Help, I'm knee-deep in clutter!

52 PICKUP for OCTOBER 2008

• Whenever you change clothes, either hang up items or drop them in a laundry basket (1 minute).
• Pickup Project: Keep track of outdoor plants (1 to 2 hours).
  If you can't remember the names of plants, make a map of your garden areas. Mark the location and the name of each plant on the map. If it will help, prepare a list of schedules for fertilizing your plants or applying a special spray.
• Quickie Cleanup in the Kitchen: Clear out the refrigerator (15 minutes).
  Start at the top and pull out anything that looks or smells a little suspicious. Check expiration dates of other items and place them near the front.

• Daily Anticlutter Routine: Whenever you change clothes, either hang up items or drop them in a laundry basket (1 minute).
• Pickup Project: The Power of Ten - papers (15 to 30 minutes each day).
  If you've been concentrating on your gardening work, you might have neglected your paperwork and ended up with overwhelming piles of papers. Each day take care of ten pieces of papers. Some may just need to be filed, dumped, or shredded. Other papers may be bills that need to be paid, or maybe you'll need to answer a letter or e-mail. If you handle ten pieces each day for five days, that's fifty pieces of paper that are no longer clutter. Wow! You're on your way to whittling down those huge stacks.
• Quickie Cleanup in the Family Room: Straighten up (15 minutes).
  Start at the family room entrance, swing through and stack up CDs and DVDs, pick up clothes and return them to bedrooms or place them in the laundry basket, put newspapers and catalogs in their recycling bins, return food and dishes to the kitchen, toss toys into a toy box or basket, fluff decorative pillows, and then relax and watch a movie.

• Whenever you change clothes, either hang up items or drop them in a laundry basket (1 minute).
• Pickup Project: Fall gardening (2 to 4 hours).
  Oh, oh. This is the big one! At this time of the year we need to winterize. That means one final trimming of bushes, weeding, pulling up annuals, empyting potted plants, and raking up the leaves. What works for you? An hour each night after work, two or three hours on two separate days, or would you rather do it all in one day?
• Quickie Cleanup in the Bathroom: Organize the medicine cabinet (15 minutes).
  Take everything out of the cabinet and wipe off the shelves. Remove items you rarely or no longer use, especially outdated medications, then clump together all the dental care items, facial soap and moisturizer, and shaving products on the shelves.

• Whenever you change clothes, either hang up items or drop them in a laundry basket (1 minute).
• Pickup Project: Wash the windows (1 to 2 hours).
  Give all your windows a nice shine before winter begins. Again, you can jump in and do it all at once on a Saturday afternoon, but you also can break the project down and only clean a couple of windows each day.
• Quickie Cleanup in the Yard: Put away yard and deck furniture (15 minutes each day until you're finished).
  Each day wash off two or three furniture items and pack them away for the winter. Securely cover anything that will remain outdoors.

Help, I’m knee-deep in clutter! by Joyce I. Anderson