The Origin of Clutter and the Simple Steps to Conquer it

Take a look around.  Are there spaces and places in your home or office that are overly cluttered?  You’re probably asking yourself, “how did it get like this?”  For most of us, we really DON”T know how it got this out of hand, but what we DO know that is we avoid tackling it, because who actually wants to deal with the mess?

But if you understand how the clutter got there, you might be able to prevent it from invading your personal spaces from now on.  Don’t let the clutter win!  So…how does it start?

It begins with the very first day!  It only takes one day to invite clutter.  Yep, one single day.  One paper, one magazine, one shoe, one sock at a time that has no designated place to land, no place to live, will exacerbate into piles and towers of clutter.  It happens that quickly. And when ignored one day, know that it has the potential to bleed into tomorrow’s mess, and on and on it goes.

Follow these simple steps and you can conquer the clutter. Identify the culprits.

Clothing: Hang up all articles of clothing and place them in their proper zones. Designate a separate place for laundry and dry-cleaning.  Avoid  using chairs or backs of chairs, ottomans, railings, banisters, and exercise equipment in lieu of hangers. Respect your clothes, hang them up so they can be worn once again and not look like you slept in them.

Mail: Paper is the #1 violator of clutter. Do a quick sort of mail and immediately toss the junk mail.  Separate the bills from the reference reading and create separate landing areas for each. Do not combine them into one pile (use bins, baskets, trays or folders to segregate)

Kitchen: Attend to the dishes and/or dishwasher immediately after the meal and be done with it.  The dishes will not get washed by themselves, and guaranteed,  it will STILL be there tomorrow! Get it over with before the sink piles up.

Laundry: Throw in a load of laundry while you’re sleeping and changeover in the morning. Don’t let it accumulate until you are overwhelmed, buried in laundry,  and give up!

Everything in your home has to live somewhere, and if it doesn’t have a special place…then create one.

A place for everything and everything in its place is something to strive for.  Ask yourself this,  how many homeless things do you own?  Organize.  Aspire.  Making small changes can yield life sustaining results.