FENG SHUI – clean: wipe or wash...

 

Though cleaning your home may not be your favorite activity, there’s nothing as fulfilling as washing filth down the drain.

To Clean...
Homes that fall victim to grease, dust, dirt, grime and cobwebs are not only unappealing, they are also unsanitary. So, unless you want your guests and neighbors to think you are an irresponsible college kid or a filthy recluse, it’s essential to keep your home looking and smelling clean.

...Or Not to Clean
Cleaning doesn’t always have to mean getting on your hands and knees with a horsehair brush and sweating. There are many modern cleaning devices that can help you conserve your elbow grease for other endeavors. The most effective, and certainly the most attractive, are the cleaning services that arrive at your home or office to do the work for you...

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SOS - Help! You Need Somebody! Help!

Whether your windows are so dirty that you can hardly tell what time of day it is, or there are more varieties of insects in your carpet than in your garden you need to seriously consider your cleaning options.

And Not Just Anybody…

Maid services, carpet cleaners, window washers, duct cleaners and steam cleaning services offer affordable cleaning solutions to people who can't stand to have a mop or broom in hand or just don’t have the time to clean up their own grime.(Unless of course you live in Austria where such services are very expensive!) In that case you need to do it all on your own...

The idea is to find the most effective cleaning methods available so you can easily sweep away your problems and turn your pigpen into a palace.

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Organizing your HOME!

If you feel that your home is filled with lots of clutter and you spend too much time looking for things, you may need some help organizing. 

From garage organizers to desk organizers and from kitchen organizers to garden tool organizers, there is a practical place and way to store everything. But first, I'll give you some valuable tips on clutter control. (There I go... IKEA, again!) 

Cleaning rules - Yes, "cleaning" rules!

These are some basic rules for every household.

If you follow them, chances are other things will also go well for you outside of the house you live in. It is the beginning of all, the “crib” of all problems and solutions. I believe that once you live the house every day you are predestined to make all the choices of the day based on the feelings you brought out of If you follow them, chances are other things will also go well for you outside of the house you live in. It is the beginning of all, the “crib” of all problems and solutions. I believe that once you live the house every day you are predestined to make all the choices of the day based on the feelings you brought out of the house you live in… What were your choices for today?

 

Your house is a reflection of yourself.

Whether rented or owned, large or small, any type of house.

It embraces you at night and comforts you during the day.

It shelters you from the weather,

it protects you from harm and helps you to renew your energy

to face the world again when you go outside...

If comfortable to you, it is a home.

Your home!

 

So, the question here is? Is your house a HOME?

• How comfortable are you in it?
• Is it messy? 
• Do you feel that there is too much out of place?

If yes, you have come to the right place (yet, again!)

No, you don’t have to waste time wondering how it got that way!

And here the question is: 

• How do you fell about it? – Do you feel up to change it all?
• Do you want to get hands-on action and get rid of the problem?

Me too! And I AM willing to help!

But, before I say anything else, reality is:

Unless you get your house under control you will never truly enjoy the pleasures of a good reading, a walk on the park, the taste of your food, the fun of listening to music or studying in peace or simply 

playing a game with your kids or spending time at home with the loved ones.

If your house feels uncomfortable to you, it is not a home to your good feelings or a refuge to you. 

It might start to feel at times more like a prison, a second job and worse of all, one without pay!

One might say: Oh yeah, but you can always wash those dishes tomorrow or wipe that counter another day, but that is just how the clutter gets to accumulate and you begin to lose control of it.

Why wait if it is just going to pile up?

Do you have someone else who is going to do it for you?

How to control your clutter? 

How to manage all those household jobs in days when there is so much to do outside or the sun is shining? or there is a test in school? an appointment to meet? 

The answer is simpler than thought of: by not starting it in the first place.

How about accumulation?

Here are some answers that should help you deal with it all:

When in doubt, throw it out.

Use it or lose it.

