Reply to Organizing and cleaning an insanely disorganized house

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[quote=Anonymous]The first thing I'd do is a phase one declutter. Set a goal of getting two bags out every day (either trash or to donate). If you're gathering stuff to donate, make sure it doesn't sit. Go to Goodwill weekly to drop it off - remember, the goal isn't piles, the goals is to get stuff out of your house.

Once you've gotten rid of the low hanging fruit, I'd do either a category or a room at a time. So - your clothes. Kid's clothes. Bathrooms. Kitchen. Toys. This is important: Do not start with the hard stuff (long term storage, etc) start with the easy stuff that you touch all the time. Be quick to ditch stuff.

Saving stuff for emotional reasons is normal and fine (old photos, the T-shirt from your beloved childhood camp, the art your kid made) BUT you need to designated a place for it. I like to have a big drawer or a shelf for "memorabilia" like that. Unless it's something decorative that you're displaying, anything you're keeping for emotional reasons should go on that one shelf. That helps keep it limited and stops it from taking over your life. Your t-shirt drawer should just have t-shirts you'll actually wear.

When a space or category is cleaned up, make sure you're establishing routines around it. That's more important than moving forward to the next space or category - I like to have a touchpoint in the day or week when stuff is all put back. So the kitchen is all cleaned before we go to bed. Toys are all put away after dinner. Living room and bedrooms are tidied on Saturday morning so we have a nice space for the weekend. Etc. [/quote]

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