Organizing Your House-Stressful to Carefree
Let’s see, first we have to find a place to start; maybe with all of the papers in the box under the bed or how about the closet that has all of the clothes falling off of the hangers all of the time or maybe I should start with the linen closet and get rid of some of those old worn out towels and sheets. You know, this is probably one of the reasons that I haven’t reorganized my life sooner. It is just too overwhelming and stressful of a job!
That was my exact thoughts about ten years ago. I was at my wits end trying to keep track of everything. I worked an eight hour a day job that usually turned into working ten hours a day, came home and tried to get the housework and the washing done, make sure that everyone was fed (without giving them fast food), had to help the kids with their homework (that I didn’t understand) and somewhere in there I had to find time to sit down and rest. How was I going to get all of these other things done too?
Sure, I could get another part time job and hire a maid to come in and clean or I could just throw out the dirty clothes and buy new ones every two weeks. That would take care of the cleaning or the laundry at least some of the things would be under control.
It was then that I read my very first book on Organizing; the authors sure did make things sound so easy to do and simple to take care of. Well, needless to say, that book was lost; either in a laundry pile or it might have ran off all on its own because it knew that I was a hopeless case. But, some of the things in that book actually made sense and stuck in my mind, I found myself using some of those ideas without even realizing it.
I still remember the page that said: “It didn’t get here over night and its not going to go away overnight. Don’t knock yourself out.” Now that was something that I could identify with; it took me a lot of years to get this collection of junk!
It said to make things simple, take one thing at a time (the one that drove you crazy the most) and take time to rest. I finally found a book that was written ‘just for me’, I could do simple and one thing at a time and I sure did need a rest; maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
I found out by taking the one thing at a time approach that I could accomplish a lot more than I gave myself credit for. I also could actually see my progress on a day to day basis; that made me feel really good and I actually looked forward to my next project. I went through my whole house room by room, my garage, workshop, closets and all of the papers in the box under the bed.
Well to make a long story short; I now have my home organized, my kids are grown and didn’t die of some hidden unknown disease and I can find everything in my house at a moments notice. I am not stressed when I walk in the door and I now have time to do the things that I want to do and that make me happy. Most of all; I now run the house instead of it running me.
Jan Hayner is the creator of Easy Home Organizing at http://www.organizingyourlifetheeasyway.com that has tips and hints on home organizing and household cleaning solutions. Free Newsletter, checklists and pamphlets to help you organize your life.