Efficiency counts, so store things accordingly.

Handle something once.

Recycle it.

Pick a number and stick with it.

Use a file cabinet.

Do Something.

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Items displayed in the house have to pass a test.

Don't do things "later."

Label things.

Call a professional.

Here we go:

1. When in doubt, throw it out.

It is encouraging to read about someone who has seen the light at the end of the (cluttered) tunnel.

I would have advised him to skip the step about paying for a storage locker for a few years. Besides saving the money, he wouldn't have to drag all the stuff back home to have a garage sale or sell the stuff on e-bay..

There's an abundance of opportunities to acquire things in our lives. We are invited to do so by every imaginable source of advertisement; by our perpetual comparisons of our possessions with those of our friends, relatives, and neighbors; and by our own private insecurities and habits. We feel like we're building our nest. The more things we can add to our nest, the more secure and successful we feel. (most of the time a complete false impression because we feel more prisoner each day to the house or the item, whether because it requires so much time or attention or reasons of security and cost. e.g. expensive collectibles - which by the way, are often hard to clean and maintain.)

Once an item makes it into our nest, a metamorphosis takes place as it becomes "ours," and its value is completely transformed. For example, before a crystal decanter becomes our possession, if it should be broken or lost anywhere it would barely qualify as an accident. Once we get it into our home, however, if it is broken we regard it as a disaster. Obviously this has something to do with how much we paid for it or who has given it to us - depending on which circumstance, it can acquire its own almost inexplicable value, which involves much more than money alone.

Trouble is, acquiring everything you have the chance to is just not worth it. The price paid is a lifetime of being loaded down by things we wouldn't miss if they were taken away from us: things we couldn't find if we needed them, things we don't even remember we have unless we see them, unused things that ultimately crowd out the necessary things we actually use. Don't wait for that to happen—do it of your own free will now!

This subject could ordinarily be understood with a simple "grammar explanation": To have is less important than to be!

;)

The Cost of Storing Your Things

One major incentive to declutter is the expense of maintaining all that stuff. You'll be amazed when you figure out the actual cost of keeping it. First calculate how much you're paying for each square foot of your home by dividing the square footage by the monthly rent or mortgage. For example, if you live in a 1,500-square-foot house and have a $1,500 monthly payment, that's obviously $1 per square foot per month. Now multiply by how many square feet are devoted to storage. This can be an eye-opening experience. Let's say you've let an entire room slowly drift into a "junk" room even though it was originally intended as a guest bedroom or a sewing room. You've got 100 square feet or more devoted to storage in that one room alone. So you're paying 100 x $1 = $100 a month for the privilege of having a junk room. That might be worth it if you were storing prized and valuable possessions. But again, one might want to analyse the final cost of it and if it is worthy... really.

Unfortunately, this monthly $100 bill is for storing items you don't even look at—unless you take a peek when you open the door to toss something else in the collection. Worse yet, just "knowing" what stays behind that door you silently. You also have a crisis if you do have a guest. And your sewing plans are on indefinite hold—like perhaps for this lifetime.

A "junk" room is only the most obvious place to look. For many homes, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Consider some of the other fertile places around the house to discover caches of junk. And add their cost to the first figure you came up with.

For example:

How many square feet of each closet in your home are used to store things you don't use? 

It's not nice to remind you of all the clothes in those closets that no longer fit. Let's just say they're too “skinny”, shall we? And leave it at that. Or maybe you don't wear them because they've gone out of style. With luck, they'll come back in style in thirty years, but do you think you'll actually wear those musty antiques?

What about under the beds? Gifts you've received that you're never going to use. Perfectly fine other things that are "too good to throw away." Broken things.

Look in drawers, but don't count the things you use every day—or even once a year. 

