Spring Cleaning Week 1 (Part 1): Deal With Your Most Active Items First

So start with a small win, right? Something to build confidence? This week, I'm going through 2 big bins of stuff and working on keeping a functioning to-do list.

Let's talk bins.

I'd say my house is in pretty good shape in general, but as new things come in (mail, library books, papers from other people, gifts), new piles arrive because these things have no home. When we hosted a party last month, I took some Rubbermaid Totes and piled in all my piles. It made it quite handy to lug my piles around in one clump (from closet to room and back to closet) as we had people over.




A 10-gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck Tote for the kitchen piles

This is a coping measure.

It's certainly easing my mind to be able to quickly hide my piles of crud, and I can take some pride that the piles aren't all over the house - they're contained now. At least they were, a week ago. Now my two big bins have leaked onto the kitchen table again.

Handle the Most "Active" Items First

Julie Morganstern's Organizing from the Inside Out advocates "attacking what's visible" first, and then "quick sorting" for quick results - categorizing without needing to put everything away in the "right" spot and without needing to take action on things. For me, the visible things are mostly the "active" items - projects in progress, things I need to read to decide what to do with them, things that were active a while ago but got lost in the shuffle.

Sunday:

Quick-sorted my big 18-gallon tote. My goal was to make some quick progress, and I found some good piles which didn't require much effort:

1. Outdated paper items - recycle
2. Plastic bags for items purchased - trash
3. Stuff that has known homes but just hadn't been put away

I sorted the items that required action in a soonish timeframe, and the rest of the items that could wait or didn't have homes to go it all headed back in the bin.




Recycle pile at top left. Pile to head back in the bin (bottom left) is twice the size, but this is progress!

Monday:

Half of the items "requiring action in the 'soon' timeframe" have gone back in the bin. It doesn't make sense to have them out making clutter if I'm not going to do them, but it bums me out to not be able to accomplish more. However, I am trying to be realistic about what I can accomplish in a day, so that is a step in the right direction. For now, the bins give me a place to put these things so they won't get lost; I jot down on my new To-Do List the most critical items so I don't forget.

Tuesday:

Instead of doing more with the bins, I pile new papers on the kitchen table again and then spend the evening working on tasks which aren't on my To-Do List.

This is turning out to be trickier than I thought. I am very good at staying focused and handling things in an orderly way within the context of one project, but here I am tackling the central pile where many projects come together, and now I've found some emotions attached.

Clutter Reflections:

Looking at these projects which are "past due" in my mind is upsetting and disappointing; I thought I was a better planner than that. It makes me feel better to start a new project or plan so I can do it better this time, but I have to acknowledge this behavior will just put me further in the hole.

Wednesday:

I need a system for dealing with these bins - they can be helpful if I know when to use them. Right now I have things spread out again between bins, "super active" (kitchen table, I know...), my accordion paper file for "active" items, and my to-do list. I find myself piling the kitchen table items into an unused corner to make room to eat dinner, and then my husband comes in with the mail and places a package directly in the beautiful open spot I just created.

Clutter Reflections:

Yikes! My actions have created a rut in our daily life; this is going to be more work than just me. I really need clarity on "what is mine to do" and give homes for these "undecided" items. Going to need to take some careful time considering what my to-do list really is.


Where do the active/in flux items end up in your house?