Here is something you never have seen before.  What is it?

It is 16 year old dust in my closet.  Or perhaps this much dust is called dirt.

Whatever it is called, my daughters aided me in moving something that is so heavy that I have not cleaned underneath it since we moved into our house over 16 years ago.  It is the only item that has not been cleaned in our annual spring cleaning project which has been faithfully executed since 1992.

While my eldest daughter prefers to photograph landscapes, I think she actually enjoyed this photo shoot.

In fact, she really got into it.  I guess baseboards can be interesting when they have a little nature attached to them.

All of this dust removal is part of a major reorganization and cleaning of our home which has been going on for two months now.  We have definitely reduced in size.  The garage and attics were reduced by fifty percent.  The kitchen by thirty percent.  Then on to Emily’s room where I estimated another thirty percent was given or thrown away.  By this time Matthew was just about in horror for The Cleaning Team to visit his room.  He asked if anything would be left – would he have a bed?  To my delight Matthew and I spent a day in his room and he did the work himself.  He made great decisions and has a streamlined room and closet. 

You know you’re getting old when …. you gather all the electronic and photography equipment from all over the house and the attic and realize that you have gone through four technology mediums in your lifetime, and you have no idea of where to start in throwing, keeping, and transferring.  Slides, reels, videos in 8mm, VHS, photographs, negatives.  This collection is on an eight foot table in my bedroom, with the floor under and around it piled with all kinds of stuff that aren’t media related.  It, combined with all of our musical recordings (albums, cassettes, CDs, but no 8 tracks!) is the last major sorting project.  After that there are four medium size projects left for the women of our household to complete.  The “honey-do” repair items for the men at our house has 38 tasks on it, with 2  large projects that really need a lot of time and attention.  I’m beginning to wonder if we will complete it all in 2010 and not 2009.  Or maybe 2011?

The reward?  Newly painted closet shelves!  When James asked me to take on this all-encompassing task of overhauling our residence, I thought of the verse “She looketh well to the ways of her household.”  It has been a joy for me to see a pleased look on his face and I did giggle a little when he walked into our closet yesterday and said,  “There’s a lot of room in here, hon!”  My children have also learned skills and thinking processes from working through this process.  It has been a classroom in itself. 

Clutter Clean-Up Part Two: The Process

In this article we continue with our annual clutter clean-up which enables us to keep a neat and orderly home throughout the year. 
 
The Process

Week One:  Start with one room.  We usually start with the living areas because these are easier for us rather than bedrooms that are laden with many toys, hobbies, books, and clothes.  We usually do our rooms in this order: living areas, bedrooms, bathrooms, and then kitchen.  Our plan goes…. Monday: living areas, Tuesday: children’s rooms, Wednesday: master bedroom and all bathrooms, Thursday: kitchen, Friday: any closets we missed and the utility room.  Then we get de-cluttered in a week.  The only other things we do this week are prepare meals and do laundry.  No school, no cleaning, no activities outside the home.

We have made it a rule that certain rooms are for certain things.  Examples – our living room is where music is kept.  Toys are kept in a toy closet and used one or two at a time and then returned.  We only eat in our kitchen so all the dishes stay there.  It is helpful if you have organized in your mind where you want things ahead of time.

So we start in the living room.  Anything that does not belong there goes in either a black, blue or pink trash bag, using our rules we made up in Part One.  If an item belongs in another room, we put it in a laundry basket and at the end of organizing the living room, we take the basket around the house and put those items away all at one time.  If something stays in the living room but needs stored properly then we get plastic storage containers and use them.

We don’t clean until after the first week of de-cluttering is complete.  During that first week, however, we make a list of cleaning jobs and purchase cleaning supplies at the end of the week if needed. 

We continue with our daily schedule of rooms to de-clutter.  We remember to go through all expiration dates on medicinal supplies and we make shopping lists for items that we need to replace.  We look at master lists we came up with last year for medicinal supplies, pantry supplies, cleaning products, pet supplies, and so forth and keep a shopping list handy to record needed items.

IT ALWAYS LOOKS MUCH WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER.  When we stick with it, by the fifth day the results are amazing.  The first three days are the hardest.  Usually by the end of the third day we want to finish it out and look forward to cleaning the next week because everything is starting to look neat and organized.
 
Week Two:  Now is the time for a good cleaning.  We divide it up into five days.  Since everything has been de-cluttered, it goes fast.  Now is the time we do jobs that have been on hold for a long time.  Now is the time to turn mattresses, clean windows and light fixtures, or whatever.  We also get paper and clipboard and make two lists …. One for fix-its that dad needs to know about, the other list is for things we need to buy or need to pray for if they are items we don’t have resources for right now. 
 
Week Three:  We finish up anything left over from weeks one and two.  We deliver items, repair things, and organize those things in deep storage (attics) such as clothing, holiday items, and so forth. 

General Ideas:

Generally, the cool months have worked the best for us as to the time of year to do this.  We try to do a clean-up before mid-April when all of the outdoor work begins.  We don’t do it in the fall because of so many holiday type things going on. 

We tend to do four hours of clean up in the morning (7:00-11:00) and then do laundry, cooking and recreation in the afternoon during the three weeks of the clean-up.  We set up lots of rewards to make it fun.  Vitamin M’s (M&M’s) in the small bags go a long way in motivating little people as well as picnic suppers at the park or the promise of Friday night banana splits.

When you are finished, you sit back and put up your feet and say whew!  Actually, with so much done this is a great time to make up monthly menus, design a master shopping list for the home, put up freezer meals, or tackle a new sewing project.  Or, maybe take a vacation!

April 25, 2007 

Many times I have been asked how we keep our home neat and orderly on a daily basis.  This has become harder as our family has grown since we have seven children at varying levels of interests and hobbies, but overall we have found that a yearly clutter clean-up has been a good solution.  We have passed along this idea before and our friends have said that it was a difficult task the first year, but then was much easier in subsequent years.  They have said it was worth the time and effort.  Here is how we do it.

Ahead of Time

Purchase some storage containers from dollar stores and discount stores.  These containers will be for toys, pantry items, medicinal supplies, toiletries, and whatever.  If you do not have finances for this then use shoe boxes, plastic freezer bags and small trash can bags.  You will want to have some of these on hand anyway. 

Purchase trash bags in three colors such as black, blue, and pink.  Do not use white if that is the color you normally use for trash cans in your house.

Gather empty laundry baskets.

Make up the rules.

The rules we use are …

1.         Once an item goes in a bag it stays there.

2.        We will only keep items that are complete and in good repair.  This applies to clothing, toys, etc.  We will not keep toys that are broken.  We will not keep sets of toys if they are not complete because we really will not use them anyway.  We will keep clothes that can be worn now.  Those that are torn, too stained or that we will not mend in the next three weeks will not be kept.  We will not keep books that we have not read in the past few years unless there is a specific reason to keep them.  We will not keep home schooling stuff that we never really were thrilled about anyway.  And so forth.  This is the most important rule of the whole clean-up.  You can make up your own set of rules to make the clean-up work for you.  Think through how many things your family really needs before you start your clutter clean-up.  An example …. How many stuffed animals do we really need?  How many times do we pick up after stuffed animals? What is their play value?  How many sets of dishes do we need?  How many knick-knacks do we need before they just become dust collectors?  And so forth.

3.        We will throw out junk and garbage in black trash bags.  These are things that are broken beyond repair and things that no one will use.

4.        If something is broken, but is worth keeping, we will get it fixed in 30 days or it gets thrown out then.  We will put these in blue trash bags and label them so we know they are fix-it items.  We will plan a fix-it day this month to do the repairs ourselves or deliver them to the repair shop.  One way we can determine if we really want to keep these things is to evaluate if we really will take the time and money to repair them.

5.        If we have not used something for one year (one complete cycle of holidays and seasons) then we will get rid of it unless it is being saved for a specific purpose.  Then it goes in storage to be looked at on the third week of clean-up.  An example of this would be an ice cream machine.

6.        We will pass on to others items we are not using that are in excellent condition so that we are good stewards.  We will put these items in pink trash bags and mark where they are going or to whom.  We will deliver these items within three weeks.  We will enjoy the smiles on the faces of our friends who can really use these things.  We will be happy to donate these things to charity if we do not know anyone who can use them.

7.        If we are unsure of whether or not to get rid of something we will put it in a black trash bag and mark it with a label.  Then we will put it on the back porch.  If in two weeks we can not even remember what is in these bags or we have not missed it or it did not nag our conscience then it goes by-by for good.

8.        We will put our husband/father’s things in bags or boxes and set them aside for him to go through at his leisure.  A good place for these in the corner of the garage or a storage room.  We will say “we cleaned up and collected a few of your things that you can go through when convenient for you.”  We will put these things out of the way and not say another word.  That way he does not feel pressured to take care of this right away.

9.        We will not clean as we organize.  Sometimes this is the hardest rule of all.  The purpose of the initial clutter clean-up is to get rid of clutter and simplify our lives so that we can clean quickly and easily.  We will clean after we get through the clutter clean-up.  An exception might be bookshelves because if books are being organized it is more difficult to pull them all back off later to clean the shelves.  This might apply to some cabinets too.  We will keep a damp dust cloth available as we organize.  One child will be assigned this job and will follow as we de-clutter and re-organize.

Part Two to come…