What about the linen from your grandmother for a table that wouldn't even fit into your dining room? Linen with spots, linen with holes, linen you're saving for your kids. - When they sometimes don't even like the brand-new things you get them for their birthday and Christmas. Lord knows what they'll want to do with things you don't even know what to do with and belonged to your past, what will these things look like when your kids are old enough to move out and take them with them?...

Will the white gown or table cloth still be white???

And then there are the drawers bursting with unused blouses, T-shirts, socks, underwear, incomplete bed sheet sets, worn-out towels, stained bathroom rugs, photographs, calendars, the shirt you wore on your first day of high school or your first date, college papers, postcards, ancient mail, maps, newspapers, matchbooks, and mystery items.

Bookshelves filled with books you haven't looked at in years—if ever. Or with porcelain frogs! Liquor decanters…

I am not opposed to collections per se; it's just that it's sometimes difficult to appreciate the beauty of a porcelain frog if there are thirty-seven of them...

Don't forget books that are stored in places other than bookshelves, including unloved cookbooks, unread books, old encyclopaedias, language courses you thought you would have time to read and learn, outgrown children's books, and unused reference books.

Appliances and gadgets you never use. They're often in the kitchen drawers and cabinets, but don't forget the extra set of speakers or the foot massager, no matter where you have them stashed. Maybe in the closet in the laundry or the garage…

The freezer. You have things in there that no one in the house knows about or can identify anymore—let alone would be willing to eat.

Yes, the garage, carport, basement, or attic— all of them “junk heaven”!

In there you might have:

Tires to cars you no longer own.

Athletic equipment such as the exercise bike that started in the living room, migrated to the bedroom, and is now relegated to dusty solitude.

Extra screws that came with furniture that is doing just fine without them.

Bed parts.

Derelict lawn furniture or equipment to those items.

Pieces of lumber left over from a project half completed in 1989.

By the way, if by chance you can no longer fit your car or cars into your garage or carport, don't forget to add the additional depreciation caused by storing it outside and add the square footage/meters of the garage to your total storage bill.

The point is: You have junk stored in many places in your home, and it costs you really big money to store it!

If you own a big house and gather things in rooms you normally don't visit, you have just realized you don't need them and you are probably paying big time for the storage space.

Or worse: you live in a small house or apartment and you have your stuff stored elsewhere: at your mom's, a friend's or aunt's house. Or worst of all: at a paid storage space!

Now, you might be asking if I don't own anything that I have kept for a long time and the answer is: YES!

I do own somethings that I don't want to part from, but they take less than a square meter... I just didn't say how high my room is!

And just for the record: I do USE my tips. Often!

Here are some guidelines for deciding what should be tossed and what should be kept. 

When I say "tossed," I am  including "giving it away" or "selling it" (my favorite, of course. I am big at ebay!).

Popular Excuses for Keeping Things Forever

If you aren't actually using something, why allow it to complicate your home?

Example: You have a section of your desk drawer that is reserved just for pens. It's always overflowing. The problem is, if your favorite pen isn't there, you will turn the house upside down looking for it rather than use any of the pens that are stuffed into this drawer. 

Solution? Save the favorite pen plus three or four spares and toss the rest - give them away, sell them, whatever. 

It is a house, not a shop! You don't need more reserve than that, if you run out of three of them, go out shopping! 

Now there's room for adding something to the drawer should the occasion arise. And the drawer even closes easily, for the first time in years. 

The same goes for other items you might have stored in drawers: If you have several pairs of eyeglasses with outdated prescriptions, give them away. (Several charities solicit them.) It's different if you use something occasionally. (Christmas ornaments are a good example. These Do have place in the storage area of our house for emotional and obvious reasons! Recycle them as the occasion requests though...)

Give your grown kids' their things back to them. If you do, maybe they'll learn to deal with clutter a couple of decades earlier than you did. The same goes for your friends, neighbors, or other relatives for whom you are storing things.

Please don't try the old excuse "It's too nice to throw away." Especially if it's so nice, give it to someone who will use it and appreciate it when in your house it is only sitting there, taking up space.

