Organized Chaos

With my husband's imminent return on the near-future-horizon, and my home in almost complete disarray *sigh* I have decided to give everyone advice on cleaning and organization so that I may then take my own advice.  Good plan, no?  Of course it is!  Especially since some people have asked me to help them ~_0

Here are all of my cleaning and organizational tips and tools.  I hope that everyone can come away with something new.

Laura's Rules of an Organized Lifestyle:

1. If you've got it, and you don't need it or use it, then don't keep it - unless it is a family heirloom or otherwise precious to you.  Do not go any further until you can accept this.  This is key in keeping your home, AND your financial burdens un-cluttered. 
2. Do not wastefully trash things which still have wear left in them.  There are many thrift stores and the like which take donations.  Pawn shops will occasionally buy them from you and sell them to the next person looking for it.  Other items can be put to excellent use in some other way, or you can find someone willing to take them off your hands for free.  I will include a list of such places further down.
3. Learn to clean up after yourself as you go, but understand that learning this does not mean that you will always do it.  Things happen.  Luck will have it that you make it a point to wash your dishes daily but then the baby gets sick, and you can't keep doing everything.
4. Don't beat yourself up over it no matter what.  Love your home, love what you do with it.  Some of us do not feel at home without a little messyness.
5. No matter what, everything has it's place... even if your style is that you dry your laundry and then leave it in a pile somewhere, know what's in the pile.  See... you can be chaotic and neat all at once.
6. Don't try to do it all at once.  Give yourself some time and do it casually.  Otherwise, you may end up throwing away important things, or worse yet, adding to your clutter un-necessarily.
7. Keep good music handy.

A Truly Good Riddance: Keep track of the following places to donate or sell your unwanted items.  Feel free to add to this list in the comments below.Freecycle - Freecycle is a sort of online community.  It may or may not be in your area.  I will be posting a Freecycle "how to" later on, if you need it.  Basically you post items you have for free, or you ask for items you need for free.  The rules are that if you request it, you must be willing to pick it up.  Or if you offer it, you must be willing to place it curb-side or have someone stop by your home for pick-up.  This can be a wee bit creepy, but it's really not that bad.  Especially if you can find a friend willing to do it with you.

1. Craigslist - It's like an online ad for your stuff.  You create an ad.  You can offer it for free or sell it.  Again, you will have to have some interaction with a buyer, but, again, not that bad if you have others living with you or do it with a friend.
2. Ebay - Pretty much speaks for itself.  Keep in mind that to be a seller, you must have a credit card on file.
3. Amazon - Also speaks for itself.  I believe they require credit card or banking information.
4. Goodwill - Donate just about anything depending on the Goodwill in your area.
5. Plato's Closet - They buy used clothing off of you to sell to others.  It's really great except their criteria can be a little difficult to understand if you're not behind the counter...  Personally, I have attempted selling items that I had bought less than a month earlier to them, and they said they were "outdated" or something.  Just beware that you may not be able to get money for it.
6. Gamestop - Gamestop will buy your used games and gaming equipment for a low price depending on how recent the game is.
7. Cool Stuff - They buy back your games, DVDs, CDs, and some of the older model stuff as well for a low price.
8. Video \ Music Stores - Various video, music, and electronics stores will buy things back.  If you don't have Gamestop or Cool Stuff, check around.
9. Comic Book stores - Will often buy cards off of you.  If you have Magic the Gathering and other playing cards of that nature, some stores will buy those.  Other than that, the only time I've seen them sell is on Craigslist.
10. Libraries - Often libraries will take your old books which you are no longer using or interested in.
11. Thrift Stores - Speaks for itself.
12. (One of my personal faves) Petco \ Petsmart \ Humane Societies - Will often take any used (but clean, and in good condition) bedding and blanket materials you no longer use for your own pets.  Recycle them to help save and keep homeless animals healthy and happy.

