Now is the time to get that cluttered situation sorted
- Karen Wilson: Family Corner
- September 18, 2024
- 374
Christmas is only three months away. How does your house look?
Are you ready to add lovely gifts to your home, or is every closet and cupboard stuffed? If someone gives you the perfect gift, where will you put it?
If it’s something you will want to display, will it be noticed beside the stack of mail?
Is the house company ready? Are unexpected guests a joy, or do you cringe at the state of the house when the doorbell rings?
Are you going to have to move a pile or two to get the tree into the living room?
If you will have guests in from out of town, do you have clean guest rooms? Perhaps you need to make changes to a room to accommodate a guest.
Now is the time to get that situation sorted. You won’t have to just jam things in already-bulging closets or hide them in another room if you start going through things and sending things out the door now.
Full disclosure: We have been crazy busy this year. I’m behind, and we have been in our house long enough for things to accumulate. Too many of the cupboards I open are over stuffed. So I’ve been working on clearing things out.
In her book, “Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman,” Anne Ortlund says if you don’t have enough room for all your stuff, you have too much stuff. Bless someone else with the extras. I agree.
Dana K. White, author of “Decluttering at the Speed of Life,” considers her house a container. When the container is full, things need to go.
She uses a variety of containers throughout her house to keep just the things she really likes or uses. She fills the container with her favorite things first. Anything that doesn’t fit has to go.
She encourages decluttering without pulling a bunch of things out in order to clear clutter. Doing so could lead to another mess. She concentrates on directly donating or putting things away instead. The place looks better in a short amount of time, and she can quit any time.
One of her strategies is to take pictures before she starts. Then after five minutes of throwing away trash and moving some of the easy stuff, she takes another picture. Seeing the change in a short amount of time inspires her to do more.
She also has schemes to deal with every day, tasks starting with washing the dishes.
“The House That Cleans Itself” by Mindy Starns Clark has lots of ideas about setting up your house to avoid messes and clutter in the first place.
Reading or listening to books helps to inspire me and get me moving. I’ve been listening to these books while bagging and taking things out the door.
So if you’re up for some motivating reading, check out these authors.
Now is the time to get going. You’ll likely enjoy the holidays more if you aren’t scrambling to get the house under control. And wouldn’t it be nice to start the new year with the house just the way you want it?