If it's broken, fix it or toss it. If it's ripped, have it mended. If it doesn't fit, have it altered. Don't put it anywhere just "for now" and keep it in a perpetual holding pattern.

Tools, Equipment and Knik-Knaks...

If you find a screw or have one left over after a project, don't start saving them. It will drive you crazy. Usually when you buy something that needs a screw, it will have one included. If it doesn't, you can get the exact number of appropriate screws while you're at the store. (Note: I wish I could teach my husband that one!) That's much faster and easier than picking through all your saved screws (which over time have a way of starting to get nails mixed in with them, plus a few tacks, push-pins, washers, picture hangers, and other small, sharp, and rusty objects.) And even if you do search your collection and ultimately find three of the screws you need, the project will probably call for more than what you have... (I do know that for some people these last one - that has to do with tools and "partner stuff" is a more delicate subject. Perhaps a good and frank talk could teach your partner how to handle it as well as you are learning now!)

Since most households do have a need of a nail or a screw occasionally, just remember that almost any method of acquiring and storing them is preferable to the one-at-a-time-whenever-you-happen-upon-one method and then adding it to the little box or mayonnaise jar full of them.

Save the stereo box for thirty days. If the stereo hasn't broken by then, discard the box. (If you bought it by mail order, save it for the full warranty period.) Unless you're planning on moving (when you already have the date set, etc.) don't keep the box "because you'll need it when you move." That's true, but it may be years away. You or the moving company can use another box when the time comes. If you use them well, you can afford buying some and reselling after the moving anyway.

Rule 1 still counts if you don't know what an item IS. My mother will save something even though she's not at all sure what it is. She'll convince herself that it fell out of her refrigerator or something else vital and that if she throws it away, she will only then discover where it should have gone. If she weren't my mother, I would point out to her that she has lived for over sixty years... If she hasn't learned what something is by now, there is no particular likelihood she will do so in the next sixty years!

2: Use it or lose it.
This rule is particularly helpful when you are attempting to implement Rule 1 and are getting rid of some of your stuff. How do you decide what to keep and what to toss? Sensible advice for this rule is if you're not using something, get rid of it. This does not allow you to plan on using it tomorrow. How does the song go? "If tomorrow never comes."

Future time is especially not a factor in this rule. "Use it" refers to the here and now. It doesn't mean some time in the future. You don't have to use something every day, but you can't use the excuse that it "might come in handy after the earthquake"—unless it's a flashlight or something sensible. Not your collection of lampshades. If you haven't made any of your wonderful strawberry preserves since 2000, despite your strong conviction that you will do so again next year, you can safely give away your jars and lids.

There is a twist to applying this rule that's very helpful to parents trying to teach children about clutter. You might phrase the rule: "Put it away or lose it." 

I heard once of a woman who cleaned every Saturday morning and just threw out anything left in her way! It didn't matter if it was clothes, toys, or food. Out it went. No bluffing. A particularly brief period of time elapsed before the house was completely picked up by early Saturday morning. Hard to argue with success. Yeap, it does take courage and discipline, but if you kid can't keep their things in place it is probably because you have bought them too much, or taught too little, that ought teach you both!

According to a research I read, the biggest roadblock many people have in their home was that the house was too cluttered for them to even start. Rule 2 is a solution to that problem and more. You reduce clutter, and you make housecleaning that much easier. If tomorrow never comes."

Future time is especially not a factor in this rule. "Use it" refers to the here and now. It doesn't mean some time in the future. You don't have to use something every day, but you can't use the excuse that it "might come in handy after the earthquake"—unless it's a flashlight or something sensible. Not your collection of lampshades. If you haven't put up any strawberry preserves since 1982, despite your strong conviction that you will do so again next year, you can safely give away your jars and lids.


3: Efficiency counts, so store things accordingly.

