How To Declutter Your Home (A Call for Help)
  

How To Declutter Your Home (A Call for Help)

Last year we visited friends for a couple of weeks for vacation. They had a beautiful home, I loved their decorating, and it was so tidy! I have a tidy home sometimes- especially, in fact, when people have come to visit. But these friends were not the types to just tidy because people were over. I know this because over the 2 weeks of living with them, I noticed that they didn't have closets with random stuff in them, and they didn't even HAVE a basement- there was nowhere to hide anything!

This proved to me that you really CAN have a tidy home on a regular basis!!

I have some other friends who excel at keeping their homes ultra tidy.
I am so impressed by them.

I long for a clutter free home... that stays clutter free.

I have tried and I continue to try to achieve this... thus far I remain unsuccessful.

I am not consistently motivated to clean/tidy. Maybe that's my problem.

For example:

-I am motivated to wash dishes when I'm cold- the warm water warms me up. But in the Summer? Not so motivated.

-I am motivated to clear the clutter when company's coming. Maybe I need to invite people over more often. Sometimes I have to resort to the hamper or box clean up (you know when you have to sweep your arm across a surface, knocking everything into the hamper/box and then hide it in a closet somewhere... please tell me you've done this.

Sometimes I really am motivated just because I love the feeling of a tidy home.

But the desire for a tidy home is not always enough to get me to pull it off- sometimes a quick glance around the home that looks like a tornado just hit (but was seriously tidy this time yesterday) is enough to depress me into inactivity for a while.

I have often come to the point of desperation and determination that has me proclaiming that I will DO SOMETHING about this and I will FIX IT... but when I try, I fail.

So, I am asking you, do you have the same issue as I do?
Or are you one of those that excels at keeping things simplified and tidy?

What is your solution?
What do I have to do?
Help!!

14 comments:

  1. I once heard someone say snarky things about a lady who took a picture of her messy room and posted it on her blog saying, "This is what I'm doing today." My friend thought the she could have cleaned it in the time it took to post the entry. But I thought it was a great idea if you love blogging and it helps motivate you - post a pic on your blog and then commit to posting the "after" picture later that day :) I'm still trying to figure this all out too - my house is Clutter with a capital C!

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  2. ha! I have actually thought of doing that before. I have even taken the before picture, but chickened out before posting it. It definitely would be motivation- just not sure if it'd be worth the embarrassment ;)

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  3. Thanks for your comments Heather. :)

    I'm definitely a neat freak, but I don't enjoy cleaning. I just can't enjoy my home if there are piles or clutter.

    My biggest motivator though is to have the house completely picked up before Ted gets home from work. Ted knows to call when he's on his way home and then Jessie and I kick into gear picking up toys, putting things away, etc. I feel good that he sees the house picked up when he walks in the door and I also feel like I'm teaching Jessie to clean up & organize her things.

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  4. Okay so that's how you keep it tidy, but how do you keep from accumulating all the extra "stuff"... we just always seem to have so much extra stuff that takes up space.

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  5. oh & you are so welcome, Alyssa- you are my tidiness hero! ;)

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  6. I have the problem of keeping tidy, too. I haven't solved the problem, but I THINK that part of the solution may be staying on top of the paperwork and having a routine. What really bothers me is seeing pieces of paper lying about. So the thing is to deal with whatever is on those pieces of paper immediately (be it a bill to pay, etc). The next thing - routine. Make it a routine to do the things that keep your home looking tidy, a time each day when you straighten the cushions, etc. Oh, and I thought of one other thing, and actually, this is probably my biggest problem. In order to put things away, you need to have a place for everything to go in. A lot of my clutter stems from the fact that I haven't really figured out where everything should go because where I am living is temporary. But if everything has a place, then it's relatively easy to put things back, assuming that your arrangement makes sense. This means that drawers should not be so jam-packed with stuff that it makes them hard to use. Also, the things you use all the time should be in stored in easily-accessed places. You could probably think about what's most efficient, too, when deciding where each object goes.

    Well, I hope these pointers help. I just WISH that I could put them into practice!

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  7. We have our boxes of extra stuff like childhood momentos, but really I throw a lot of stuff away or donate it. Definitely every time we move I get rid of stuff, but also around birthdays or Christmas I'll go through and get rid of things we don't need or use anymore.

    But don't worry, we also have some rarely used stuff hidden away in decorative boxes, baskets, and pottery pieces. :)

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  8. I came over from Counting Coconuts...I LOVE your blog :) (I am now a follower) ....and I have no idea how to get clutter free...my house looks like a disaster...and I have people over nearly everyday...

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  9. I have the same problem!! When I read your post I felt like I was reading a post that I could have wrote. I need HELP too. =)

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  10. I don't claim to have a handle on it but we don't have a huge place so we tend to giveaway and throwaway pretty frequently. I think that helps. I also go through phases when I'm feeling cramped and go on a cleaning out rampage. Although sometimes I have thrown things out later wishing I had kept it.

    We do have our piles that just don't have a place.

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  11. I Feel like I am constantly fighting a loosing battle on the tidyness front. Some days I just give in and "accept it" and other days I have a whirlwind of reorganising activity. It helps a bit but never fixes the problem... sigh

    I am with you, you lovely lady!!

    Maggy
    PS thank you so much for hosting fab linky every Sunday!

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  12. Thanks so much for your kind words, Maggy!

    Alright, I guess my problem is learning HOW to PROPERLY sort through & get rid of things. I have often decided to do it & after sorting through I don't end up with enough in my "Get rid of" pile to actually make a difference!

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  13. Check out my Clutter! Not all people are BO's (born organized) I read a great book about right and left brained people and how they organize (I can't remember the name because my mind is all cluttered). Anyway it helped me understand why I always try and fail and try and fail. It is a daily struggle, but if you never try you will never succeed.
    www.sweetbeehollow.blogspot.com/2010/06/mission-organization-week-2.html

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment- I love reading them! :)
~Heather Lynne

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