I was privileged to be able to de-clutter a whole house and prove to myself once and for all that these technique really work. In 44 hours of mostly working by myself I was able to get a three bedroom house plus garage, laundry room and two bathrooms in fine shape. As much confidence as I have in myself, I still was amazed at how easy and fast it was to get things in order with a place for everything.
The only difference between me doing this and you doing this is that I did have to check in with my client to discern what I could throw away, give away, and what she wanted. With a few questions I found out what liberties I had and thus was able to throw over a truck load of trash out–at least half of that with my own decisions.
Here is how I proceeded.
I decided to first de-clutter her living room so that when she came home that day she could walk into a house that had clearly been transformed. Within two hours using the of system, the room looked beautiful. I couldn’t resist doing just a bit of dusting and cleaning some glass as well as sweeping.
Each day as I worked (a total of five days averaging 8 hours a day) I would set out shallow, wide boxes where I put items that I thought Kathy would either need right a way or want to throw away. The high priority items were set aside so they could be easily seen in a shallow box.
Kathy pick out the items she wanted, and was sometimes thrilled when she found things she had been looking for. I have a knack for knowing what to set out (as opposed to packing in the boxes to sort later). For example there was a battery pack that she had been looking for. The best thing was finding the gargage door opener. With out it she could not open her garage door automatically and this added to saved time for her as well as me as I worked in the garage daily.
Some things were very valuable–like a $140 fork that belonged to a set.
Often a whole box would be left to either give away or throw away. By using this technique of shallow boxes that she could easily look at, within ten minutes Kathy could help me throw or give away an enormous amount of stuff. She also told me I could get rid of all kids clothes under a certain size, any broken or cheap looking toys.
I then proceeded to the garage. Since it was a nice day, and it is so much easier when cleaning a garage to have space to spread out onto, I prioritized this space. I also knew that much of what was going to be de-cluttered in the house would be put in the garage either to store, or to go to her storage. So clearing a garage near the beginning a of a de-cluttering job is a wise move. I am still happy that I started in the living room because that gave immediate gratification.
Part of organizing fast is the ability to stay energized and happy.
I will be writing about the special characteristics of de-cluttering rooms–and garages have the most challenges and yet are in some ways the easiest. I simply love to step into a garage that is a total mess and untangle the web of possessions. I can’t wait to show you how i do this and hear how it worked for you.
The rest of the day- about 6 hours was spent getting started organizing the garage and loading up a truck load of trash. I focused on getting the trash ready to go because we had a truck lined up–and the most important thing was to create more space.
The next 6 hour session got a load of stuff to take to storage. Because Cathy was clear that she did not want to take the time to sort much stuff right now–and she had a very large storage facility–this did make it easier to clear even the garage out. I thought she was very wise–just keep the minimum and essentials out–have a home for them–and deal with the rest later. That is my advice for anyone. Don’t agonize over every item. If you know you need it now, keep it. If you aren’t sure–put it in a box and sort later when you are clearer.
I estimate that it took me about 20 hours to de-clutter and pack up unneccesary items and 20 hours to take the boxes and re-sort them and put things away. for example, she wanted all her clothes hung up and her son’s clothes put away. This was a huge job and in itself took five hours. But having all the clothes sorted and bagged up made it possible for me then to go back later and do this job all at once, thus saving time.
This is one of the key elements–doing jobs that are similar all at once. For example, if when I was sorting clothes I would find a dress and then find a hanger and then hang it up–this would take much more time then if I did as I did–put the dress in a bag or box to be dealt with later. Becaues there were clothes all over the house, I had gathered up all the clothes to be put away and put in one place to be dealt with later.
You might find that you have a certain category that takes up a lot of space and time–please don’t yield to the temptation of sorting before all the categories are together. Another big one is flat stuff-papers, magazines, books. I will be talking more about sorting these later–but if you can get flat stuff packed up to sort later–you will use less boxes, less space, and when you sort the flat stuff–you will feel much more gratified because it will go quickly!
Do I sound out of breath? It is only because I want for you success in organizing fast. Once you get to a certain place, your mind and heart will be so much clearer and you will much more easily do the more difficlut jobs of finding homes for every thing and getting into a habit of putting things away. But it is all possible–I will hold your hand and teach you.
Finally, in the job I did for Kathy–I found homes for the main items in the home. The biggest job was sorting a huge amount of toys. I only threw out the ones Kathy told me to–cheap and broken. I then made categories like legos, costumes, star wars, small cars, action items. The rest I packed up into boxes and put into the garage for Kathy to sort later. Her son had more toys than he ever had now–because he could find them. And now put them away. I know Kathy will be doing more refining of the system–but now it will be easy because the job is started.
I got my daughter to help with the last phase of the organizing which I left for last–hanging up the clothes and putting clothes away–plus just some finishing touches.
I left the house with what Kathy wished for–all surfaces clear in the living room, the whole house dejunked, a place for everything including toys, a clear clean environment where she could feel more at peace. Yes, I did leave some boxes for her to sort at her liesure such as papers and toys, but now she would be in a position to have the energy and time to do this job.
I feel so grateful that I got to do this job. It really showed me that my technique would work with a whole house.