Perhaps you've seen the classic movie Cheaper by the Dozen. The head of the household in this movie was an efficiency expert. (Remember them? Businesses used to hire them all the time. They still do, but they call them "management engineers" or "industrial engineers" now.) This particular efficiency expert devoted his life to the study of such things. He found, for example, that it was considerably faster to button his shirt starting at the top and buttoning downward compared to starting at the bottom and buttoning upward. This little gem of knowledge in itself may not reduce clutter, but efficiency boils down to a maximum of output with a minimum of input, and it's a concept that's crucial to managing clutter.

Efficient storage reduces clutter by making it easier to replace things after each use. If it's easier it's more likely to happen. 

Efficient storage means that what you need is close to where you use it or where you expect it to be. Move things so they are efficiently placed for use and replacement. 

For example, if the recycling bins are in the far end of the garage, no one is going to use them. 

In the kitchen, move the silverware and plates to a drawer and cupboard between the table and the dishwasher. Put the glasses between the sink and the dishwasher. 

Since the kids normally throw their coats just inside the door (if you're lucky), move the coatrack there, even though it looks better next to the desk down the hall. 

Store a vacuum upstairs and if possible a second vacuum downstairs. If you only have one, keep it where it's more convenient. 

Efficient storage also means that things you use most often are stored in the most easily accessible places. In other words, "hot" items go in "hot" places. You'll have your own list of "hot" items, of course, but it'll probably include things such as measuring spoons and cups, keys, bottles of spray cleaners, the roll of cellophane tape, the corkscrew, the good pair of scissors, the dishwashing soap, etc. 

Resist the temptation to return rarely used items to a "hot" (and therefore convenient) spot. 

If you're not alert, the anchovy paste will end up in front of the mustard. The pewter polish will get shoved in front of the powdered cleanser. Or the wood bleach will block your access to the furniture polish. 

"Hot" places are easily reachable ones such as top drawers, eye-level cupboard shelves, and the front sections of shelves.

Store similar things together—such as all the different sizes and shapes of flower vases you own. When you need one, you only have to look in one place. Also, you'll have no decision to make after you clean a vase and wonder where to put it. The same applies to food inside the cupboards and even inside the fridge. The easier you make it for things to get put where they belong, the less clutter will appear. You'll also have a fighting chance of finding what you're looking for if it is where it belongs. That can be a surprisingly gratifying experience.

As for cleaners I will get to that later, but for starts. Have a multi purpose cleaner whenever possible!

4: Handle something once.
This rule is necessary because of the excuse "for now." 

For example, "I will put this jacket here for now," or " I will put this stack of papers here for now." This phrase is forbidden to a known clutterer.

Once you say "for now," you are admitting that you are going to handle whatever it is more than once. That seemingly innocuous decision increases clutter and at least doubles your work load. What you're really doing when you utter those forbidden words is putting off making a decision about it right then and there. Don't be lazy. That decision won't go away just because you put it off, and it won't be any easier to make later on. So make your decisions about things right then and there.

Here's one way to apply this rule: 

When mail arrives, don't just idly sort through it looking for something interesting. Instead, stand next to a recycling bin or trash can as you sort. Toss the appropriate pieces then and there. It's a very liberating thing to do. Put bills in the "Bills" file of your cabinet (see Rule 7). Put interesting catalogs or ads with the newspaper and look at them after you read the paper. Then file them as needed or recycle them with the newspaper.

My mother's repair drawer was a great example of the lengths to which the "for now" philosophy could be carried. Putting something in that drawer was exactly the same as throwing it away, because nothing ever emerged from it. We just kept more and bigger repair drawers to hold all that stuff. When the opportunity arises, or whenever you feel the words "for now" starting to form on your lip, remind yourself to handle the item once. Don't leave it in some temporary holding area instead of where it ultimately belongs.

A good tip that I just came up with, and for that I mean literally "recently" (years after I have written this text!) and it goes right along here is: "take the next step". 

