Clean up the homefront and bring back the organized harmony once again.  Our homes can become cluttered with useless junk and items that have strayed away from their homes.   Clear out the clutter!  Homes tend to run a feverish cycle of disorganization, ever so often our homes get bogged down with a sickness of clutter.   They get too congested and it just has to be cleaned out. 

   Mom's  we've all done it, we run around the house with trash bags at the waist throwing away anything that we can cram in there (Amen, to forceflex).  Then the clutter comes creeping back in like a theif in the night, we wake up and our homes are bursting at the seams once again.

   As the clutter once again rises to the occassion of raising our anxieties it must be fought down again and again and....

  Be a regular declutter manager

    Staying on top of clutter takes time and motivation.  Clutter won't disappear while your not looking.

   Schedule a good time to declutter, like when husbands and children are not around.  It's easier when you don't have people standing over you explaining to you "I need that", "I was planning on using that someday".

  Be effecient in your decluttering mission.  Set aside a day out of each week to declutter before long you will see mounds of improvement and begin to see you house again.

  Families can accumulate so much over a short period of time and not even know how it all came about.  Clutter starts with the mail being left on the counter in heaping piles and calls in a party of his clutter buddies, before long the clutter is throughout the enitre house.  It shows up in the closets, under the kid's beds and creeps into nooks and crannies.  Our lives can be so chaotic sometimes that we take a laid back approach to house cleaning.  Don't do that!  It's like calling clutter on the phone and saying "come on over".   Stay on top of housework and keep those heaping piles of laundry off the couch, don't invite clutter in. 

 Pick a room

  Pinpoint your target and hit it.  The best way to get started is just to jump in and do it.  Clutter is pure red-handed evidence that sometimes we are just plain lazy.  There are a few other culprits too and there's a chance you might be a clutter-holic if you've ever uttered these words, "it's sentimental", "I might need that".  Oh yeah, been there done that.  Get over that.

   It's time to get out the boxes.  Seperate them into categories: keep, donate or sell and throw away, that's what trash cans are for.  Trash cans are not a place we store items until we've second guessed ourselves to death and go back in after the broken pair of sunglasses we wore to a high school football game when we were a junior and our boyfriend said we looked good in them. 

   Declutter the room in sections, pace yourself it's easier.  Ask yourself some pretty important questions "Do I want this?", "Will I use this ever again?", "Should I get rid of this?".  If you haven't seen it in six months to a year just get rid of it.  Reserve a space for your items that have been misplaced and are not where they are suppose to be.  Put those items back where they belong. 

  When it comes to items that may be sentimental it can be hard to part with them but you can over accumulate sentimental properties, it's okay sometimes you need to let go.  Instead of keeping every single paper your child has ever brought home from school pick out only the truly special ones.  Keep two pieces of artwork, some parents frame their kids artwork and that actually is a really cool idea just don't use that as an excuse to keep every piece of paper they've colored on, trust me they will make more artwork. 

  Whatever goes into the trash leave it in the trash, just say goodbye trust your choices. No trash diving!

   Deal with kid's toys without kid's in the room.  Don't ask your kid's if they want to get rid of a toy, you already know what they'll say "No".  If they haven't touched the toy in six months give it away.  If it's broken or missing parts trash it.

  Sometimes decluttering efforts just go in circles.  One week your bar is clutter free the next it's got a whole new pile of clutter.  Declutter daily, don't allow your bar or kitchen table to become a zestpool of cluttered debris.  The easiest way is by training, housebreak your family.  Keep a special place for mail, newspapers, school work etc.  and stick with it, make sure things get put where they belong, eventually it will become routine to put things in their place.  This new concept might even find it's way through the rest of the house. 

Get organized

  Make adequet stroage throughout your home.  Shelves, bins with lables and baskets are the best solutions for cutting back on clutter.

Problem: the hall closet.  It's already a small space, yet we continue to pack and cram.  Coats, shoes, hats, strollers and anything else we can squeeze into an already crammed space.

Solution:  start by cleaning everything out of the closet.  Find a place to sort through items, it should be a place with room for you to make sorted piles.  You should have a pile for a few select items to stay in the closet for the things you want to be easy and accessible.  The next pile should be for items that don't need to be in the hall closet.  If there are other places for these items to go that's where they should go. 

   Keep the hall closet as neat and organized as possible so that the hall closet can be used as it was intended.

  If your hall closet is big enough add a shelving unit.  This can go on the side of the closet wall or right infront of your closet, leaving you room to store larger items behind it.  Use baskets to store smaller items and the bottom shelf can be used for select shoes that you might need to use everyday.  Hang the coats that you wear all the time the ones that you only wear occassionally need to find a new home.  Your hall closet will stay neat and organized if utilized properly. 

