Manic Monday

OK so here it goes, my first "Manic Monday" post.  Did a lot of research and scoured many a blog and read 1,000 how to articles, now it's time to get down to business.

I have decided to start by giving myself a half hour a day for decluttering until my house is free from the clutter beast and set daily goals for specific things I want to accomplish like getting a grip on the paper monster.  Got some great tips from Zen Habits, a couple of my favorites were:

Baby steps are important. Sure devoting 30 minutes a day to such a monumental task may seem like putting a band-aid on an aortic tear, but it reminded me that every little bit gets you closer to your goal and with 3 little ones, sometimes 5 minutes may be all you have to devote to any one specific task in a day.  The important thing is to do a little something each day.

Designate a spot for incoming papers.  Boy, this is essential for me.   I live in a pretty rural area and our mailboxes are not at the end of our driveway or next to the front door as they were when I was growing up. So, instead of just reaching outside my front door for my mail I have to drive to the entrance of my development to where the mailboxes are to retrieve my mail.  After baby number two this became increasingly difficult and I was visiting my mailbox so infrequently that my mail carrier started holding my mail hostage at the post office.  Luckily for me, there is a kind lady from my church who lives right by the mailboxes and goes there every day.  She took pity on me and was kind enough to offer to pick up my mail for me and give it to me when she sees me at church.  Unfortunately these piles of mail end up being piles on my couch or any flat surface that I can reach first upon entering the door boys and diaper bag in hand.  My designated spot is a work in progress, it is currently a basket on a table by the door and it will soon have a nice covered waste paper bin underneath it so I can trash the junk as soon as I enter and it will also have a hanging sorter above so I can sort the mail instantly into mini manageable categories.

I have also decided to instill the penicillin effect for all decluttered areas. This is a method mentioned on Organized Home,  Basically once you have cleared an area, let's say the kitchen table, that area is now inoculated with penicillin and no matter how cluttered the other surfaces in the kitchen may get, the kitchen table remains clutter free!  The goal is that eventually all the inoculated surfaces will join together to create one clutter free house.  This is ingenious!  This has been my never ending battle, I spend an entire morning clearing an area only to find that the next day it looks exactly the way it did before.  Talk about exasperating!  Today is day 2 on the kitchen table, still clutter free!  Woo hoo!

Do you have trouble with clutter?  What methods do you use to conquer the clutter beast in your home?  Would love to hear from you.