Tuesday Tip - Declutter One Shelf at a Time

Do you ever walk through your house and see things where they don't belong or open a closet and see piles leaning against each other?  But of course you don't have the time to take everything out of the closet and get everything organized right then.  But that doesn't mean we have to give up and decide to live with the clutter.  

I wrote a while ago about making a habit of a clean home, and today I wanted to expand on that a little bit.  Basically it's the idea of capturing those 5 minute opportunities that you do have and cleaning up one shelf or one cabinet.  Sure you won't have your home clean in a weekend, but if you make this a habit as well, then maybe things won't pile up.  And we all have 5 minute opportunities all throughout our day.  When we're on the phone, when we're waiting for the water to boil, while Daddy is bathing the kids, when the girls sleep a bit longer than we planned ... there are so many windows of time we can use, we just have to be diligent to use them.  

While I was thinking about this post I was reminded of a quote I first heard from "The Richest Cat in the World" (definitely a movie I loved in my childhood).  Anyway, it goes, "Inch by inch, life's a cinch.  Yard by Yard, it's very hard."  It makes sense.  

So in the last week I have stolen 5 minutes along my day and I've been able to straighten up my linen closet, hall closet, study closet, and the girls' closet.  It has also been helpful for me to have boxes ready that I can put things in to give away and to throw out.  

Nothing too dramatic this week, but sometimes we all need little tips to help us.