Well, Spring is finally in the air! (At least, where I’m at…I’m sure there is snow still falling somewhere 🙂 ) After my kids had the entire week off last week because of snow and ice, the weather has turned. Birds are chirping, mittens are unnecessary, and I’ve got the urge to do some serious Spring cleaning. I have the urge, but that doesn’t mean that it still isn’t overwhelming at times. I saw a facebook post of a friend of mine the other day where she talked about a strategy she learned on www.flylady.net. Definitely check the site out if you haven’t before, she has tons of great info, tips, and recipes, really just all things domestic.
The tip my friend shared from flylady is that you can tackle clutter by focusing on different “zones” so it’s not as overwhelming and you’re not trying to tackle it all at once. She suggests setting a timer for 15 minutes and focusing on that area only for those 15. Her rationale is that you can do anything for only 15 minutes, even the worst chore.
So for me one of the worst chores has always been going through paperwork and cleaning my desk. That’s why I was so happy when I inherited my grandma’s roll top desk. I had an easy way to hide all my foolishness. So, that was the zone I decided to attack with my first 15 minute test. Here is the desk closed up before I began (Even the top had extra clutter on it)…
and here it is open…(I can’t believe I’m showing you this)…
I literally would cram stuff in there and slide the door shut…But today I was going to dive in and fix it…15 minutes isn’t that long, right? I took a swig of coffee, found a great station on Pandora, and set my timer.
Papers were shuffling, pens organized, garbage set aside, I was feeling good. DING, DING, DING!!!! What?!?!?! The timer was going off and the 15 minutes was up! I was not done but I was making good progress. Here is my trash pile and my progress after 15 minutes…
It might be hard to tell, but it was actually looking better. No way in heck I was going to stop now! I decided to set the timer for 15 more and try to finish it up…Here is my trash pile after that 15 minutes, 30 minutes total…
And here is the desk cleaned up. Still has stuff in it but much more organized. Hey, I actually use this it’s not just for show 🙂
Sp overall, the 15 minute approach is a great success (thanks flylady). The time flew by and I’m happy I got rid of so much junk. Now my desk is closed because I’m not using it, not because I’m hiding a hot mess. Have a great day!
