6 Weeks to a Decluttered, Cleaned, and Organized House

Who's up for a challenge?  The season of cold temperatures and snow continues to rage on, so how about a little project to pass the time and get some serious it done?!  Do you look around your house and feel irritated by the clutter, disorganization, and all of the little cleaning projects you put off?  You've come to the right place!

Join me in a 6 week challenge to get the house decluttered, cleaned, and organized.  Each day we will spend between 30 and 60 minutes working on a specific area of the house and move through the entire house in 6 weeks.  The house will be in tip-top shape right in time for the beautiful weather that is bound to come.  Think spring!

Our time is precious and we are going to make the most of this short stretch of time.  Some days it may be hard to focus on a specific task, but by setting a realistic amount of time aside each day to tackle this project, success is guaranteed.  Want to make it a little more fun?  Make some fun playlists that will keep you singing along and flood you with fun memories.  Who says this has to be boring?!

To help you stay on track and some helpful tips, make sure to like The Year to Get it Done Facebook page and join in our 6 Weeks to a Decluttered, Cleaned, and Organized House event.  We will create a supportive group to share our progress and pump each other up when we want to throw in the towel.

The first room we're going to tackle is the kitchen.  As the hub of most houses, we want our kitchens to have a peaceful aura.  We will work through cleaning and decluttering first and then move on to organization.  When we're all done we'll have a fantastically clean kitchen and an awesome mission control system in place to keep our families organized and our countertops clear.

In Blackeyed Peas style, "Let's Get it Started!"

Where Did the Time Go?

It is hard to believe we are already one week into the New Year!  Thus far, I am satisfied with my progress and am feeling more motivated than ever to get it done.  I hope you are having some success in your journey as well.  Whatever your situation, don't abandon ship.  We have 358 days to go.  So much can be done in that amount of time!

Today I'd like to touch on the topic of time management.  I am sure each of us have our fair share of successes and struggles in this area.  To make the most use of our time, I believe we need to sit down and have a little heart-to-heart with ourselves and ask a very important question:  at the end of the day, how do we feel about the way we spent our time?  Take a week to consider this question each night before bed and answer honestly.  After all, how can we make a positive change if we neglect to truthfully address the problem?

When I consider this question, I find there are nights I feel satisfied and fulfilled and others where I am disappointed and upset with how my precious hours were spent.  Typically I wake feeling energized and ready to tackle the day.  My best work is done in the morning, so I do typically tackle the "must-do's" for the day during that time.  The rest of the day is a crap shoot.  The tiredness sets in and many days my productivity around the house significantly decreases or ceases altogether.

I wouldn't say it is wasted, though.  For a few hours the house is quiet (well, four days a week that is). I tend to spend this time writing, reading, planning, and catching up on my shows here and there. Taking time to rest is okay and I enjoy the little break to engage in my own personal hobbies.

The big question is, how can we manage our time better?  I think there are three components to this answer:  planning, organizing, and decreasing the distractions that tend to suck our time away.  Here are a few ideas in each of these areas:

Planning:  Create a meal plan each week.  Designate a day to sit down, look at the weekly ads, write out your menu and grocery list, and search for coupons.  This will save you a ton of time as you will take fewer trips to the store and each night dinner prep will run much more smoothly.  Take into consideration nights when you have activities or meetings and plan a meal to work with your schedule.

Organizing:  To help with meal planning, keep the recipes your family enjoys, as well as a folder for recipes you'd like to try, in one place.  I like to use Pinterest for this purpose.  I have meals boards categorized so I can efficiently find what I'm looking for or quickly look through new recipes to try.

Create a reusable "to-do" list and hang it in a place you're sure to see it often.  Personalize it to fit your family's needs and tackle a task each day.

Limiting Distractions:  Let's face it.  If you have kids, you're going to spend plenty of time being distracted.  There are fights to break up, lovable items lost, games to play, sick kids to tend to...you get the picture.  I'm talking about distractions we can limit:  electronic time being the biggest.time.suck.ever.  This week I found a website called Stay Focused.  I have put it to use already!  The first site I blocked on my laptop?  Facebook.  I've set a limit on how much time I will be allowed to spend on it each day.  This doesn't help with accessing it from my phone, but after removing the app last month, my Facebook trolling on my phone has significantly diminished.

Social media has its pros and cons.  The biggest con is our ability to get lost in it.  It is a time suck plain and simple.  I'm going to work really hard to spend my time wisely in this area.  I enjoy reading blogs and seeing what's going on in the lives of others, but not to the point where I have wasted days on end when the hours are added up.

Our time is precious.  While we can't get it back, we can choose to spend the hours we do have in a way in which we feel satisfied and fulfilled at the end of each day.  If you find yourself a bit uncomfortable after honestly assessing the usage of your time, more than likely it's time for a change.

Personally, I know I still have a long way to go, but setting goals and being conscientious of my struggles in this area is a step in the right direction.  After all, imperfect progress is better than no progress at all!

   

Disheveled No More

It is so hard to stay focused when life is pulling you a million different ways.  I gaze around my house and see "stuff" strewn about, a list of phone calls I need to make, bills to be paid, laundry to be done, house to be cleaned, meals to be made...I think you get the picture!

There are days when I feel like I've been productive and completed many of these tasks, but the list continues to be a mile long.  It is frustrating and I am determined to find a way to remedy the situation.

If you haven't figured it out already, I have a Type A personality.  I like to have a plan and feel in control.  When my house is in a disheveled state, my physical self also feels this way.  To improve my mood and feel more in control I need to get my house in order.

In The Year to Get Sh*t Done, I plan to spend some time each day sifting through the piles of papers, clothes, toys, and other random items lying around the house.  There will only be three options for each item:  throw out, donate, or find a designated spot for it.  Let's just say we are going to downsize our "stuff" and have a purpose for what we decide to keep.

If it were just me living in my home I am confident this would be an easy task to complete, however, with a husband and four young children to account for as well, it may be a year-long process.  In the end, though, this house is getting organized and my wonderful family is going to help with the process and maintain the results.

One room, one closet, one counter top at a time, our home will transform.  Each day the kids will learn valuable lessons in responsibility, teamwork, and, our word of the year, discipline.  I am not sure they will share the same enthusiasm I have, but in the end we'll all be proud of our hard work.

  

Getting Organized

I am a visual person.  I work best with a list and a clear outline of what needs to be done.  Perhaps this is why I struggle at times with the cleaning and organization of our home.  When it comes to the mundane, routine household tasks I keep up fairly well.  Looking at the larger picture, though, I would rate myself average at best.

I have good intentions.  I find myself making mental notes about tasks I'd like to complete around the house, but either get started and find myself sidetracked or I never start at all.  As part of the year to get sh*t done, I'm going to do my best to combat this problem.

Today I sat down with a blank canvas and began to map out all of my mental notes into a nice little chart.  My list spans from tasks I want to complete daily all the way to annual projects.

To ensure this is visible and reusable, I plan to place it inside an 8x10 frame and hang it in a spot I'll be sure to see it multiple times a day.  I'll place a washable marker nearby and cross items off once they're completed.  Some will get erased daily, others will stay for awhile.

It is my hope this will help us keep up with maintaining our house and keeping it a bit more organized.  Notice I said a bit.  We have four young children and know our house will never be

immaculate, nor do we want it to be.  An overall sense of organization, though, will be a much-welcomed change.