Tip #4 – Do one thing at a time, every day!

This is something that I’m still struggling with, but that I recognize it helps a lot… Instead of taking a few hours in a row to clean the house, why not doing a bit every day? And cleaning by chore, not room – one day for dusting, another for vacuuming, another one for cleaning the bathrooms…you get the idea! This way we don’t have to take out and carry all the cleaning products and stuff everyday – just one or two items at a time.

If we tackle a chore each day during the week, there will be a lot more free time to do other things during the weekend and to spend more time with those we care about!

I know this adds even more to an already full day, but I have been trying to do these things while the husband bathes and puts the baby to sleep! Or right after that, when the husband also takes care of his own stuff! And it does free a lot of time during the weekend, which feels really good!

We can also do this regarding our hearts and souls! The same way we have to do the dishes every day, there are things, like reading the Bible, we should do every day! But then there are others we can divide into days! On Mondays I can read a book, on Tuesdays take a few minutes to hear some music, on Wednesdays find an article online on a topic I’m interested in… We can write down the things we are interested in and divide them by topics to spread throughout the week – and they don’t have to be done at the end of the day – we can do them whenever there is free time!

This idea, much like cleaning the house, depends a lot the time we have available! Sure we do have to clean up every week – but some weeks we work harder at it than others – as long as the basics are covered, we can, and must, slow down if we are having a particularly busy and stressful week!

Tip #3 – 10 minutes a day takes the clutter away!

This is something that does not take that much time and makes a huge difference in the way the house looks! Having an almost 1 year old baby who likes to play in different rooms of the house and leaves her little toys everywhere this tip has been very useful!

It is very simple…just before going to bed or after your chores for the day (and after the children are in bed, if you have them) go from room to room and clean up – this can mean picking up the kids toys, fluffing the pillows and ordering the dining table chairs in the living room, folding the bath towels or ordering the toiletries in the bathroom, picking up small things around the house that are out of place and placing them in the right spot! This might take a little longer the first couple of days, but then it becomes much easier if done on a daily basis.

Again, this makes having an organized house much simpler! These days I have been going to bed, waking up and getting home to a fairly organized home and it has allowed me not to stress as much with ordinary house chores and to spend more time with my baby girl. I still have to take care of things when I get home, specially preparing her meals, but at least things aren’t as messy. This also makes weekends a bit lighter – not as much to organize and clean up…. But more on that the next tip!

We should be doing the same everyday with our hearts and souls! At the end of the day, when we have done all we had to do and all that is left is to rest and go to sleep, we should take 10 minutes to go over our hearts and souls and check if there is something misplaced, that needs to be cleaned up or moved to another room! We need to get our thoughts and feelings in order every day, otherwise, after some time all we have is a tangled mass of cords that will take way too much time and effort to untangle!

Tip #2 – Get your sink clean

It has now been two full weeks since I started my plan to get a cleaner house and heart and it has been working out (most days, at least!).

It is not always easy to do! Especially to clean after a day at work and when you are sleep deprived because your baby decided this was a good week to wake up every hour! Oh well, you better do it anyway, otherwise things will be even worse the following day!

My tip number two is to get your sink clean! Always go to bed with a clean sink! This way, when you get up in the morning to prepare your breakfast and/or the lunch boxes for the day you don’t get that busy feeling a messy kitchen gives you! And I don’t mean having your dishes done. I mean, having your dishes done and away in their proper places! All you get at the end of the day and the beginning of a new day is a shiny sink! Then just before leaving the house try to get the breakfast dished done as well – even if you don’t put them away, when you return home and go into the kitchen to prepare yet another meal it will all be ready for you!

I’ve managed to do it for two weeks now and I must say it is a great tip! This is not a tip that will save you time, though! You will always have to do the dishes and put them away – but if you do it in the order I suggest you will always have a tidy kitchen!

I used to have another method! After dinner I wanted to spend time with the husband, so I would leave the dishes and take care of them the following day after work. And that was ok before, but now with a baby it does not work, because when I get home I want to spend time with my baby girl not do the dishes! And now that I’ve changed the order, when I do the dishes after dinner, there is not much to clean anymore! And I get to spend time with my baby and my husband! And still have an organized kitchen!

The same thing happens with our hearts and minds– we should always go to bed with them shining! No leftovers or dirty dished lying around! We need to take care of things before going to bed – a word we said, something we did or that we should have done…Especially when it comes to our husband and kids – we should never go to bed upset! Never leave things undone! How good it feels to get and give a hug, a smile and a kiss just before falling asleep! And to get those in the morning as well! That can only happen if our relationships are clean and shining, like the kitchen sink should!

Tip #1 – Make a meal plan

What should I make for dinner tonight? How many times have you asked that question? I used to find this really annoying… Especially because I have to prepare dinner and lunch for the following day!

I’ve solved this problem a while ago, though – I have a meal plan…yes, a schedule! Some people do it weekly … some people think I’m crazy!

I have an 8 week meal plan and after those 8 weeks I start over!! I also plan to eat some dishes twice, leaving the second serving for later in the week when I’m getting more tired, thus having to cook less.

But then you always eat the same things, you may think! Well, two months is a lot of time and if you plan it carefully, it takes you two whole months until you eat the same dish again… If you are honest, you probably repeat dishes more often than that!

