visit DeclutterYourHouse.com

Join me in getting our homes in order by getting back to basics! Pick up the code to link here.