Curl up in a ball ... sucking my thumb (ok, maybe a margarita, not my thumb) ... tapping my heels together, wishing to go back to Kansas scared.
I'm a self-diagnosed, unmedicated ADD Mom (but with none of that cool "H"). "Focus...Focus...Focus...Look, there's a birdie!" is my modus operandi. So if I'm going to do something big .... like cleaning my office (click here for the "before" post so you'll know exactly what I'm talking about) ... I have to break it up into bite-sized pieces. And I have to have goals I care about. The combination of relatively small tasks and goals that matter to me are invaluable.
So, looking at the six days I had to complete the clean-up, I decided that I could devote about three hours a day to the task. I made a to do list of goals that involved visually seeing improvement at each step. Then I came up with a list of relatively small to do's that together would help me accomplish the goal for the day in about three hours total.
So here's a six-step process that should help you clean up just about any disastrous area:
Goal One:
Visualize the End Result
On Day One, I wanted to get a good picture of what my office could look like at the end. In order to do that, I had to empty a lot of stuff out of the office quickly. So, after deciding that the dining room would be the intermediate home for all of the stuff I was unloading from my office, I got started.
1. Clear out all baskets, boxes, bags of stuff that isn't where it ultimately belongs.
I put things in laundry baskets, bins, and other containers "temporarily" during prior clean-outs. It was time to finally go through it all. But first, it had to leave.
2. Clear off all horizontal surfaces.
This involved one more basket to add to all of the other baskets I'd already removed.
3. Remove any furniture that will not be in the office at the end of the process. Store, toss, give away, or donate.
I decided that the ottoman that went with my big pink chair had to go. It took up too much floor space. Also, my beloved University of Virginia rocking chair didn't make the cut. That one still hurts.
4. Now that the floor and horizontal surfaces are clear, clean them.
It's probably been a while since that was possible.
5. Sit back and smile. When you're done, if you do it right, it'll still look like this.
Maybe even better. (See Goal Five.)
Goal Two:
Create Space for the Homeless Stuff
Days Two, Three, and Four were all about culling. The reason why all of that stuff was in boxes, baskets, and bins is because I was literally out of space. Sad, given the size of my office, but true. So look around your space and figure out where you can store things in the room. For me, that was bookcases, a file cabinet, and my paper sorter. Then make room in them.
1. Go through bookcases.
I needed to remove books that I would never read, had already read, or were no longer necessary for my stage of life. I also needed to reorganize some shelves and get rid of stuff that really didn't belong there. I also threw away twelve years of sermon notes in little spiral bound books. UGH! That kind of hurt. But they had to go.
2. Go through filing cabinets and drawers.
I had a ton of papers in my file cabinet that was just not necessary to keep. Warranty booklets for things I no longer owned. Fabric swatches for furniture I had already recovered and curtains for a house I no longer owned. I cleaned out about 1/3 of the stuff in the filing cabinet.
3. Go through paper sorter.
I started using my paper sorter as a place to put things that needed to go into the file cabinet, but wouldn't fit.
4. Cut down on the chachkies.
I have a lot of little trinkets that mean something to me. But they make my desk look really cluttered and dumpy. I kept a few that I really love, and tossed or moved the others to new-found space on my bookshelves.
Goal Three:
Reduce the Amount of Homeless Stuff
Now that I had open space that I could see ... whole empty bookshelves, space in the filing cabinet, empty cubbies in my paper sorter ... I needed to reduce the amount of extra stuff that would be re-entering my office. I knew that if I filled all of this new space immediately, in six months, I'd be right back where I started.
1. Toss, toss, toss.
I cannot tell you how many papers I found in those stacks I didn't even know were there. Did I really need to save them in the first place?
2. Give, give, give.
I donated three boxes of books and other things to charity. I also made a ten-year-old girl's day when I gave her half my collection of cross-stitch patterns. A bag of homeschooling books will go to the CHEER Homeschool Support Group at my church. Your bane may be someone else's blessing.
3. Keep.
Notice that there were three tosses, three gives, and one keep? Yeah. That was intentional.
Goal Four:
Put It All Away
Now that you've tossed (times three), given (times three) and kept (times one), there should be room for the stuff that's left.
1. Figure out what belongs elsewhere and put it there.
My eight-year-old's xylophone was in my office. It's now back where it belongs.
2. Take what's left, and give it a real-life home.
I read a book once where a boy's friend got a splinter while visiting the boy's house. The visitor asked the mom to get it out. She told him to go to the tapestry hanging in her bathroom and get the needle that is stuck in it. He asked what the needle was for. She said, "For getting out splinters, of course!" Now that woman has a home for everything! I want to be her when I grow up. However, my husband just now asked me if I had shipping labels in my office. My response: "Yes, in the bottom drawer of my file cabinet." One week ago I couldn't have answered that question.
Goal Five:
Make It Pretty
This step isn't necessary for cleaning up a messy room. But it sure is the cherry on top. I hung a painting that had been propped against the wall for about three years. I also hung a photo of my son (now 14) and his cousin (now 15) taken at the Outer Banks 10 years ago. I even made a pretty Van Gogh painting the desktop pattern on my computer.
So there you have it. Now go clean something!
Finish well.
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