Declutter Diva

One of the hardest things to do when you want to declutter your home is actually beginning. The house looks so overwhelming, you feel like you’ll never get anywhere with it, and often that overwhelming feeling causes you to not get started at all. It’s time to face the facts and get in gear. Here are some tips to help you mentally prepare for the challenge ahead.  Each one will help you get started decluttering your home.

1. Clearly define your goal. What are you willing to give up to achieve this goal? What does your dream house look like? Why do you want a de-cluttered house?
2. Remind yourself of all those old sayings that are cliché but true: “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and “The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”. Don’t tell yourself that you’re too far behind to start anything, or that the project is too big for you. 
3. Ask yourself why you hold onto things. Emotional attachment? Frugal nature? Guilt? If you can determine (even vaguely) what it is that stops you from getting rid of clutter, you will be better able to confront those issues head on and see if they are in fact valid.
4. Analyze what stops you from putting things away right away.  Distractions? Laziness? No easily-accessible place for mail to be filed upon receipt? Lack of adequate storage containers, shelves, or cupboards?
5. Decide what method or plan of attack may best suit you. Do you enjoy crossing completed tasks of your to-do list? Do you enjoy a timed approach where you dedicate a specific amount of time to sorting and de-cluttering each day? Do you like the idea of having a “De-Clutter My Home” weekend where you allow no distractions and get as much done as possible in one long stretch?

Once you have thought these through, you are one step closer to answering the question of how to start de-cluttering your home. For more ideas, see 15 Ways To Declutter Your Home

If you’re already convinced you’ll need help of some sort to clear the clutter but can’t afford to hire a professional organizer to do it for you, one way to learn proven tricks of the trade is to check out something that has been very helpful in this area, a top-selling ebook called “Declutter Fast” by Mimi Tanner. Check it out for yourself by clicking here (No obligation to purchase… just check it out. See if it could help you. Or sign up for the email tips.)

CLICK HERE TO DECLUTTER FAST

You are a busy mom, and you need some help with decluttering! Every which way you look you see clutter! No matter how many times you remind your children to put away their toys, every time you turn around there is another mess that will have to be cleaned up. You’re tired of the constant clutter, but what are you going to do?

How can you get back that calm, orderly sanctuary that you had pre-motherhood, and more importantly, how can you help your children develop organization and decluttering skills?

If you don’t want to be the one cleaning up your children’s clutter for years to come, the first thing you need to do is establish a plan of action. Sit your family down and discuss the issue. Explain what you want (a tidy house, no more toys and books left everywhere, a place for everything and everything in its place, space to put things, etc.), and then ask their advice on how you can get that. Have your children come up with a plan that makes sense to them!

Trust me… if you simply lay down the law, say “it will be so”, and then expect your house to get tidy and organized, it won’t happen! BUT… if you can get your children to help with decluttering by getting THEM to design ways you can get that calm and orderly house back, they will be MUCH more inclined to help you follow through without your nagging! And if you can turn it into a game, all the better!

Moms, although “your home is your castle”, your little princes and princess also have some “ruling power” there whether or not you admit it. After all, whose items cause the most clutter? (If yours, well, you know the truth that you are leading by example, right?) Your children need to be involved in assigning places for things if you expect them to remember where they go. I know you’re thinking “I tell them again and again and again…” but, have you ever thought of asking your children where they think a particularly often-left-lying-around item should go? Help with decluttering for you could come in the form of your son telling you that he always drops his school bag on the floor by the door because he doesn’t feel like walking up the stairs to his room to put it away before coming to you to say hello. A solution he might come up with that would solve that problem could be for you to designate a hook beside the coats for him to hang his school bag! As you are a busy woman and you need some help keeping the house tidy, get your family involved in solving the clutter problem, not just in cleaning up the clutter!

Having children live with you does not have to immediately mean you live in a cluttered home. If you want no clutter, help yourself and your family get to that state by learning patience and using the resources available! Even if you are the very best teacher and you set a fabulous example, the truth is that your family will not learn by osmosis how to live decluttered lives. However, your patience and effort will no doubt be WELL worth it when little by little your house gets back to that orderely, peaceful state you want so badly!

Keeping a clutter-free house can be a difficult challenge, especially with a busy family. Read about how success can be found by checking out DECLUTTER FAST  Using advice such as you’ll find will ensure that you are successful in your decluttering battle! Click this link  to check out the quick, interesting, and helpful clutter help tips that have received overwhelming raves from moms who have gotten their homes back in order FAST!

There is a series on TV lately called “Hoarders” – perhaps you have seen it. It chronicles the incredible clutter that certain individuals have built up over the years, and how they finally deal with it. Quite the eye-opener for those of us who have a little problem with clutter ourselves.

You have probably also already read a few of the many “declutter tips” on the internet and thought to yourself, “hey, that particular tip might help me organize and declutter my house,” but then you simply turn off the computer and go back to buying stuff, keeping stuff, storing stuff, and leaving stuff everywhere to build up more and more and more. 

What I’m going to do is ask you a series of questions about your clutter habits and your cluttered house. Answer them honestly (perhaps even have someone you trust ask you to verbalize your answer to him/her).  It is not my intention to cause feelings of guilt, but rather to cause you to feel that you can defeat this problem.  Giving you the proper mentality and attitude towards your goal to “organize and declutter my house” is the best tip I can give you.  So, in no particular order, here are some questions to help you:

• Why has your house gotten so packed with “stuff”?   
• To whom does the majority of the clutter belong?  (What is the source of all of the clutter?)
• Why do you keep stuff you don’t like?
• What percentage of the clutter around your house is actually garbage?  
• At what point would you miss having ______ (certain item). One week from now? When the season changes? Next month? Two years from now? Maybe never?
• What sentimental value do particular items have for ME? For my family?
• Would the person who gave you the particular item you don’t care even notice if it were gone?
• What could you do with some extra cash that you could get for some items in your clutter?
• Who could benefit more than you from your un-used items?
• Why do you keep stuff you don’t use?
• Why are you storing so much stuff for emergencies and natural disasters?
• Who would benefit besides you from your decluttering and organizing your home? In what ways?
• Who could help you if you asked “please help me organize and declutter my house?”
• What would you do with extra space in your house, garage, or kitchen?
• What are you teaching your kids by collecting and building up huge amounts of random stuff and letting it clutter up your lives?
• What would you miss about a cluttered house?
• What do you think living in a organized and decluttered house would be like?
• What do you think you own but aren’t sure where to find it in your cluttered rooms?
• Where could you find help for decluttering?
• When are you going to act instead of just reading about decluttering?
• When will you be able to make time to organize and declutter your house if not in the immediate future?
• When will you not be embarrassed to invite acquaintances and neighbours inside?
• Why haven’t you started?
• What is it worth to you to get your house organized and decluttered?

Some of the questions may have been easy to answer, some challenging, and some perhaps not applicable to you yourself. The truth is, however, that we all have that little bug called “procrastination” biting us to one degree or another.  Kill that bug once and for all and get be able to say “I have organized and decluttered my house”  and love your house once more!

Declutterdiva.info recommends all people who want to declutter fast to check out Mimi Tanner’s ebook called “Declutter Fast” - it is chalk full of great tips and advice about how to declutter your home in a HURRY! Click here to see what it’s all about!

Start Decluttering And Organizing TODAY

Getting your home organized is not the easiest thing in the world, especially if you are a bit of a pack rat to begin with. But, doing so can hugely sky-rocket your productivity in all areas of life, so it’s worth the effort. Use this advice on the MOST IMPORTANT STEP to help you get back on track with decluttering and organizing!

The most important step for when you want to be getting your home organized is to make a plan. This is an energizing and important step, and it is crucial that you don’t make your plan unreasonable. Unattainable goals only cause discouragement.  Think both long term and short term.  Your long term goal could be getting your home organized in a year’s time.  Your short term goal could be getting one room in your house in order within a month.

After you have your goals figured out, write them down on paper, share them with someone close to you, and tack your goal sheet in a place you can view it often.  Visual reminders help keep you motivated!

Then, get started getting your home organized according to your plan! But, never forget WHY you want to do this in the first place. Don’t lose track of your dream house… rather, keep the dream alive and burning!

It is amazing how many people set out to achieve a target without any plan in place. The truth is that the simplest and yet most potent force in achieving your goals is that you know where you are going and why you are going in that direction.  Decluttering and organizing your home is not the hardest thing to do if you approach it properly – with a plan. Follow this advice, and you will organize your life faster than you ever thought possible.

Declutterdiva.info suggests those wanting to get a clutter-free home in a hurry to read DECLUTTER FAST by Mimi Tanner. Very insightful, very practical. CLICK HERE to check it out.

Click Here!

If it is true that the state of your house says a lot about you as a person, does your home say that you are a hopeless pack rat? Are you wondering how on earth you are going to declutter and organize your home and how you can kick the bad habit of keeping EVERYTHING once and for all? Perhaps you have read some of the decluttering tips on the internet or in a magazine somewhere, and liked a few of the tips enough to fill up one (or maybe two) bags with “stuff”,  but that’s where it stopped. Your pack rat days CAN end, if you declutter and organize your home with the right mentality!  Answer the questions below, and see where you, O Hopeless Pack Rat, are going wrong!

1. What do you like most about a cluttered house?
2. What do you dislike most about a cluttered house?
3. Think of a friend who has a decluttered and organized home. What do you see her/him doing differently from you?
4. What tools/supplies do you think would help you create more opportunities to declutter and organize your home? (Think storage.)
5. Where does your clutter come from? Is it mostly your “stuff”?
6. Why do you hold on to things that you don’t use?
7. How much “emergency supplies” do you really need to have on hand?
8. What percentage of the clutter around your house is actually better suited for the dump?
9. How much time on a weekly basis do you waste searching through your cluttered house for a particular item?
10. If you keep certain items “because they have sentimental value”, would you REALLY miss them? Or would the extra space and calm orderliness be of more value to you?
11. How much of your clutter would fit under the category of “So and So gave this to me and would notice if I had gotten rid of it and I don’t want to hurt their feelings”?  
12. What items would bring in some much needed (or frivolously expendable) extra cash?
13. Are there any worthy causes you know of that would benefit from your little-used items?
14. Why do you keep stuff you don’t use?
15. If you would declutter and organize your home, who besides you would benefit from your hard work? In what ways?
16. What could you do with extra space in your house, garage, or kitchen?
17. What lessons are you teaching your children with your “hopeless pack rat” ways?
18. Have you bought anything in the past few months only to realize when sorting through your cluttered cupboards that you already had that item?
19. When are you going to act instead of just reading about decluttering?
20. If you don’t act soon, when WILL you actually declutter and organize your home?
21. To whom do you dream of “showing off” your newly clutter-free home?
22. Why haven’t you gotten started today?

Now that you have worked your way through these questions, it’s time to get serious and declutter and organize your home. Perhaps some of the questions were challenging, and perhaps some made you laugh because you were thinking “that’s so me!”  The final question, “why haven’t you gotten started today?”, is one that you do need to deal with soon though.  Kick the little (or BIG) bug of “procrastination” on its tail and finally be able to say “I once was a hopeless pack rat, but no longer!” Declutter and organize your home once and for all!

Declutterdiva.info recommends “Declutter Fast” if you are serious about getting your house back in shape. Check it out today by CLICKING HERE, and be decluttered in no time!

CLICK HERE to clear the clutter for good!

Lately you simply hate your clutter! Organizing the chaos and getting rid of clutter in your house has become a nightmare for you! No matter how hard you try, it grows and grows, and it’s getting embarrassing to have guests over. You need some help with your clutter. Organizing tips and ideas on how to get your house neat and tidy again are numerous, but here are my personal Top 3 Tips On Clearing The Clutter and Organizing Your House!

1. Fight emotional and psychological attachment to items you never use, and probably never will.   An example? In the back of my jam-packed kitchen cupboards was a collection of brand new Tupperware bowls I bought years ago (the kind with the lids that are super kid-friendly). They are lovely and practical, and above all, I knew I had paid some nice coin for them. BUT, they didn’t match my dishes set, so I never used them.  (I know, silly, isn’t it?) As I was decluttering the other day, I came across them and tried to justify keeping them.  I couldn’t.  Even though I had paid quite a bit for them, they were not doing me any good; if fact, they were wasting my precious storage space.  My sister was overjoyed to take them off my hands when I offered them to her, as they were perfect for her young daughter’s meals.  I felt so proud of myself!  I made my sister happy, and, I convinced myself to part with some of the clutter that I really didn’t need!
2. Use a system to clear the clutter. Organizing your desk, your home office, your kitchen, your closet – whatever you are organizing, make sure that you don’t put the items back randomly after you’ve sorted through what you’re keeping, and what you’re chucking.  Use a system to keep things organized. What works for me in my office is a simple filing cabinet, with folders for everything imaginable… and placing that filing cabinet right by where I usually sort my mail!
3. Force yourself to get into the habit of immediately putting stuff away after you have used it. Clutter grows at such an incredible rate that if you don’t stay on top of it, you will suddenly turn around one day and realize your house is simply FULL of clutter! Organizing your house so that there are practical and easily-accessible storage containers, boxes, and the like is one of the ways you can make it easy on yourself to keep the clutter level consistently low. What I do? To keep my vanity area clutter-free, I purchased several decorative boxes that I keep on shelves right next to it, each with its own purpose. Before I leave my vanity each morning, I quickly toss whatever is left on the countertop where it belongs, and good-bye clutter!

There are many ways to deal with the clutter quickly. Organizing your home to maximum space and minimize clutter can be a challenge, but by 1) convincing yourself to part with items, 2) using a systemized approach to clutter organizing, and 3) getting into the habit of tidying up right away, you will be well on your way to having a lovely, tidy home, one of which you will NOT be embarrassed!  

Declutterdiva.info recommends “Declutter Fast” if you are serious about getting your house back in shape. Check it out today by CLICKING HERE, and be decluttered in no time!

Want To Declutter Fast?

8 Incredible Declutter Tips For Moms… just what you need!

If you’re a mom, you know how busy your life can get running after your child/children, keeping your house tidy, carrying a part-time-job (or full time), preparing varied yet delicious meals, and the list goes on and on. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how quickly your house can look like tornado went through it! You told yourself before your first child was born that your house would NEVER become one of “those houses” where you raised your eye-brows upon entering at the clutter and toys everywhere, but lately, you stand in your own door way and shutter at the mess before you! Read the declutter tips for moms below, and take heart… it’s not impossible to once again achieve that clutter-free sanctuary called home! You absolutely CAN Declutter Fast!

