Waging the War on Household Clutter

My mom got me hooked on www.flylady.net. I love the philosophy of 15 minute missions to get and keep the house in shape. I know it's going to take a whole lotta time to get my house in ship-shape -- I do, after all, have a couple years worth of built-up clutter in some places of my house.

I've been working on it a little at a time for a couple of weeks now, and I can see the results in a few areas of my home. Both my bathrooms look better than they ever have, I think, since we moved in. I need new shower curtains, but I didn't even notice that until the clutter and built-up goo was cleared out and scrubbed away.

I just did a "swish and swipe", and it took only a few moments. Each time I clean the bathroom, I scrub a new area that I haven't touched yet. Even the floor behind the toilet has had some much-needed attention. The trash cans will be my next project. Bathroom trash cans, eww.

I love the shiny sink idea. My kitchen plumbing is driving me insane; we need about $500 worth of work done on it. Something about the grease trap needing to be replaced. I don't know all the terminology or details, but I do know that I can only run the water for a few minutes before the sinks start backing up. And don't even try the dishwasher. The backed-up yuck in my sink keeps my sink from looking its best all the time. That's a real challenge at this point. Little by little, even the kitchen is getting into shape. I don't spend a lot of time there. I can't; I don't have the time in this season of my life. But I know my faithfulness in this area will eventually pay off. And someday we'll get that grease trap thing fixed.

Another area of concern for me is the car. I can't seem to keep up with the constant stream of school papers and other miscellaneous items. I spent maybe 10 minutes out at the car just after lunch. After that quick session, I decided that it's amazing that we found anywhere to sit among all that junk. I pulled out 2 bags of trash, 3 backpacks, one satchel, 2 hair brushes, 5 (yes, 5!) cups, 2 jackets, and a toy. Sheesh! Aside from needing a good vacuuming, the car looks great!

I also spent just 5 minutes cleaning out my purse -- yikes! the receipts! I was procrastinating on cleaning out that purse because I had so much trash in there. I just didn't want to face it. Such an improvement!

It's time for me to get back to it. In addition to fixing dinner, I have the following 10-15 minute sessions left:
1. Hang up clothes (I hate hanging clothes. For whatever reason. I end up with 4 days worth of clothing hanging over my footboard.)
2. Vacuum the living room
3. Clean off the dining room table so we can actually use it to eat at it as a family.
4. Cut cardstock for Christmas cards
5. Change bed linens and wash current linens
6. Make cookies

I'm hopeful to also complete the following:

1. Organize the pantry (not sure how much I can get done here in 10-15 min.)
2. Clean out the kids' closet (I ought to do that when they are out of the house so they don't see me throw away a bag full -- or 2 -- of their junk.)
3. Store outgrown kids' clothes