Another advantage of having your meals planned is shopping! It is much easier to know what to buy at the start of the month or the week if you already know what you’re cooking!

Be flexible, though! Plans are just that, plans! And they can, and do change often! You might be going out, having people over, not feeling like eating a particular meal that day, have leftovers… Also, I tend not to plan the weekend meals and just go with the flow…and whatever there is in the refrigerator. So when you go shopping buy some extra stuff for those days!

To help me with that, I also plan making more of a certain dish than I actually need for the week and then freeze it! That is really helpful for when I get home late from work, on lazy Saturday mornings or on Sundays after church! You have to plan the unplanned as well! J

How about your heart and your mind? How do you feed them? Are they eating healthy or are they on a junk food diet? Are you reading the Bible and/or good books or articles? Are you praying regularly? Or are you spending your time watching TV series that teach you no good, having not so proper conversations or going to shady places?

You need to plan those meals, as well! As with your body you might indulge in fast food sometimes, but it cannot be the basis for your diet! If you really must, then choose one or two TV series to follow that are not that bad, and stick to those! But do not overfeed on them! Plan your Bible readings! Hang out with positive people, which will have a good influence on you, and won’t bring you down! Refuse listening to gossip, and under no circumstances tell what someone else told you without knowing if it is true! And even if it is, only talk about your own personal things! Let other tell theirs if and when and to whom they want to!

If you haven’t been doing this often my advice is to start slowly! Do as babies do with food! Start with milk and slowly go into solids – and even then, one new ingredient at a time!

It all starts in the kitchen!

Yes, I am starting to believe that to live a decllutered life I have to start in the kitchen! That’s where I spend most of my time: cleaning, cooking for my family, eating, doing dishes, doing laundry… again and again and again! Every single day! For weeks and months in a row!!!

That is also the area in the house that is harder to keep clean and tidy! Some bread crumbs here, a dirty knife there, a glass, a wet dishtowel, a garbage can overflowing (yuk! but let’s be honest…it happens!), the small kitchen appliances’ area completely unorganized, some soup on the floor that my baby girl decided was not good enough for her… Oh well, you get the picture! You might be thinking of your own kitchen right now and how you definitely need some help!!! I sure know I do!

And I find it so frustrating to get to the kitchen in the morning or after a day’s work and having stuff all over! It stresses me out! In the morning, after a good night’s sleep (or not so good, depending on how my baby slept!), or in the evening when I get home all the clutter there just makes me wanna run, close the door and never go in there again!

My kitchen is not like that all the time! Don’t get me wrong! I do some serious cleaning every now and then…the problem is to keep it clean and tidy every day! The same happens with the rest of the house! There is always a time when our house looks really good (especially if we’re having guests over, right?). The thing is to keep it like that over time!

That’s also what happens with our heart and mind, isn’t it? We cannot escape them! There’s no ON/OFF button! And it is so easy to get them cluttered for days, weeks and months in a row without doing some serious cleaning! Even when we go to church on Sunday or to small group during the week, we sweep that bad thought or word we said under the rug, put that rage fit in a drawer or the resentment in the refrigerator, but we do not deal with them, we do not clean our heart and mind in a way that will stay clean! And when we actually take a good look into our heart and mind we notice all the clutter we gathered over the past days and we just want to run because we do not know what to do with it! Our heart and mind, as our kitchen, need to be cleaned every day – we must not fear going in there and feel the smell of something festering!

Heart, mind and kitchen should be pleasant places for us! After all, don’t we spend a lot of time there?

Declutter - to simplify or get rid of mess, disorder, complications…

I was already too annoyed to fall asleep! My baby was fidgeting in bed and did not seem like doing any sleeping soon! The idea was for the three of us to nap together but I decided to get up and go to the kitchen! There was a lot to do there anyway so I decided to get it done! Little did I know that those moments alone in there would do me so good! Not only was the kitchen looking a lot tidier, but I also had soup for the week and the air was filled with a mix of coconut bread and tomato sauce. Better than that, there was a lightness in my heart and my steps!

Those two hours were all about…I want to say me, but in fact they were all about my family! In not spending time with them I was making time for them!

You know, I am the mother of a beautiful baby girl, wife, cook, cleaning lady, struggling daughter of God and have a 6 hours a day job (soon to be 8 - ouch!).

I have had no projects recently –I really can’t find the time to read a book, to work out, to go out with friends, to try new recipes from the few cook books we bought over the past 3 years, nor to learn the cool tricks in my camera!

How do most people do it, I wonder?

The problem is that I don’t just want to do it, to survive my every day, to get things done and over with! I would really like being able to have a mostly clean and tidy home, with little effort (don't we all?), and to spend as much time as possible with my two loves!

I know it seems almost impossible - many have tried and failed! But I finally came up with a plan! I have been thinking about this for a few months and yesterday the last piece finally fell into place! Enough is enough! Let the decluttering begin...

This blog is part of the plan and will be my project for the year! I’ll face it as therapy! And as a way to be accountable! To whom? Well, to myself, at least!

It will be a register of my own ideas about getting the house, and my heart, fairly tidy and organized! And to see if they actually work out in real life! But how can we declutter the house and heart at the same time using the same tips? Just hang on...we'll get there soon!