Monday is my dig out day. I like a day at home to re-group from last week and the week-end. Today was not a normal Monday. Other demands, sick cat, fair ribbon drop off, etc. made it impossible to have my dig out day. What to do?
We all have times when we look at dread upon a bedroom or whole house of unsettled "stuff". Today had me thinking about this problem. I like the fast approach on this also. Don't tell anyone, cuz they won't believe you anyway, but I am a lazy person. I just don't give into lazy, I work fast. I have techniques for things that I don't like to do or things that must be done.
If you don't have a plan you can sit and stare at a messy room all day long and it will still be there to haunt and make you miserable. I think kids would benefit from this blog today as it was in my teens I began to apply my techniques. I needed to get to the beach or off to the all day movies or anywhere but my messy bedroom. So once again this is about not thinking too deeply about the job.
1) START FAST
2) HAVE A PLAN
3) THINK AHEAD
Yes attack the job with lightening speed. I had neat children and I had messy children. I liked clean bedrooms and so at times that meant cleaning out the messy rooms. I hated the job but it had to be done.
MY PLAN: I used a few boxes, lined them up and went to work. That's it. No fancy plan just practical fast work. Remember the beach is calling! One box is for everything that goes in another room.
1) Look around the room and put stuff in it fast. It's a race. Another box is for trash, you won't throw away enough if you just use the waste basket that's in the room and you will waste time emptying it when it's full.
2) Look around what is trash, quickly toss it. What we are doing is working in layers. You won't always get all the trash in the first round, or all the stuff that goes in other rooms etc. Another box is for things that don't have a place to go, something I just bought, mail I'm not sure of, etc.
3) Now look around the room, what is still there? Well hopefully it is the stuff that has a place to go and a bit of mixed items we haven't seen yet. So quickly put away the stuff that has a place.
4) Do a trash round again. Do a round of stuff that goes in other rooms again. So what's left you simply don't need or want any more, can it be put in the trash, go to the D.I or the Goodwill?
Some people can do better if they divide the area up and clean one area and have it encourage the next area. Use what works best for you.
THINKING A HEAD: My experience with cleaning house, or your bedroom is that "It will get messy again!" If it is a horrible experience every time you do and it takes you hours, days, or weeks to do it how can you ever face this kind of task? You must learn to do these chores fast, and with a plan. Look ahead to the fun you will have when it is done. Don't labor over every item, if it was important it would be in a special place or it will be soon right.
I'm sure some of you are wondering about this advise because you have seen my house. Well I can do a chore fast and keep up with things, what I suffer from is clutter. My depression era parents and grandparents taught me never to toss anything you might need it. I am learning that sometimes you will and sometimes you won't. I know what each clutter area is, sadly I can find anything. I just wish the clutter had never gotten in a pile. So I am in process of cleaning out the places that have things stored in them. Maybe this stuff needs to be passed along so my hobbies and life of today can go into the cleaned out spaces. Wish me luck 23 years in a house can leave a lot of layers.
So today I'll grab just one bag and go collect all the stuff out of place and put it away and I'll mop the floors, clean the bathrooms and the laundry is in motion now. And a shortened dig-out day is happening, quickly. I have a clean up basket in each bath room, but if I have a bleach cloth in hand I can walk from bathroom to bathroom, yes I have three, and can wipe down the counters the light switch anything that needs a little bleach. Next I go to each room and scrub toilets, then to each room and sweep. I find if I do one motion over and over it gets faster. This doesn't work in all places but it's great for the water areas.
Good-luck fellow workers!
No comments:
Post a Comment