At my house, a family of six, I have mastered: "take the next step"!

It could start as a full sentence: "Instead of bringing something down to the laundry and leaving it just at the entrance, "take the next step" and put it exactly where it belongs! In the clothes bin! Or better yet, separate according to colors inside of the two available laundry hampers! There and then." 

The next time something gets to be obviously not done due to someone being in a hurry or unwillingly to pitch in I will just say: "take the next step", they will know what I am talking about!

And just for the record: It is working around here!

5: Recycle it.
We're not talking about just paper, aluminum, glass, and plastic. 

You may argue that you throw these items away anyway, so how does recycling help with uncluttering? 

Well, for one thing, it's a good habit to get used to putting certain things in certain places. In addition, many people have a tough time parting with certain containers, especially glass bottles. Mayonnaise jars are good for storing bacon fat, and pickle jars or peanut-butter jars are just right for something else like screws... (NO empty jars, no extra, unwanted, needless screws!) 

Recycling finally allows the world's bottle-savers to put their bottles to good use. Recycle them. 

The same goes for plastic containers, with their irresistible resealing lid, and microwave plates that remain after the dinner has been eaten. The same goes for ice-cream containers. They are practical, yes - but why else do you already own a set of Tupperwares? 

Even if you can't recycle plastic in your area, don't save these disposable items.

Other things can be recycled also. What about clothes you no longer wear or fit into? Recycle them into the hands of someone who needs them. 

Don't forget old sweaters and shoes, belts and hats that aren't so obvious when you open the closet door. 

What about books that overflow the capacity of your bookshelves? Sell them to a used-books store, or give them to a school library. Magazines can be given to a school or hospital or nursing home full of folks who will enjoy them. 

If you don't want to go to the trouble of finding a new home for your old magazines, recycle them with your newspapers if allowed. 

Old towels can be used for rags - only if you need more rags. Make sure that once they are cut to size, that you promperly hem the edges (cutting, sewing the seams!). Otherwise, recycle them along with your old clothes. The same goes for unused linen, baby clothes, diapers, ties, purses, wallets, plants, or bikes. 

In fact, almost any inanimate object in your house is a candidate for reuse by someone else. That is why they came up with e-bay... (Oh me, oh my! It is me and free commecials...)

6: Pick a number and stick with it.
If you really do use an empty mayonnaise jar for storing fat drippings, go ahead and save one. But if you use one mayonnaise jar every six months for drippings, and you purchase mayonnaise approximately once a month for consumption, you only need to save one jar to have a sufficient supply. One. Uno. One more than zero. Don't save any more jars until you use the one you've saved.

If you intend on saving boxes for packaging future gifts, pick a number and stick with it. If you're convinced that you must save a box for each of the different potential size gifts, you really ought to call a spade a spade and just open up a store, because that's what you'll have with so many boxes. 

Limit your collection to four boxes of various sizes stored inside the largest one. That should be all you ever need at any one time, or at least until you have a chance to replenish your supply. When you reach your number, don't save another box until you use one from your supply. If you do come across another irresistible box, then toss one when you add the new one to your collection.

Whatever you do, don't exceed the chosen number. It's not fair to change the number just because... Pick a number for other things around the house that contribute to overall clutter. 

For example, decide to keep two week's worth of Newsweek or Time. Each week, throw away the issue that's three weeks old when the new one arrives. What is it otherwise? A contest? Are you keeping them to get in the Guinnes or what? Has someone intended to read it and hasn't read it yet? They can probably get the text online or else get their own subscription and deal with it elsewhere.

If you have a passion for purchasing, this rule is for you! 

Purses are prime examples. Once again, pick a sensible number of purses to keep, and stick with it. If you decide on seven, this means that other purses are clutter. Rank your top seven purses, give the others to charity, and don't buy a new one until you're willing to let one go.

Use this rule with shoes, socks, porcelain frogs, mustards in the fridge, or packages of paper towels in the cupboard. Also work clothes. Two sets are enough. Any more than that and you're just trying to get around giving away you old clothes. 

A Junk drawer? Yes, you can keep it, but only one per household—not one per person or one per room as if in a store. Your house should be a home and not a store!

7: Use a file cabinet.
Every contemporary home needs a file cabinet—not just those with a home office or those belonging to your superorganized friends. Even if you don't have a desk—or instead of one if you don't have room—invest in a file cabinet. You can always use the dining room table as a temporary desk, but nothing else is a substitute for a file cabinet.

File cabinets start at about

€30 (IKEA...) for an inexpensive one with two drawers. An office- quality file cabinet of the same size can be two or three times as much. There are definite advantages to the more expensive ones: the drawers open fully so you can easily file all the way to the back. The drawers in the cheap ones don't open more than two-thirds of the way, so filing in the back of the drawer is always a pain. But even if you get the cheapest one available, it's still a great deal.

The cabinets have built-in metal frames for hanging file folders. If not, purchase an add-on frame for each drawer. And get a supply of the hanging files themselves. One of the reasons some people don't like file cabinets is because they have never used them with hanging files. These hanging files are what changed the cabinet into the wonderful clutter-buster it is.

Besides being a perfect storage place for such obvious choices as bills, important papers, and correspondence, the file cabinet is just right for warranty cards, product information, instruction booklets, stationary, photos, stamps, your kids' important schoolwork, report cards, spare batteries, diskettes, pens, pencils, tax returns, receipts, invoices, telephone books, and certain other books you want nearby, such as dictionaries, catalogs, address books, photo albums, cards and more. All sorts of non-traditional items can be stored in files, to your advantage.

8: Do Something.
This rule really isn't as flip as it sounds.

I am encouraging you to proceed to action in order to solve or fix something that's bothering you. 

In the Introduction, I suggested that most of us have some idea of what to do to solve our own clutter problems. We may not know exactly what to do, or exactly where to start, or what to toss and what to save, or what we need to buy in the way of shelves or storage baskets. But we do know we need to clean out, toss, and organize. 

Unfortunately, for many of us, what we do best with our clutter is to fret about it and mull it over. 

We may practically salivate when we see a sale on closet organizers, but we're still stuck by our own indecision and inaction. 

Pity, those who think like that do suffer and for a long time...in clutter.

This rule really isn't as easy as it sounds. I am encouraging you to proceed to action in order to solve or fix something that's bothering you. 

9: A place for everything, and everything in its place.
Obviously your parents thought of this rule before

I did, but maybe that's just another reason why it's so important for getting rid of clutter. Some clutter is just stuff that belongs someplace else. Whether it's the kids' toys strewn through the house, a closet full of clothes that no one in the family wears any longer, newspapers piled in the corner, or paper stacked on the desk, these items are clutter as long as they are not in their proper place.

Clearly, it's much easier to decide to put everything in its place than it is actually to do it—especially if you're fresh out of places.

The flip side of this rule means that if everything is in its place, you can find an item precisely when you want it. That event in and of itself can sometimes make your day.

10: Items displayed in the house have to pass a test.
This seems only fair. After all, you have only so much space. The items taking up that space should justify themselves. It's not a complicated test. They just have to have a valid reason for being there. The reason can involve function or form. No problem. It passes the test. But it doesn't pass just because someone put it there "for now" five years ago and it's never been moved since, or because someone gave it to you who might notice if it's gone, when and if he/she visits you or because you don't know where else to put it.

11: Don't do things "later."
Let's say you just spent an hour picking up in the family room. It's in impeccable shape—splendidly uncluttered by things that don't belong there. You know only too well that it can be turned into a war zone by the family in minutes: discarded clothes, food, dirty dishes, shoes, toys (kids', dogs', and cats'), soft drink and/or beer cans, dirty ashtrays, school papers, newspapers, magazines, cups, jackets, hats, gloves and glasses.

