Time to plan

                                

I am such a planner which can be a great asset and can be a hindrance at the same time. Often we get caught up in the plans and never take action. I however, get so drawn into a task I forget to do other things like eating lunch, resting even drinking enough water throughout the day. I am going to write how I do my big clean out in case someone wants to join in. I look at it from a step by step view point. I promise it will not seem to overwhelming or even unattainable. Maybe the way I do things will help you in some way if you wish to join in. I am not a professional organizer but I do love to organize and everything have its own place.

1. Hands full out, hands full in. In high school and college I was a server to make some money. I made some good money and it was because I was always moving. When I left the kitchen I had either food in my hand for a table or refills for drinks and when I went back towards the kitchen I had empty plates from either my tables or those around me. I still view my daily life the same way, every step is with intention. This can easily be done in the home. When you walk by a room and see something that needs to go another room take it. On the way back see something that needs straighten then do it. It takes a few minutes but then during the week when you are cleaning is less to clean and takes less time. 

2. It did not get to be chaos overnight and will not resolve itself overnight. Even with me cleaning out all the things every 6 months it never stays clean. That is 6 months of stuff that has been brought in. I do clean out a little in between those months. We usually have a 33 gallon bag for donation every few months but the reality is stuff accumulates. Thank about every Happy Meal your kid gets, or every impulse buy you make... it just adds up. 

When I wrote my last post I talked about how you have to have a plan. Writing things out seems like a waste of time. However I can guarantee you its not, seeing progress is very self motivating. I want you to go to each room with a notebook sit in the middle of it and then write down what you see. Yes I promise I do this and the funny thing is I was watching this show the other day and the professional organizer said to do the same thing! I started with the room of necessity, my youngest. He has gotten so tall that his pants were to short. Which is fine because I have saved all the clothes the older one has grown out of and sorted them by size in totes. This just meant I needed to remove the small stuff and get out and hang the new to him sizes. Guess what that takes care of part of his closet. However for this exercise his plan looks like this and to save space I went ahead and did the oldest Aiden's as well :

I did this for every room. Even the bathrooms, the laundry room, the living rooms, den and kitchen! The kitchen was a tad bit different as it is one of the biggest rooms in the house and with the most cabinets so I broke its sections up. For the kitchen I made the island one section, the cabinets on the wall with the fridge one section, the cabinets with the oven/sink one section and the stand alone cabinet/party its own. This will make it more attainable and keep me from rushing through and doing a good clean out. 

The reason why I do this is because I clean out when I get a chance. I know I do not have a day where I can set aside a whole day to focus on cleaning out. I wish I did but I do not. So you do not want to set yourself up for failure. One of my favorite quotes that I have at the top of this post. "Plans are worthless but planning is everything." You can make plans to do something all day long but until you start planning out the steps to get you there and starting doing them you will never reach your destination or goal.

My Weekly TO DO's: 

~Mondays: groceries, kitchen counters, laundry 

~Tuesdays: bathrooms, dust 

~Wednesdays: clean mother in law, big vacuum, laundry

~Thursday:  laundry, errands if there are any

~Friday:  laundry, all glass

~Saturday: Big Vacuum

~Sunday: meal planning/ weekly planning, grocery list making

Daily: spot clean hamster tank, spot vacuum, wipe counters, pick up stuff at night and dishes. I am sure I missing something but I can not think lol.