Hi!

Guests room upstairs, hope they will enjoy the thunderstorm 🙈

Getting everything cleaned, decluttered, and organized can really suck. It’s even harder when you’re staring at a giant pile of junk with no idea where to start. Hopefully, I can help at least a bit. I’m going to give you a small step-by-step process that I use. Enter the new year with clean study spaces, bedrooms, or even your whole home.

Clear the surface entirely.

I want you to take everything off the surface or floor and set it somewhere else for now. Just clear it off.

Get the cleaning done now.

This is when you go through it all and get the stuff that doesn’t belong out. I start with the trash. I get all the trash that I can out of the mess. Old receipts, random papers, old wrappers or cans. Pick out the stuff that gets trashed, and toss it out. Take the dirty dishes to the sink as well.

Now you start sorting.

You’ve still got a giant pile of junk. This is when you start the organizing. Roll up your sleeves, tie up your hair, and get ready to grind. Create sorting piles. Personally, I use several of them. Laundry, papers, pens and pencils, perfumes, and other junk. Get it all settled into piles. Take the laundry and figure out where it goes. Dirty laundry where that goes, and clean laundry to the side for now.

Go through everything.

Is this stuff that you use? Does it spark joy? Does it serve its purpose? Is it actually yours? These are questions you need to answer. If it’s not yours, set it aside and return it later. If the answer to the first three questions is no, you can toss it or donate it. If it’s yes, leave it in its pile.

Clean the actual surface now.

Get your paper towels or washcloths, grab the cleaning spray, and get that surface clean.

Find a home for everything.

Now you get to start putting everything where it goes. At this point, you’ve cleaned the surface, tossed the trash, returned the stuff that isn’t yours, and you’ve done some decluttering. This is when you put everything where it goes. Make sure that you give your stuff their own homes. Everything in my room and bathroom has a place. When I need it, I know where to find and where to return it as soon as I’m done with it.

You’re done!

Congrats! You’ve done a lot now. At this point, your clean laundry needs to be folded and put away but that’s another chore entirely. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

There have been some uncontrollable circumstances that have lead to this point but I haven’t cleaned since Thanksgiving. Hubby has been “helping” but he work two jobs and although he tris it doesn’t overcome the messes made daily so I had plans to clean the whole house on Sunday.. didn’t happen😿I was hindered by a migraine & today just straight tiredness and now nausea 🤢😴… this is what I did though.. I have taken a huge load of trash & recycling to the dump, done three loads of dishes but the sink is still disgusting so no pics for you.. laundry had been collected & will be brought to the laundromat tomorrow.

Husband mentioned that his office was getting kinda crusty because of the cats emptying a bag of treats in there.. but there was dishes everywhere, trash everywhere so many more recyclable bottles 😤 now cleaned and vacuumed!

Husband’s side of the bed is the first thing you see when you walk into the bed room.. laundry (basket is at the end of the bed… FEET away 😡), enough empty bottles under the bed to fill an empty laundry basket and bandaids wrappers thrown on the floor like we have a maid to clean that crap… 🤯 all taken care of & vacuumed

Spent about 2 hours cleaning up my mess of a kitchen. Thank you to B99 and dish washing gloves for making this a more bearable task. Not perfect but much better.

I even went through my mail, which is a major anxiety trigger for me. Found a check with some money, and I found some gift cards from students/family.

Dishes are in the wash and air drying, and a couple plants were moved to create room on the table. I even ate lunch sitting at my table! The last time I was able to do that was probably October.

No excuses, but the past couple months have been very difficult- mental health wise. On top of that, I’ve been stressed which I deal with by eating out and sleeping. Both are not conducive to a clean and happy environment.

Not pictured: my clean bathrooms (minus the shower), my clean bedroom, and all clothes put away (except for the air dry only clothes).