The UnCluttered Mother's Blog

#5 Stock Your Cleaning Caddy

I know what you're thinking: why didn't we make this cleaning caddy after suggestion #3, where we broke our home into stations? Well, I'll tell you.  After you completed the exercise of breaking down every room into individual stations, I thought it best to start thinking about rewards rather than barrel forward with this task - just in case the thought of cleaning each small area seemed overwhelming or caused you to want to throw in the towel.

The Cleaning Caddy - The caddy is for storing and carrying all of your cleaning supplies so make sure whatever container you use has a handle for easy carrying.  Each room will have unique needs so the cleaning supplies may be different. I'm not so firm on having a different caddy for each room because most of the cleaning supplies will be the same. However, I do think certain items in your caddy should remain separate such as any cleaning cloths or sponges. The bathroom, kitchen, and dusting cloths should not be used interchangebly - and you know why! Check your local dollar store for a cheap pack of multi-purpose wipes and you're all set!

Next: Let's Get Busy!!!!!!

#4 - Create Your Reward System!

Here's the fun part of this project - at least until you actually get to use the earned reward that is!

Once your home is broken into stations, choose an appropriate reward for each area. Take a hard look at the home station list because clearly, some areas will deserve a much bigger reward than others.  For instance, after tackling say the bathroom areas, perhaps you should earn a manicure, pedicure, or even new bath salts for a quiet soak in your newly cleaned bathtub. The possibilities are endless and since you're the keeper of the list, you get to decide on every delicious reward to be had (insert a slightly evil but very satisfied laugh here). 

This project is starting to look like it's going to work out well for you...  

P.S. Don't forget to choose an appropriate reward for each family member as well.

#3 Break Your Home Into Stations

Items/Supplies Needed: Patience, Time, Pencil, and Notepad

You must walk through your home and break it down into manageable tasks. If you don't, you run the risk of starting a project, getting to each room, and throwing the towel in because it's so overwhelming.  Our habit is to just write down "Clean the bathroom"  but once you get in there you find a bathtub, a separate shower, sinks, countertops, separate toilet area, a floor, trash cans, drawers hiding burned out curlers, and ancient product storage areas under the sink. 

Each room will have different areas that must be organized. Breaking the home into stations will help eliminate any surprises and keep you motivation to complete your home project.  

Next: Creating Your Reward System

#2 - Choose A Timeline

We've decided we need a home organization strategy? Check. We've held a family discussion so all hands are on deck? Check.  Now comes the fun part! Where do I begin?

Items/Supplies needed:  Pen, Family Calendar, Quiet place, a comfortable chair/sofa, favorite drink and snack, patience and motivation

Don't start organizing anything until you know what your plan is.  Look at your family calendar and choose a start and end date for this project.  You will want an overall date and later as you complete the next exercise, you will want a start and end date for each room/project you are planning to tackle. 

Next:  Home Stations

#1 First Things First: Get Your Family Involved!

Let's face it - when attempting to organize your home you will be more successful if you have all household members involved.  Because this is such an important household project, they may need to be finessed a bit and you may have to muster up an extra dose of patience and understanding because they may not feel the urgency that you do about their home.

So how do we get them on board? Try these tips:

Family Meeting: Hold a family meeting so you can explain and answer questions about your upcoming project. You'll want to emphasize why you'll need all hands on deck to make your plan successful.  Avoid being guilty of starting a project and getting upset because of a lack of support from our families - our families can only help us if they know what we need. Skip the dictator approach and get their input and suggestions because they are more likely to help if they know their input has been taken seriously.

Emphasize Rewards: Everyone likes a reward so be sure to offer them to your family!  Rewards can be a favorite meal, a family outing, a pamper appointment for mom, fishing or golfing. The possibilities are endless but make sure they are appropriate to everyone's age group and the personality of your family unit. 

Please Keep It Fun: Organizing can be fun so make sure your family sees it that way.  I've heard about using timers and I'll be darn if they didn't work - on me! As soon as I knew that timer was running, I was suddenly motivated to finish quickly and experienced a huge burst of energy.

So try timers and see how fast and fun everyone makes it. I also think setting a timer breaks the projects into smaller chores in everyone's mind because we'll think in segments of 15 minutes or so rather than thinking a project has no end.  You will probably find that the younger members of your family will work best with a timer. 

Please Don't Over Organize! Just Have a Strategy.

Whenever I've talked to mothers about getting organized, most feel like organization is about every little screw and rubber band having a home. That sounds great but sometimes it won't happen that way. Actually, most of the time it won't happen that way, especially when there are tiny humans roaming around your home leaving stray crayons around, moving toys from room to room, dropping Cheerios as they go! Let's please not forget the rest of us who have our own issues about what should drop to the floor, what the backs of chairs are for, and the relationship of those kitchen drawers to the contents of our pockets!  

As you move past those horrible visions that arose after the last paragraph, I say that while organization is a must, be careful not to make your organization system so complicated that it is difficult to maintain while living a normal life. Stores offer a zillion items that look wonderful and are sometimes priced wonderful so you'll take them home. What happens? They organize alright - the clutter that was already there!

So let's talk over the next few posts about things we already have that can be used for better organizing our homes. Start thinking about the things you currently use to organize your home and feel free to post your comments on the blog.

Our Goal: We are going to use the space and items we have without adding anything but what's absolutely necessary. We'll talk about loose items, child friendly systems, purging, command centers, household management, organizing our office, paper piles, rewarding yourself, tossing responsibly, storing items, and much, much more.

Stay Tuned!

P.S. I am going to post my tips every few days because I want you to think and plan carefully about each step.

Eight Simple Tips to Get Organized

Managing your time is one easy way to add an organized structure to the day. While it isn’t easy to change habits that we have become accustomed to, the following tips will help you better manage your days.

Six Things to Accomplish While Waiting

Each week as I sit at my toddler's tumble class watching, cringing, and stressing about that injury disclaimer form I signed, I often have many tasks running through my mind that I need to handle. Out of the hundred things that make it to that list, I decided to choose a few "regulars" each week to handle during the tumble class between smiles, waves, and the occasional thumbs up. So here are six suggestions on tasks to handle while waiting (all you need is a cell phone, a pen, and a planner):

Five Chores That Are Toddler Friendly

One thing I have noticed is how much my toddler loves to “help me” with household chores. At first, that help was shall we say, frustrating at times, when say the dustpan she was holding tipped over on the way to the trash can or the neatly folded towels were found mercilessly stuffed and unfolded in the towel closet. I never lost it during those frustrating times because she was only trying to help but I did decide that a toddler with that level of willingness would benefit from having set chores of her own.

So here are five toddler-friendly chores that have worked for my own daughter:

A Waiting Bag - I love this idea!

Here's a great idea from Maria Gracia on her Get Organized Now site. I have been a subscriber for some time now and she posts some great tips on getting and staying organized. I like the idea of the waiting bag she refers to in this article. My current purse at times attempts to serve as a waiting bag - I just don't ever know what's waiting in there and quite honestly, when I open it and see the cheerios, crumbs, and rogue capri-sun straws hanging around, I'm too afraid to go in there. I like her idea so much better....

Here's the link to her article:

http://getorganizednow.typepad.com/get_organized_now_weblog/2010/03/make-a-waiting-bag.html