  Clutter doesn't just show up one day like an univited guest.  We bring in the clutter.  Dumping our handbags, jackets, diaper bags, backpacks on the couch and taking our shoes off in the living room is not good organization.  You can clean it all up today but it will be back again tomorrow.  You can't devour clutter alone it has to be an entire family effort.

Finding a home

  What causes clutter?  It's not giving newspapers, magazines, toys or mail a home.  Without a home these items get lost, navigate their way through your home and create clutter everywhere.  Make a home for these lost items, give them a secure place to nest.

  I'm a firm believer in baskets.  Decorative baskets make great homes for loose items such as mail.  They create function and are far nicer to look at than scattered mail throughout the house.  Plastic storage bins are great toy collectors, they can be used for muddy shoes, they are great lost and found boxes and a perfect storage solution for basements and garages.

Don't be in denial

   Even well organized, tidy homes can be found with stray items lurking about from time to time.  The reality is that your home will never be rid of clutter but it can be more organized.  Oranization creates harmony, balance and function to clutter.  It gives us a fighting chance to keep the clutter under control. 

Use this as a rule of thumb when a new item comes in an old item that is no longer needed must be taken out of the home.  Keep your items in functional balance, don't over crowd your home.  Too much of one thing means something isn't being used.  Decide what that item is and resolve yourself to say goodbye. 

Declutter the kitchen

  Kitchen's can sometimes hold the most unorganized chaos of clutter than any other room in the whole house.  Don't let your kitchen become the victim of unorganized chaos.  Clean it out.  I know that sometimes it seems we never have enough pots and pans or even serving trays but you really can have too many.  When they fall out of the cupboard when you open it you have too many.

   Kitchen drawers are nasty little culprits for clutter.  Miscellaneous items can attack your kitchen drawers and make them a frustrating headache.  Avoid the temptation to save every little lost object hoping to find it a purpose.  Do you really need 900 rubberbands?  Unless you're running a newspaper service a handful of rubberbands is probably enough.  Keep your rubberbands rounded up.  Designate a small specific container as a corral for the rubber bands and use a lid, some how they always escape and find their way onto countertops and on floors. 

  A junk drawer can hold so many useless items and very few necessary items.  You can't just start and stop with the junk drawer you must do the whole kitchen, it will help you to relax later. 

   You know what I mean it's the aggervation of pots and pans in such a manner of disarray that when you take one out the rest come tumbling out onto the floor.

  Before you begin you will need to have an attitude adjustment settle it in your mind to just get rid of somethings.

The unused jumble

   First run a sink of hot soapy water to clean off the dust as you go.  Helpful hint, it the dust is an inch thick then you haven't touched the item in a really long time.  Get it out of the house and make more space to organize what you do use. 

   Clear the countertops you will need the space to sort your items.  Keep in the kitchen, put elsewhere and give away/sell and there might be a few items that you would want to store away, these could be items that you do use but only some of the time.  Don't ever second guess that trash items are infact trash, put it there, leave it there.

Misplaced

  How often has a lonely trukey platter ended up with the tupperware or the ziploc bags being found on the top shelf with the mixing bowls "oh, i've been looking for those".  You're not alone.  Holiday dishes, you only use them once a year, remember those plastic storage bins, those are great for items we only use once a year.  Place bubblewrap in between each dish and store the bin in the house somewhere such as the basement or the bottom of a closet so that your dishes won't get broke.

  Declutter one cupboard at a time.  Pick a place to start, start there and stay there until the job is done.  When all things that belong in that cupboard are put away neatly start on the next, yes there maybe items left out but that means they were orphaned and need to go back to their rightful home. 

  Staying focused and doing one cupboard at a time will keep you in cleaning harmony and make a hard job much easier.  One thing to keep in mind is stay with it don't stray away in the middle of the job you'll never come back and well we all know how that ends up- clutter!

  Once it's all done you will feel so much better.  It will leave you feeling clean, refreshed and you can relax knowing it's all done.

Don't let it return

  Please keep in mind that if you don't make decluttering a regular chore it will return.  You must stay on top of it.  Don't let clutter rule your life and take over your home.  Sticking with it day after day will help keep your decluttering job so much easier.  Make sure items stay in their homes where they belong, don't let your clutter get out of control and spread like a bad infestation.  Nip it in the bud before it even gets started.  Remember baskets, storage bins, yard sales and the trash are your best friend.