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Post by syzygy on Oct 14, 2008 15:58:59 GMT -5
Looking back on what I wanted to accomplish this long weekend and what I did accomplish made me realize something. There are two parts to the process of desqualoring: cleaning/maintenance and decluttering/organizing.
This is pretty obvious, but it's at the center of my question- What do I work on?
I was busy this weekend and got a lot done, but most of it was cleaning/maintaining and focused on the two rooms that are already sorted/decluttered: the kitchen and the bathroom. The bedroom is also pretty much decluttered; I'm planning on working in there today- maintenance only.
I didn't make any progress on the other rooms except to vacuum, Steam Vac the carpet and put away stuff that had gathered- in other words, clean/maintain.
But what about all the decluttering projects I need to do? In the past, every once in a while I'd put the regular cleaning aside (not that there's nearly enough regular cleaning done) and do a "project". Part of that, of course, included making a mess since I had to pull things out, sort them, make "temporary" piles of "put away" stuff, etc. Over time (sometimes a week, usually a month or more), I'd work on it and eventually get it done. But then I have to spend a lot of time catching up on maintenance/cleaning.
I know that if I kept up with housework every day I wouldn't have this problem, but- let's face it- I wouldn't be a member here if I could do that!
So how do other people balance these two things out?
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Post by messymimi on Oct 14, 2008 17:40:53 GMT -5
I'm still working on this myself.
The only way anything besides the regular chores of the day get done around here is if I find an extra few minutes here and there to devote to it.
I also take time to do monster tasks when grandma and grandpa take the kids for the weekend, about once every 6 weeks.
I find that being in chat gets a fire under my rump.
I figure if the Almighty put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things, that right now I am so far behind I will never die.
messymimi
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Post by DJ on Oct 14, 2008 18:37:10 GMT -5
*** only my own experience and opinion ***
for me, maintenance always needs to come first.. i worked hard to get rid of stuff, organize, and maintenance is what keeps my pro gress there and enjoyable for mee.. so that i can use my space, use the stuff i have kept, and have a haven from the rest of the world and squalor areas that are still being worked on.
after maintenance i'll try to do some small project level thing every day, whether that's repairing something, repainting something, taking something that's already been declared clutter and set aside to whereever it's suppose to go.. it might be just just decluttering one drawer in a dresser. one shelf on a bookshelf. one small box from a closet.. so uhm yeah.. for me order of importance goes..
maintenance
declutter
organise
if i don't stay on top of maintenance it will cease to be maintenance and turn into a project level sort of thing..
declutter comes next because for me i can't get a room to maintenance level if it's packed full of clutter
and organising comes last because i can't organize in a super icked up environment and there's no sense in just organising clutter..
for me it can be hard to not do thing's totally gonzo and overboard.. by that i mean i'm like well. "to deal with the bookshelf i have to take everything off, move it vacuum behind it, scrub down the shelf, declutter it, then put everything back onto it in an organised manner."
so i'm trying to have a perspective shift of breaking it down into pieces. even if i can only declutter one shelf a day by the end of the week the whole case will have had a superficial decluttering at least. then maybe by the weekend i'll have a significant amount of the junk on the shelf gone. so then i can go and pull everything off and clean and put things back on in a more organised manner.. and maybe by then i'll see that there's more stuff i can get rid of.. and then i can maintain it..
and maybe i have to go and do the mini area by area decluttering to every piece of furniture.. and then once the shelfbyshelf or drawerbydrawer decluttering is done and the room itself is looking better then maybe i want to go in and tear the whole room apart and find all the odds and ends that i'd somehow missed before.. and then reorganise the whole room.. but by then it's easier because i've already broken it down into projects and gotten -alot- of the excess stuff out.. so that instead of it being a horrible unending project it's managable...
i dunno i'm just babbling. it is hard.. but for me maintenance is key. and needs to come first on a daily basis before i tackle more projecty stuff each day...
