I recently took a weekend to complete the areas that were bothering me the most and it felt so good after! As a mom of three little ones working from home (and one in college, but she organized her room before she left thankfully), my house is not in pristine order daily. There are toys usually spilled out to be played with and they get cleaned up before we go to bed. I want my house to feel lived in and my kids to feel it’s a safe space to run around and be kids. But I don’t like clutter and keeping something because I’m not sure where else to put it, what I’ve found is that when there’s LESS in the house to begin with, I feel more at peace and the cleaning up goes faster.
UCLA studied families in their own homes for years, and the moms who called their houses cluttered had higher stress hormones, and it went up as they walked from room to room. So maybe they’re onto something and it isn't just in my head. A house with less in it to me is a calmer house.
Fall is when I like to do this because the holiday season gets pretty busy. This also gives me a good idea for Christmas presents for the kids because we clear out what isn’t useful and can be more mindful of what we get them (I don’t go crazy with Christmas presents for the kids like I used to in previous years, lessons learned but that’s for another post!). I used to get decision fatigue where I wouldn’t know where to start first and would get really stuck on the decluttering part (I would always find some reason to keep something). Here’s what I’ve found to help me get the job done quicker…
I start with whatever area is bothering me most, which is almost always the playroom. Recently it was our entryway too, so I worked on both, and I'll keep going through the other areas this month. Break it up into manageable tasks, like today I do my closet, tomorrow the bathroom drawers. Saying it will all get done in one day isn't practical and hasn't worked for me in the past. Then I follow the same order for every spot in the house: declutter, deep clean, then make it cozy.
Part 1: Declutter
I break up the house into rooms or categories. For the playroom the category was toys, I like putting everything in one pile so I can see it all at once. So for example, here’s the before: