7 Days to Clean: Day 4 - Clutter Control

I love Thursdays.  You get to feel like the week is almost over, but you're not yet rushing around to tie things up before the weekend.  Let's get started!

• Make your bed
• Do a swift swipe of the bathroom 

When you get home, sort your mail then grab your kitchen timer and set it for five minutes.  Now it's time to start doing the thing that is going to make the biggest difference in the long run.  Everyday dirt is easy to clean up, even if you skip a few days, but clutter is what we see when we look at a room.  It's what we dread having to clean up.

So we're going hunting!  Look for a pile of clutter, and start the timer.  Spend five minutes throwing out the trash and putting things away.  Today your clutter pile might be a basket of laundry you washed a week ago, or it might be the top of that end table that you haven't seen since Christmas.  Maybe it's the top of your desk or that pile by the front door.  Stick with one clutter magnet until you've eliminated it and move on to the next.  At first, finding visible clutter might be easy but eventually you might start looking out in the garage or in the pantry.

The saying "A place for everything, and everything in its place" applies here.  Think about what belongs in the space you are cleaning and what doesn't.  Move things that don't belong to a place that makes more sense for them.  Hats and scarves should be in a coat closet or hung on a rack.  Maybe it makes more sense to have mail on your desk where you pay your bills than on the table in the dining room.

When the timer goes off, give yourself a pat on the back and put your feet up.  You're done for the day!  At this point you will have spent less than 15 minutes cleaning each day and you should be noticing a difference.  Only a few more days to go and you'll have all the habits you need to keep a happy home without making yourself neurotic.