Many women may find that while pregnant they feel the need to clean. It seems fairly normal and a part of life. We want to make our home clean and prepared for our future little one. In my case, however, I have always been someone that enjoys a clean house and the cleaning process. I always feel better after my house is cleaned and organized. I find that when I do have the chance (and motivation) to clean or reorganize my home, I enjoy being there. All in all, I've found that when I'm organized, I'm not nearly as stressed. I'm sure I'm not alone.
For me, pregnancy has put me into turbo mode for cleaning and organization. I have the luxury of a "free" summer with time to go through my house and purge superfluous stuff. I certainly wanted to clean and get things together for the future little one but I found that there was just stuff that didn't need to be there. Also, I realized that if I haven't used the item in years, I probably didn't need it.
If organization and cleaning, or purging for that matter, isn't necessarily your "bottle of Windex", I have a few pointers to get you started. I will also be doing a multi-parter going room by room in my house and documenting the progress. Stay tuned!
So here's the first 3 principles:
1. Leave emotion at the door. Yes, you may have spent a fortune on that espresso machine three years ago or maybe your favorite aunt bought you that really nice toaster oven but the fact of the matter is, DO YOU USE IT!? If the answer is no, then why do you have it in your house taking up space? My husband and I live in a townhouse with minimal storage and when we registered for our wedding, we had very generous friends. Granted, we are very blessed to have such amazing friends, but we also had too much stuff that we never opened or used. Going through cabinets and closets, you need to leave the emotion at the door. I realize this may difficult but if you aren't using the item, then are you really honoring the money spent or person that bought it for you? Probably not. So the best thing to do: get rid of it and get it to someone that will (whether selling it or giving it away).
2. Have a game plan! Like any good change, there has to be a plan. You may not have the freedom to work for two weeks straight but there is certainly a way to get your house back in order. I wanted to start with the future baby's room, which was my old office. I had to make the transition to the "man cave". I wanted to go through things as I moved so that I wouldn't have to do it again. Great idea right? Why do the work twice when you could easily do it once? Then I planned my attack of the rest of the house. Each day I would tackle a new obstacle and when I was finished, I was done for the day. Setting the goal of what to get done in one day was very easy to stick with- and it worked.
3. One alligator at a time. Like number 2, I had to realize that I wasn't going to get the whole way through the house in one day. Impossible. And even if it had been possible, I probably wouldn't have done a thorough job. So I decided I would take one room at a time. I obviously started with the office/future nursery, then to the guest bedroom, then the bathroom, then master bedroom, closet (yikes), and moved down the house. I knew that I could have done more than one room at a time, especially the ones that didn't have too much stuff to begin with but I didn't want to burn out and end up not finishing the task at hand. When I finished one room, I turned the lights off and the next day, prepared for a different kind of space. You need a break every now and again, doing one room at a time is totally feasible- especially when there is no need to be Super Woman.
So to sum up, I'd say if you want to start purging or reorganizing your house, it's just that simple. Think about what you want your house to look at by having your plan in mind, leave emotion at the door, and tackle one thing at a time. I'm going to be adding info to these cleaning sessions in the next few days/weeks. Please feel free to follow me along as I take you through some of the messiness of my own house and get how we got organized for our little guy.
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