1. Have a conversation with your partner, children, and whoever else calls your house home. Acknowledge that a cluttered home is rarely the result of only one person, and rarely will one person be able to fix the problem alone. If you take a few minutes to explain that what you want and that you could use their help, you can go a long way to getting to that point. Encouraging and persuading will get you much further than nagging and being accusing.
2. Start with small, achievable goals for your family. Aim to clear one area and get yourself and your kids in the habit of ensuring it stays completely clutter free. This is your Clutter-Free Zone. (It can be a counter, your kitchen table, the parlor, or the three-foot perimeter around the couch in your den – whatever you and the kids decide.) Have your kids help you ensure it stays clutter-free by enlisting their help monitoring the “Clutter-Free Zone”, and ensuring that nothing can be placed there that’s not actually in use.
3. Teach your kids where things belong. If you teach your kids where things go, and start teaching them the habit of putting them there, your house will begin to look much more organized. Declutter tips for Moms who are rather messy themselves… set an example and get into the habit yourself, and be very patient! Your kids (and you) may not learn the habit overnight, but the patience and effort will be WELL worth it!
4. Hold a garage sale! Get your kids involved in planning a garage sale with the proceeds from their own items going into their own piggy-banks. Set aside some time to help them sort through their toys, clothes and other “belongings” to determine what they don’t use, have too many of, don’t like, or hasn’t been looked at in years.
5. Work with your kids to create a “maybe” box. Your child may know exactly what can and can-not be trashed, sold, or donated, but there will also be items that your child isn’t to certain about, or that he/she can’t bear to get rid of just yet! So, create a “maybe” box for these items. Then store the box out of site for 6 months (put a note on your calendar), and when you do pull it out again, have your child see if there is in there that he/she really missed, and act accordingly.
6. Implement the Pre-Dinner Pick-Up Plan (Also works with Pre-Bedtime, or Pre-Movie Watching, etc.) Before dinner is served each evening, assign different areas for you and the kids to pick up. For example, you could take a basket into the living room, pick up everything that doesn’t belong there and take the items to the proper rooms. Your kids can put the toys in the play room (and any that have drifted into the hall) back into their proper places. If you enforce this routine for a month (and yes, your part too), soon it will become habit! Your call of “dinner in 10 minutes” will soon mean “start cleaning up”!
7. Build a Rewards System. Get yourself a sheet of small stickers, and for every day your child keeps his/her room organized, he/she gets a sticker. 7 consecutive stickers equals a prize, but so do 15 non-consecutive ones (so that occasional bad days are “forgiven” without whipping out the progress). Declutter tips for Moms whose own bedrooms and rooms are a disaster? 1) Create a reward system for yourself! You know what you like, and be strict enough with yourself to follow through! 2) Give yourself “Demerit Points” for times you fall off your de-clutter plan! 10 Demerit points means you can’t ___ (you fill in the blank.) 3) If you’re brave and have kids that won’t do this disrespectfully, have them be your “judges”.
8. Get the family involved. Perhaps your kids don’t put away their toys “properly” because they have trouble reaching the proper shelf, they can’t remember where the particular toy is supposed to go, or because it just doesn’t make sense to them to put it there. (For example, a car-mat complete with a village and train tracks may not make sense to your son to be put in a box on a shelf in the closet when he’s not playing with it. Get your son’s advice on where it should be put (his own version of declutter tips for moms), because he will only keep up with what makes sense to him.

Children are a blessing, yes, but their mess is often aggravating and stress-inducing, especially when a neighbor drops by expectantly. We tend to feel embarrassed that our houses are full of clutter and wish there was a way to turn out cluttered homes into peaceful and orderly havens. The above Declutter Tips for Moms are hopefully 8 places you can start to get that back! You can do it!

Declutterdiva.info recommends “Declutter Fast” if you are serious about getting your house back in shape. Check it out today by CLICKING HERE, and be decluttered in no time!

To get more decluttering done during a specific period of time is a very good thing to want. No one seems to have extra time on their hands these days, so it’s a good thing if you are able to get the most out of your time. If you are searching for ways to get more decluttering done, here are four helpful hints that will assist you with decluttering and cleaning up your rooms.

• Avoid any interruptions so that you are able to concentrate on decluttering. Put your phone on voice-mail, turn off your TV, say “no” to distractions! You might even consider closing yourself within the room you are cleaning and placing a sign saying something like “Hard at Work: Interrupt Only With EMERGENCIES.” Make sure your children have something to keep them occupied for the whole time you plan to declutter!
• Give yourself a break. If you decide to designate a full Decluttering Day, remember to plan some stress breaks for throughout the day. Remember, working to the point of total brain fatigue and muscle tension will never do you any good. Plan little treats for yourself! If you’d like, why not schedule the little breaks as rewards for whenever you’ve finished a particular chore.
• Realize that you will have your own approach! Just as we are all different in other ways, we all have diverse organizational styles. There are countless ways to get more decluttering done, so before you get started, do some quick research and find out which ways will work best for you! Check out some of the ideas in the links below. If you want to get more decluttering done, your best chance is to find tricks that enhance your personal style, not change it. Getting organized should make you feel good, not burdened.
• Follow your plan. The best-laid plans often fall victim to their makers. While spontaneity is great, plans are made to be followed! There is a fine line between being spontaneous and jumping from small task to small task… and plain procrastination. Once you’ve come up with a good plan for tackling a task, stay with it. Only you can prevent yourself from wavering.

Getting and keeping a clutter-free house can be a huge challenge! Want some quick, interesting, and helpful decluttering tips? Check out http://www.squidoo.com/want-to-declutter-fast today! It will save time if you learn the secrets that have have received overwhelming raves from former pack-rats, former clutter-bugs, and former people like you! CLICK HERE to get more decluttering done today with these KILLER tips!