Spring Cleaning? Company’s Coming? Lost something you know you have? Whatever the motivation, there are times we just have to go through the clutter, reorganize, and throw out what isn’t needed. With the new birth of Spring growing around us, it seems like the perfect time to freshen up our homes.
Last August, we featured a post from Nancy Anderson titled My Year of Saying Yes. The gist of it was that with “a spirit of adventure,” before her 70th birthday, Nancy is going to do 70 new things throughout this year—despite being “a lifelong bystander.” Regardless her age, she wanted to grow and stretch. Number 32 on her list is “clearing out clutter.” On Facebook, on March 5, 2025, she posted: “It was hard. I had to force myself to do it. But you know what? It freed me from the chaos of clutter and simplified my life.”
Inspired by Nancy’s clearing out clutter, I decided it was time to tackle my messes. I keep a neat and tidy house. One of the ways I do it, is everything that doesn’t have a place or needs attention gets moved to my closet, bedroom, or office. The net result is I have piles and gatherings of things that I need to sort through or put away.
Early this year, I did lots of traveling—which meant less time at home. Combined with activities, work, and family, this left these areas of the house sorely neglected. It was time to get on top of the messy corners, counters, and floors.
I started in my closet where I still had some Christmas gifts to put away and unpacking to do. I moved it all out to my bathroom so I could see what needed to be dealt with, and how. I moved the empty trash can from the garage to right outside my door and began. By the time I finished, it was 2/3 full. I also had a “give away” box. Because my closet is off my bathroom, I moved all the clutter out of the closet into my bathroom. This meant that if I wanted to take a shower, I had another mess to clean up. Ultimately, I moved the “keep” items onto the bed and that became my next project. Now, even that is cleaned up!
Like the Cat in the Hat, cleaning up one thing, often creates a new cleaning project.
I still had three suitcases partially unpacked from February. Clothes and mail got placed on top! Now that, too, is clean and I can walk into my office. Which leads to the final area I need to deal with. Yet to come.
Like Nancy said, “I had to force myself to do it.” But now that it is done, I too, feel proud of my accomplishments—which is why I am sharing it with you here. I hope that like I was inspired by Nancy; you’ll be motivated by my efforts.
How do we amass so many things and why do we keep things we don’t need, that don’t fit, or we don’t use?
While my house is clean, don’t look in my drawers or cupboards!! They are often stuffed and cluttered. Perhaps that is a symbol of our lives. While we may look great and all put together on the outside, don’t look inside. You might see the turmoil and angst we are dealing with. The emotional element of deep cleaning often prevents us from doing the physical work.
Nancy concluded her recent post with this: “I had to let go of things that had potential and keep only what was practical. … Is there an area in your home that could use a little decluttering? Medicine cabinet, shoe shelf, food pantry, coat closet? Just start with one drawer or shelf—the satisfaction is contagious!”
What ideas do you have to make decluttering practical and fun? You may even find the physical cleaning helps with the emotional clutter. Let’s make this contagious!
Through her speaking and writing, Lauren encourages people with her heartfelt messages and practical presentations. She is the author of The Art of Helping – What to say and Do When Someone is Hurting. Lauren and her family are active in both church and community choral groups. She lives in Redlands, CA.
I am so proud of you Lauren!
What I try to do is to tackle one area a month. I go through it with the idea of: “If I was moving, what would I throw away?” If I wouldn’t move it, I don’t keep it. One exception is that I have 30 years of Bon Appetit Magazines and the corresponding indexes. Because I don’t need the space, they are all still there. But I know they will not be going with me to wherever my next location may be. When I need a recipe these days, I search for it online. Anyone want the magazines? 😁
Ha! That is funny I just saw this Marita because this afternoon I went through ALL of my cookbooks! I have many. I boxed the ones up that I am discarding and marking them for the upcoming Lubbock Women’s Club garage sale! Of course I took all afternoon to read through some great recipes! That is the problem for me in decluttering. I look too long at the items I am discarding. Like a final goodbye, I guess! Ha!
Thank you for the motivation – I too am the pile method – when we moved to our active adult community I lost my formal dining room (so that vintage rock maple table, 6 chairs and hutch went to hubby’s niece since it was his grandmothers) and I also lost my office (hmm he still has his office) so the dining room and table is my office and when company is coming everything gets stashed – I got into genealogy and I was supposed to have my Mom’s life story with all the ancestors and heirs written and printed by the time she turned 90 (which was last wed) hence it’s still not done (still adding events and stories) so I did 2 picture books and each of her siblings and each of my siblings got copies. so here I sit in the ancestry clutter – backing up my phone and photos before they do their update sometime tonight! hugs to you both
I have my master closet and a spare bedroom to tackle. I’ve done the 15 minutes a day plan and it works, but these days I love to turn on an Audible book, read with my ears and declutter. I plan to do it next week when we get home from my M-I-L’s house. And, yes, Alice Sevier, the dining room table is also my office. So when company comes I throw it all in my bedroom and ask myself why I need that much stuff sitting out, lol!