All over blog land there is a frenzy of decluttering and organizing. Magazine covers are screaming at me, "Organize Your Life". Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project tells me that "outer order contributes to inner calm". And, I believe her. I want a clean, organized house. Really, I swear, I want it.
It's not like I'm bad enough to qualify for one of those organizing shows on television or anything (We don't have cable so I've only seem them a few times, but trust me, I'm not that bad.). I'm certain that decluttering, organizing, and cleaning will make our house a more comfortable and more peaceful place. I just need to get motivated. Here is my strategy:
Use it up--Using up things that I have before I buy more appeals to my frugal side. Actually using the good-smelling lotion and shower gel that I get as gifts has done wonders for the state of our bathroom closet. Now, if I could only make some progress on using up 25 lbs. of bread flour Why do I have 25 lbs. of bread flour? I'd rather not talk about it.
Finish projects--I have a bit of a problem with unfinished projects. I have so many wonderful ideas for fun projects and so little time to do them. Unfinished projects are messy and take up more space than if they were finished. I promise that I will not buy any more craft or sewing supplies until I finish up some of these projects. Good thing that I can't type and cross my fingers at the same time.
Give it away--Any time that I have something that could be useful to someone else, I try to give it to someone who will be able to use it or donate it to an appropriate charity.
Organize--Organize drawers, cabinets, closets so that everything has a place that makes it as easy as possible to find and use.
Throw it away--This is the hardest for me but it can also be so satisfying to roll our enormous garbage can up to the back door and keep tossing until it's full.
To motivate myself, I plan to keep a list of everything I get rid of and report back here. It should be interesting to see what I accomplish. And, of course, I'll be showing the projects that I finish.
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