New Year's Resolution: A Clean and Clutter-Free Home

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

28 Dec 2007 08:59 AM

The end of the year is a perfect time to redo all of those problem areas of your home to transform it to a clean and clutter-free environment that you can enjoy for the upcoming year. If you start now and do a little bit at a time, you'll soon be on your way to having a home you love to spend time in. It is all a matter of trashing and stashing; that is, getting rid of the thing you don't need or want and finding places for all of the things that you do. We'll take it one area at a time and do it together. Let's share our progress!

We'll start with some general guidelines to make the process so much easier. Here they are: Don't try to do the whole house in one day, one weekend or even one week.

Set aside some time when you know you won't be interrupted, whether that is three hours or just fifteen minutes.

Choose one are to complete per week for the next couple of months. Some examples are a closet, a dresser, a medicine cabinet, a bedroom, a toy box, etc. You know how much time you have, so pick the job accordingly.

Don't take out everything if you don't have the time to complete the job. Start with a single section of a closet, for example. Otherwise, the clutter may just spill out into other living areas and make it all worse. Dig deep , area by area and room by room. Don't throw things back into an area simply because you don't know what to do with them. Start in one section and complete it before moving on to the next one.

If you come across something and can't remember when you last used it, then get rid of it.

Remove everything from the space or section you are working on and clean the area throughly.

Sort the items you take out into groups. You can use boxes, bags or a bit of floor to sort. You'll need the following groups: Keep, donate (or sell), trash. Everything must end up in one of these groups.

Make arrangements for a donation pick up or borrow a friend's van or truck. Have everything that is to be donated ready to go and don't take anything back out of the donation group.

Next up: Tips for organizing your entryway.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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