Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool
Dear Friends,
Happy Anti-Procrastionation Day! Today we are going to embark on a journey that we have been putting off and putting off. We are going to let go of some clutter. It might be paper clutter or other items. It might be that you need to let go of some emotional clutter, too.
Today your motto is, “Clutter be gone!”
Let go of those things that are cluttering up your flat surfaces.
You have flat surfaces in every room in your house. These are clutter magnets. You and your family members drop stuff on the flat surfaces all day long. Set your timer and spend just 5 minutes in an area tossing clutter or finding a place for the items that are taking up valuable space.
If you struggle with letting things go, you need to practice this habit for 5 minutes each day. Create a routine where you spend 5 minutes in each room of your home 1 day a week. This is what the FlyLadycalls a Hot Spot Drill. It is a part of your daily routine, and it does not have to be your zone mission. This can be separate from your zone mission, and it will help you maintain the zones from month to month.
After lunch each day, spend 5 minutes taking care of a Hot Spot. Teach your children to put things away instead of dropping them on the nearest flat surface. Yes, it will take time for you to work your way around the whole house, but the goal here is to develop a habit of consistently dealing with Hot Spots in your home.
Your weekly zone missions are designed to be short and sweet.
Some of you have written to me that you struggle with doing your weekly zone missions. You procrastinate doing them mainly because you don’t want to make a decision on what to do with your stuff. You are afraid you are going to get rid of something that you are going to need again.
We get that thinking from being raised by parents or grandparents who lived through the Depression. They saved and reused everything. The difference is that they did not collect or accumulate stuff like we do now. One trip out of the house, and we come home with more clutter.
Your zone missions deserve a place in your daily routines. It does not matter if you do your zone missions in the morning, afternoon, or evening. I have found that it works best for me to do my zone missions in the morning just as I get the boys started on their school work. I can find 5 to 15 minutes to do this quickly, and sometimes I just ask them to help me for a few minutes.
If you have a hard time doing the whole mission, then do what you can in 5 minutes. The consistency is what will help you maintain and continue to declutter over the course of the year. My missions are faster now that I have less clutter.
Less clutter = more time for other things.
So today I want you to be brave. I want you to stop procrastinating. I want you to let go of the clutter that is taking up space in your home and taking up your time working around it.
Your Zone Mission today is to dust the tops of doors, curtains, book cases, and ceiling fans in the living room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is teriyaki beef with a salad.
Have a great day!
