The need to get rid of stuff...

One of the biggest challenges that I face when trying to organize and clean my home is the battle of clutter.  Clutter is often the result of too much stuff.  I look around and I easily acknowledge that I have too much stuff.  Our family has many things that we just simply do not use.  Yet we store and organize and clean and dust these things.  Why is it often hard to get rid of these type of things?  I think that I often rationalize that they may one day become useful or that I may need them one day.  Realistically, when and if that day comes, more likely than not I will not be able to find the particular item in question.

I have read in various places that all your possessions should fall into three categories:

(1) Be useful - as in you use it regularly.
(2) Be truly necessary - as in passports and tax returns.
(3) Be treasured - as in something sentimental.  This is not something you are simply keeping because someone gave it to you.  This is something that brings a fond memory or makes you smile when you look at it or pick it up.

A lot of items in my home are kept for sentimental reasons as well.  However, when I really sit down and think about it, these objects often do not bring me fond memories nor do I treasure them.  I am keeping them simply because someone I care for gave them to me.  Ultimately, this is purpose defeating because when you have too many of these items, it is too difficult to appreciate the truly sentimental things - like my daughter's handprint and footprint.

My goal this week is to try to get rid of things that are (a) not used regularly and (b) that do not make me smile when I look at them or hold them. 

Hopefully this will help me continue on my path to home organization...one step at a time.

Good luck in your journey!

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Organizing on a budget

Hello all!

Attached is a very interesting video that I stumbled across when searching for ideas on how to effectively organize things on a budget.  So many of the organization systems available at specialty stores such as the Container Store are very pricey.  I want my home to look nice, but I do not want to spend a fortune on the baskets and bins necessary to organize different types of things.  This video addresses this issue and provides some good examples of the use of dollar store bins and baskets purchased at Goodwill. 

I firmly believe that organizing your home should not cost a fortune.  There are many types of organization systems, and one that you put together yourself from different bargain finds can be more customized and more tailored to your individual taste.

I know I will be heading to the local dollar store soon to see what baskets/bins I can pick up for the house.  I also plan on repurposing some containers that I already own.

One last thing that I like about this video is the idea to label everything.  I think people are more likely to make the effort to put something away when they know exactly where it goes.  A simple label will make that happen and give everything in your home a place!

Happy organizing!

Check out my new FaceBook Page!

Greetings everyone!

I am still working diligently to get my home organized.  While it is not easy, I am finding that every little bit helps and that making even one thing better and easier to navigate is something!  In other words, my current trick is to stay positive.

In the meantime, I have also created a new FaceBook page.  Please take a look at the following if you have a moment:

https://www.facebook.com/messtosuccesshomeorganization

I hope to link different articles to the FaceBook page to make it a collection of home organization tips and tricks.

Thanks for reading!

Tips and Tricks....Flylady.net

Greetings - I hope you have all had an enjoyable week!  I have been continuing my efforts to clean and organize my home.  While I initially made some great progress with decluttering, I hit somewhat of a standstill in the past few days.  So I returned to the internet for some motivation. 

Today, I took another look at flylady.net, an old favorite website of mine. Flylady has great tips and tricks for staying on top of clutter and generally for staying organized.  She relies on the concept of doing a little bit each day to avoid allowing things to pile up.  This way, no particular task seems too daunting.

Flylady breaks things down into Flight Plans so that each day you are tackling a different section of your home.  She also includes reminders about preparing meals and other household tasks that need to be done.

While I am not so disciplined as to maintain my own Flight Plan, I think the concept is a good one that works for many people!  The website also motivates me to try to be a little more disciplined with my house chores to avoid letting things get out of control.

Flylady has a section called Zones in which she breaks the house down into zones and assigns weekly tasks for that zone (in addition to the daily chores).  I like this idea because it allows you to focus on a particular second of the house for short intervals.

I find that I am most productive during the first half hour to hour of cleaning, and that as time passes, my level of productivity and resolve, as well as my mood, drastically decrease. 

As for me, today I will take another look at the Flylady site and see if I can get myself back on track with my goal to declutter and organize my home.  I find that it is often doing the little things regularly that save me the most time in the long run - time to remind myself of that.

Good luck to everyone out there facing the same daunting task of home organization!