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Post by shabbychic on Oct 14, 2008 19:53:08 GMT -5
I was thinking about this issue too. My problem is with work, a class I take and other things I do (this board among other things) maintenance is about all I get to. I've been in my new apartment for 9 months now and I have piles of boxes I haven't unpacked (including my file system, so without that it's hard to stay organized). Every time I think I'm going to have a weekend or holiday to work on it, something comes up or I spend the day on maintenance and errands, or like last Saturday I had a killer sinus/allergy headache and couldn't do anything. Fortunately my apartment is so small that maintenance doesn't take long, but it doesn't take long to get cluttered up either. I think I need to look at some of the other things I do and see if I could maybe be decluttering instead (of doing online jigsaw puzzles, for instance.) I can do a puzzle in 15 or 20 minutes, but I could also unpack a few things, set up my file system so papers and bills don't keep piling up on my desk, organize one dresser drawer, etc. in 20 minutes. Hmm... Maybe I won't get a whole day or weekend to work on the apartment. Maybe if I did, I would want to spend it another way. I think I will try working just a little on a project level thing every day as well as maintaining. I'm going to try working on a mini-project when I feel like working a puzzle. One of those piles of boxes is in the living room, I could work on that while I watch the ball game.
Glad someone brought this up.
Shabby Chic
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Post by brenda on Oct 14, 2008 20:35:06 GMT -5
Maintenance first is my creed. In the past I would have gotten my place decent looking and then attacked a closet. Pulling everything out I would become overwhelmed and walk away from the job creating chaos.
I have gotten my house is clean and mostly organized at this point. I am still fine tuning the organization especially that of the garage near full of inventory items. What I have learned is to deal with a small section at a time instead of attempting it all at once. This is against my nature so I have to continually remind myself not to bite off more than I can chew.
Brenda
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Blackswan
Banned
Joined: October 2008
Posts: 6,388
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Post by Blackswan on Oct 15, 2008 0:09:31 GMT -5
I have recently discovered the beauty of maintaining. I have been keeping just one room clean, and checking it everyday to make sure it is clean at bedtime, and it has made a world of difference for me. No matter what, I have that clean room, and I have been working on doing little things in the other rooms. When I have a chunk of time this weekend, I am probably going to clean and maintain the bathroom as well. Then I will have two rooms that will no longer need more than ten minutes worth of work at any given time. Maybe the week after that, I will add the kitchen, etc. These oases of clean make me feel so much more in control, and able to handle the squalor.
I have never ever maintained before, that is the new addition to my way of thinking, and I honestly believe it is my ticket out of squalor. It is all about gradually increasing that maintained space until everything is maintained. I have been maintaining my car too, by the way, and it has been life changing!
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Post by angelinahedgehog on Oct 15, 2008 6:58:47 GMT -5
Maintaining first, absolutely. Take care of the daily messes and piles so they don't grow into huge projects.
However, I'm not sure about your split of categories. I think I would call them maintain and declutter/organize/deep-clean.
At that point, I would move steam cleaning the carpet into the second category - unless you're planning to Steam Vac a carpet at least once a week. And it would become a bit easier, I think, to see why you didn't get to other special decluttering/organizing/deep-cleaning projects that weekend. Your special project time was already filled to capacity by the Steam Vac.
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Post by louiserae on Oct 15, 2008 12:01:17 GMT -5
This sort of relates as I am doing my garden, its spring here and boy is my garden a mess. So I work on the decluttering for 15 minutes a day during the week, and boy can I get a lot out, then on the weekend I maintain what I have done and maybe do some more. I do it after work, take the garden bin with me and put all my weeds in after the 15 minutes and put my tools away.Louise
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Post by syzygy on Oct 16, 2008 18:40:03 GMT -5
Yes, I can see that maintaining needs to be done first. It's just so frustrating to have to spend a lot of time getting things back to where they were. Daily maintenance would help a lot. I'm generally good about Scooop! ing and dishes. Less good about other things. I think I've even given the same advice to someone else! It's much more difficult when you have to actually do it.  I get so focused on doing something that I become blind to other things- and then when I come out of my trance...Surprise! That's a good point, Ang. Deep cleaning should go under the other category. Looking at things that way, I can see that I was pretty productive. |
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Post by clearwaterush on Oct 19, 2008 19:57:17 GMT -5
I'm maintaining, my morning routine AND then the days schedule with bits and pieces thrown in when I think about it.
Today, I:
Morning Routine and then Cleaned the bathroom completely from top to bottom. I opened the back door and noticed I couldn't see out the storm door window. I cleaned these inside and out and am enjoying the view. My schedule said do all laundry to day. So I did the three loads, dried them, folded them and put them away. That's it, I am tired and not doing another thing. If I put back the things I take out when I'm done with them, I have more time for a other choice items.
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