January 30, 2010
Need Advice On Helping My Family Getting Organized?
i have 3 acres which is not landscaped trash in some places i have 4br house 5people living here 2 adults 3 kids its a mess 3dogs me and my wife both work with different days off we are very overwhelmed on a very tight budget should we both start inside or outside should we split up.please any advice from other working class familys would really help.we could reduce are stress if we where more organized.
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Comments on Need Advice On Helping My Family Getting Organized?
You can each take 2 bags, for 10 minutes a day, (meaning you and your wife) and go around your house one bag is trash and the other is donations, things you’ll no longer use, but someone else can. By the end of the week, between the 2 of you, you’ll have 14 bags of trash and 14 bags of donations! Think of the difference you’ll have made in just doing this 10 minutes a day for a week! Even if you do it alone, you’ll have a lot done. Do it in baby steps.
It’s a lot to do and it can be overwhelming. Peter Walsh is an awesome organizer and he has a GREAT book called: “It’s All Too Much” he teaches you how to go from room to room and get rid of the clutter and how to keep it gone, but through little steps. It’s those little steps, like the 10 minutes a day with the 2 bags that make a big difference.
There’s also a show called Neat, and it’s awesome what this woman does, and you can learn SO much from her! She’s on the Discovery Home Channel and the FIT channel, I’m not sure if you get them, but you can see if you get it in your area.
You can even get the kids involved. Ask them to go through their rooms and sort and purge. Give them some containers and mark them Keep, Donate, TRASH, and GIVE AWAY (this is to family, friends, etc), have them take a little time even like 10 minutes each day to go through their unused toys and books and put their things in these bins.
Where you start is up to you and your family. Where do you want to start? You can do a little each day in both areas, you can even do one day inside and another day outside, even do nice days outside rainy days or nighttime inside. Or have one person do the inside and one take outside. I would try and get everyone involved though this way everyone knows what it’s like to clean it up so they will know what it’s like to get it organized so they will have more care when it comes to keeping it that way. Then when it’s all done, make a chore chart so everyone knows what part they have in keeping the house clean. The house should be the family’s haven and let the kids know that you want this to be the place they can come and relax and rest at the end of their day, and you can’t do that when it’s messy.
Have bins in each room, you can have nice wicker ones in the living area so when the kids leave their toys there, they have a basket to store them in and it doesn’t look bad when you have a nice bin in the room to store them in.
When an area is done, have the one in one out rule, when you buy one new thing coming in, one old thing has to go out to donate, this way you don’t get overwhelmed again with the clutter.
Go through clothing, most people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time, whatever you haven’t worn in the last year or so donate. Old magazines whatever you haven’t read, get rid of etc.
You could hold a family meeting and tell them what you want to do and your plans and get them on board! Make a game plan and make a game of it, set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes and give everyone their bags and have them go around the house even if you just give them one bag to go around the house to collect trash, outside or in. You can have everyone work towards a goal like it everyone does this with you at the end of the week, you can have a family movie night, or pizza night/ice cream night, etc. Make a reward, something the kids would like and would work towards. When the timer goes off, everyone is done for the night, you’ll see what a big difference it makes.
You can also do the timer with tidying up the house. Set the timer for 10 minutes and tell everyone they have to run and straighten up the house, and when the timer goes off, they’re done! It will make it fun to see who can get what done.
I hope some of these ideas work. Good luck and I hope these help!
Great article called Busy Mom’s Guide: 50 Ways to do Everything Better and Faster:http://lifestyle.msn.com/familyandparent…
If the link does not work, then copy and paste it in your address bar at the top of the screen. It helped me a lot!
everyone needs to help clean up start from the inside unless one do the inside and the other do the outside