MUSIC: Start of Something New by Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical)
I just spent some of my savings to have our house painted. Now the walls and ceilings are all white. The house now looks a lot brighter!
Next, I want to clean and declutter our house, the first floor at least. The task is pretty much huge because we really have a lot of stuff and we only have a limited space. I surfed through the net for some tips and found one site to be very helpful. It's on http://organizedhome.com.
Here are some of the tips that I plan to apply. I am going to start it later and then spend my free day tomorrow doing the bulk of the job.
I plan to use a combination of the so called four-box method and closet-go-round method. Using the four-box method, I am going to set 4 boxes and label them as "put away", "give away/sell", "storage" and "trash", and then put stuff in the proper box as I clear things. Then using the closet-go-round method, I will go from one closet or section of the house, classify stuff, empty boxes (put away stuff to proper places, give away/sell stuff to accessible place for disposal later, storage stuff to proper storage places, and trash goes outside for pickup). After the boxes are emptied, I will go on to the next closet or section of the house and start all over again.
After clearing every section, I will then have an easier time organizing them more i.e. putting labels, arranging stuff, etc. The important principle is to give each item a "home" so nothing gets lost or becomes a clutter. I will also have a list, both hard and soft copy, of where I put things so I'll know where to look for them.
I also plan to set up a "launch pad" for every person in our house. A launch pad is a place to put things that you usually need before going out the door in the morning and other everyday trinkets. For me, those things would include my watch, glasses, comb, celphone, coins and hair accessories. For Carlo, that would be comb, gel, glasses, celphone, homework, notebooks and pens. For Papa, that would be glasses, watch, celphone, keys, coins, folders, pens, envelopes and notebooks. Since Mama rarely leaves the house, her launch pad would contain stuff she regularly uses at home like comb, pens, facial cleanser and cotton.
I've listed some things I'll need to organize the hard-to-organize stuff at home and buy them later such as key holder or sticky hooks for the keys, small stuff organizer (with lots of sections) and a cork board for those urgent letters and bits of paper with reminders.I hope I'll be able to accomplish my goals. I really want to get our house organized once and for all. Life would also be much simpler if everything is in its place. Good luck to me!