THINGS NOT TO DO LATER: A PARTIAL LIST …

• If you brought stuff into a room, take it back out the very next time you leave that room (after you're done with it, of course).
• Take things upstairs if you are going there anyway.
• Take things downstairs if you are going there anyway.
• Take everything out of the car that was added this trip.
• Pick up things when they drop.
• Wipe up spills when they happen.
• Vacuum up messes when they occur.
• Wash dirty dishes and wipe off the counters before the food dries on them.
• Fold clothes when they emerge from the dryer.
• Iron clothes while they are still slightly damp.

A lot of clutter in your home will disappear if you follow this rule. 

It's not much more than leaving a room the way you found it. 

If there wasn't toothpaste spread on the sink before you came into the room, there shouldn't be any there when you leave it. 

This rule solves clutter problems without adding one second of time or one ounce of work to anyone's overwhelmed schedule. 

It doesn't involve any extra time to take dirty dishes to the kitchen if you're going there anyway to get a glass of water. 

It doesn't take any extra time to carry your shoes to your bedroom if you're going up there anyway to do your homework.

12: Label things.

I am not talking about putting a label just on the kids' gym shorts (although that's a prudent idea!). I am talking about labeling things around the house—things that people don't label because they don't think of it or because they think it isn't necessary. 

How often have you gone to a storage closet to retrieve something from a cardboard box you had stored there yourself, only to find that there are now six cardboard boxes there and they all look the same? 

You start by muscling down what you think is the correct box and taking off the tape with which you so carefully sealed it. After you discover that an item isn't in that box, you halfway reseal it with the used tape and start on the next box. Let's say you do eventually find the item you're looking for—it's just that it's forty-five minutes and six boxes later. That's the kind of problem that labeling can avoid.

LABEL STORAGE BOXES
Label all storage boxes to avoid the grief outlined above. 

Get a good marking pen and, at least on cardboard boxes, write on the box itself. 

Try hard to avoid the label "Miscellaneous." INmy vocabulary "miscellaneous" is another word for clutter!

Other examples of labels that may come back to haunt you are "Garage Sale" or "Charity." 

Even if your label ends up listing everything in the box, doing so is still simpler than looking through your entire collection of boxes.

Usually you can get away with a label such as "Books" or "Summer Clothes"—as long as you don't have more than one box with that same label. 

Use a label just complete enough so you can tell what's in the box without actually opening it. 

When you add or remove items from a box, change the label accordingly. Or eliminate the box!

LABEL FROZEN FOOD
Everything starts to look alike after a few days in the freezer. That's understandable if you wrap items in aluminum foil, of course, but food stored even in plastic wrap turns white and crystalline and becomes disguised quickly enough.

Put a roll of inch-wide masking tape and a pen in a drawer next to the freezer wrap of your choice. Use a length of the tape to make a label for everything you freeze. 

Also add the date to the label: If you have more than one package of chicken, you'll know which one to use first. 

13: Call in a professional. (last case - emergency)
A whole new profession has arisen of saintly people who make their living solving other people's clutter and organizational problems. They will come into your home and—working either with you or by themselves—will clean out the closets, install the necessary organizers, set up a filing system for you, and generously encourage the calm you've longed for to emerge from the chaos that's been driving you crazy.

How do you find a pro? Look in the yellow pages under "Organizing." In the yellow pages they're listed under "Organizing Services and Systems—Household and Business." Another place to look is through community-oriented classes. Household organizing or anticlutter classes are taught several times a year in local courses and schools, and the instructors usually work in the field themselves.

There's a catch to this rule, however: I insist that you use it only if you promise to follow all the other rules once the professional has come and gone. He or she will leave, and the clutter will return almost immediately unless you modify your behavior.

Implementing this rule does not reduce the number of rules to just this one.

 

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Note: If you live in my neighborhood, you can contact ME for help and advice!