Summer Clutter Detox Day 1: The Mudroom

You know the saying “the Cobbler’s kids have no shoes?”  well that’s pretty much how I have been feeling for…I can’t even begin to tell you how long.  We just returned from vacation, and as I look around my house all I see is CLUTTER.  It could be because I am working from home more, or because the girls are off from school, but frankly, I think it’s because I have too much stuff.

The irony is that even as someone who wrote a book called HOT MESS: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized, I too, am guilty of walking past the pile of {*blank},  rather than doing something about it.

Blame it on being too busy.

Or too tired.

Or simply not being in the mood to deal.

These are all realistic answers (at least that’s what I’ve told myself).  However, the danger is that after a while, you stop seeing the piles. They begin to blend into the backdrop, and we start building up a tolerance for the clutter. If you know anything about me, that’s not ok.

So I decided that today was the day I was putting an end to it.  I counted up all of the rooms in my house;14 in total (which I have listed below)↓.

•Kitchen

•Family Room

•Mudroom/Laundry Room

•Sitting & Music Room (we call it the Keeping Room)

•2.5 Bathrooms

•4 Bedrooms

•1 Hall Closet

•Finished Basement

•Garage

Each day, for the next two weeks I plan to methodically go through room-by-room, using my own ESP strategy and declutter the heck out of each space!  Again, if you are just tuning in, and wondering what the heck my ESP strategy is, I suggest you listen to episode 004 of my podcast, This ORGANIZED Life, or pick up a copy of HOT MESS and flip to chapter 13.

As an extra layer of accountability, I have decided to document each day and share it with all of you.

So for Day 1, I decided to start with the MUDROOM. I chose it because it should be a fairly easy space to tackle since it’s already defined into “zones”.  All I really need to do is to purge. I turned on a podcast and got to work. Systematically going bin-by-bin.  Since our mudroom doubles as our laundry room, I went through my personal outerwear, the dogs’ bin, and rags/cleaning bin. (* I did reserve Josh & the girls’ bins for each of them to tackle when they get home.)

Next, I moved to the floor and sorted all of our shoes (I do love my chucks), and donated a few pairs of shoes that I really never wear.  

The final step was to streamline the hooks, removing some of the 10,000 hoodies that somehow end up on 6 hooks.

In the end, the entire process took a total of 30 minutes.

THE RESULT: I had an entire garbage/recycle bag of old rags and mismatched gloves, and another bag of donations that were made up of windbreakers, shoes, hats, gloves and scarves that I no longer use.  I suspect, once the rest of my family goes through their stuff, we will have another bag to donate.

That’s 3 bags of clutter from one, not-so-large mudroom. Not too shabby for a measly 30 minutes of my day.

I’d love for you to follow me on this experiment, or better yet, join me. My goal is to complete it in 14 days, but there will be some variables. For example, the girls need to own their bedrooms.  I am happy to help them, but they need to roll up their sleeves and do the work.  

Also, the larger spaces may require more time, so I may need to break those into 2 sections, but that will depend on how much crap I have :).  

NEXT STOP: The Family Room.