Motivators: One would think that just looking at a messy home would motivate the owner and caretaker of it to get off their keister and do the necessary work.  Sadly, this is not the case for many of us, myself included.  My suggestion to everyone struggling with this is to find whatever it is that gets you going, and put it to use.  For me, though, I take sticky notes and put them on the mirror with notes to myself.  I don't get to take the notes down and fix my hair properly until the chores are done.  Always have some sort of reward for yourself, and don't always make it the same thing.  :-D

Less is More and Cleanup:  For most, the rest of this will be pretty irrelevant.  It's pretty much just how I go about cleaning up my own place.  If you want to try something different, or are just interested in my ramblings, do continue.

1. Clothing - I go through my clothing multiple times a year in an effort to keep my closet from becoming too full. 
• Whatever doesn't fit or I'm no longer interested in, I donate or trash if too worn.
• Seasonal clothing is stored away during spring and summer.  I usually use my suitcase for this.
2. Luggage - I keep one large suitcase, one small, and a few duffels.  All are stored together inside of the largest suitcase to save on room.
3. Bed Linens - I try to keep one set of sheets per bed, with one extra set.  I would recommend that mothers with small children keep at least 2-3 sets of sheets for their child's bed in case of accidents.
• My linens are kept in a large plastic storage bin with wheels.
• Space bags can keep your bin neatly arranged while leaving room for the lid to snap shut.
4. Magazines - I prefer to keep these for a year only unless they are important to me for some business reason. 
• Articles can be clipped at the end of the year.  It is not absolutely necessary to keep the entire book.
• If you are a person who clips articles, I recommend getting a portfolio book to keep them in.
• Clippings can also be used in art projects, such as scrapbooks and art journals.  Don't be wasteful, but don't keep the clutter either.
5. Bathroom Storage - For my two-person household, I keep at least 6-10 towels at any given time.  I got my over-the-toilet storage rack and over-the-door towel hooks from Wal*Mart for pretty cheap.  The rack was easily built with a little elbow-grease, and the hooks just hang over the door.
• Neatest way I've found to put away my towels is to fold them in half length-wise and then roll them up.
• If your nice towels keep going missing, there is a solution.  Two different colors of towels.  One color is the "nice towels" and the other is for whatever (dirty jobs, hubby's sweat towel, etc.).  When one of the whatever towels goes missing, add to your list and replace later.  Wal*Mart sells them for circa $5 apiece.
6. Kitchen - My personal philosophy on kitchens is as follows:  The fewer the dishes, the easier the cleanup.  Of course, this is easy for me to say as I've been doing my dishes by hand since I was a child.
• If you can find quality multi-use utensils, they are totally worth the cost, if affordable.  Saves space, and like I said earlier, fewer dishes, less cleanup.
• For cleanup, I use Soft Scrub on the counter, Ocelo sponges and Dawn dish detergent on my dishes, and bleach pens for any stains left on the counter by tea, etc.  Mr. Clean Magic Eraser works wonders on a stove \ oven (even on burnt-on things).
• Did you know?: Dawn dish detergent uses some of their proceeds to help save wildlife.  They make a claim on their website (Dawn Website) that buying one bottle send $1 to wildlife rescue.  These bottles can be found at Wal*Mart among other stores, and usually sport a label with a cute baby animal on it.  (I was not paid for this.  I'm simply an animal \ wildlife enthusiast who has never hugged a tree.)
• My favorite quickie kitchen cleaner is Lysol wipes with a scrubby side.
7. Cleaning After Pets - Pet cleanup can be a chore (no pun intended).
• Cat Litter - Best I've found is the Breeze Litter System.  The pellets are flushable.  There is a tray below the litter to allow anything wet to seep through onto a pad similar to the puppy training pads.  It smells the best of any litter we've used.
• There are some really great cleaners for pet messes that make it to the carpet at PetSmart. 
• Bathe pets regularly (even cats) and you will thank yourself for the lack of fur everywhere.

So... that's pretty much it.  I hope everyone found something useful.  If you have questions or comments, use the box below :)