The semester is winding down. Three weeks of classes. Just three weeks. And while the work and projects and page counts soar, so, too, does the clutter around our house. Some days, it just overwhelms me, how much stuff we have as a family of five. So I’ve decided to do something about it. I call it 10 and 10.
10: Every day, I get rid of 10 items in our home. Items so far have ranged from an old, rusty necklace to a shirt I no longer wear to a kid’s meal toy to part of a kid’s meal toy. Getting rid of it entails tossing or donating. I have a diapers box in my closet where I have been collecting my donation items, and our garbage can is already full for the week!
What went this week? Here are a few of the things I can remember:
- dried out nail polish containers
- expired make-up
- worn-out and unworn shoes
- worn water toys
- old plastic organizers
- a couple of t-shirts
Each day, I started in a different room. First the back bedroom. Then my room. The kitchen. The laundry room. The front bathroom, etc. Usually, the first item or two make me pause a little bit, but by nine and ten (or while I am chatting with Caroline), tossing becomes so much easier.
And here’s the best part: I feel so much lighter afterward. Like I can physically feel clutter retreating. Definitely a domestic rush.
Now for the second half…
And 10: This phase, I just came up with the other night, but I haven’t implemented it yet. I plan to start tomorrow night. This ten refers to ten minutes. Before I get ready for bed, I am going to start spending ten minutes straightening up and putting things away around the house. Who knows? Maybe I will even throw a few more items away. At the very least, I will get to wake up to a house that is a little bit tidier. Which means I will wake up a little bit more content.
I am starting to believe that there is a definite correlation between clutter and my productivity levels. Sometimes I can ignore the clutter, especially when I am in full throttle survival mode. But sometimes I can’t. 10 and 10, I think, will help me manage the clutter with a daily dose of working to manage and cut down on it.
I’m pretty pumped about this plan! By Christmas, I’m hoping for some clear shelves and unstuffed drawers. I’m hoping to make this a habit I can maintain.
Less clutter = more productivity and less stress
I like that equation a lot.
The Milk Tree 