Get it Together One Room at a Time

photo credit: evelynishere

I am sure you have seen the show “Clean Sweep”, or something similar to it. Clean Sweep is a show where people come in and help other people get rid of all the clutter and junk in their homes. Do you feel like your home needs a clean sweep? If so then there is really one good way to do it. One Room at a time until the whole house has been clean swept.

When your house becomes cluttered it becomes very easy to feel overwhelmed. And then trying to decide how to get rid of the clutter become even more discouraging. You begin to look at things around your house and wonder where to even start. Below are some great ideas that should help you start clearing out the clutter.

You want to start by focusing on one room at a time. If you look at the huge big picture you will become easily intimidated by it all. But by cleaning one room at a time you will feel like you are getting something accomplished when you are done with that one room, and they you will be more encouraged to move on to the next room.

You want to start by being prepared. You want trash bags, cardboard boxes, and some storage bins. You need to label three boxes, keep, Donate and Trash. Then each item you pick up in the room you need to decided what you are going to do with it right away.

Make sure you clean off all surfaces and empty out all the drawers. If you are working in a bedroom make sure that you take everything out of the closet. You will have many boxes but don’t concentrateon the number of boxes. Think about one box at a time and decided what you are going to do with each and every item in the box. Then you can move on to the next box.

Clothing: If you love clothing and you wear that certain piece of clothing often put it in the keep box but if you have not worn it in the last six months then you need to donate it. If they are torn and need some repairs you either decided you are going to repair them right away or you throw them in the trash. And move on

Shoes: Do your shoes just as you did your clothing. Keep only the pairs that you wear all the time and get rid of the rest. Each pair you donate or toss in the trash make more room and less clutter.

Papers: You need to take the time to go through all the papers in the room. Start a filing system if you don’t have one. You can start by separating them in large categories and then sub them down from there.

Books: Now this is a hard one depending on who you are and how much you love to read. There are several options what you can do with with these books. You can pass them on to a friend you know loves to read, you can donate them to a local womens club or organization, take them to your local library or take them to paperbackswap.com. Books tend to take up a lot of space.

After you have taken an action on what you are keeping, what you are going to donate, and what you are getting rid of, take the donation box out of the room and load it into the vehicle so you can drop it off the next time you are out. Take the trash to the curb or where every you keep your trash. You need to clean the room from top to bottom. Do some painting if you would like and rearrange the furniture. Put the items that you are keeping back into the room and begin to organize the items as you put them away.

Now once you have completed one room give yourself a break before starting on the next room. Now once you start on the next room do it just as you did the last room. You can even congratulate yourself for a job well done because pretty soon you are going to have control of your house again.