How do you keep a decluttering blog?

When your home looks like this?



Or this ??






And you feel like you have no control.

Well my plan is to start with what I can control - which is this ...



(bedmaking challenge going well - clean table a huge bust - it is covered with tools ... to be recontinued when the building dust settles!)

And this - emptying hot spots and clutter boxes.




And basically trying to keep out of the way!

I have a garbage bag - my goal is to fill it by the end of the day and I'm just going to potter all day, keep the washing and the dishes up to date (the joy of cleaning up in the laundry sink) and see if i can leave today even just a little better than I found it.

(oh - and kitchen update - the cupboards are going up!

Clutter baskets

I have no idea but that man I love has exactly one trillion cables throughout our home.

And I really don't understand it - but most of them seem to live in our bedroom :(

I've come to realise that some habits you just need to work with. And this is one of them. So in the spirit of "if you can't beat 'em ...." I've given him his very own clutter basket.




Now I can be happy - because the cables have a home and aren't spread everywhere ...

And he can be happy because they are right there in the bedroom where he "needs" them to be ;)

(and just to make ME happy - it's pretty and pink!)

Sigh ... isn't that better!

How I am beating that "just inside the front door clutter"

I guess you've figured out I am messy by nature.
But I CAN be tidy if I make it easy on myself.

The spot I hate the most - just inside the front door. EVERYTHING ended up here. Shoes, mail, bags, library books, shoes ... more shoes.

We've tried this for a few weeks now ... and it is working for us.

Here are our tips.

Give yourself permission to have a dumping box (I like mine to have a lid!) This one is a dvd organiser from BigW. Inexpensive - but it looks nice. All those little things (keys, sunglasses, my work stuff) get dumped in here as soon as I get home.



Mail sorting and other paperwork is the bane of my life. I'll post later about how we file what we need to keep for our records. But this is how we cope with short term paperwork.




We use clear plastic document envelopes.
Label them 1) Bills to pay 2) Things to file, 3) Eliana etc etc
As a piece of paper comes in I deal with it. Bills get paid on payday.(even if they are not due). Filing gets done when I get a moment - but at least before the file is full. Everything has a home and the junk is gone. That's what matters. And this way nothing SHOULD go missing!

Find a great storage solution. We love this hallway bench. It's from Ikea (of course) It's the Leksvik shoe rack.




This piece of furniture is the key for me. Something pretty on top to encourage me not to dump things on top. Places for shoes, hats, library books, my diary, my paper work

This is really working for us! We still have mess at times - but it is so much less! And so easy to get sorted. And for me - if this area is clean my whole lounge room is clean!