Cut the Clutter Read online

  CUT

  THE

  CLUTTER

  Cynthia Townley Ewer of OrganizedHome.com

  CUT

  THE

  CLUTTER

  A SIMPLE ORGANIZATION PLAN for

  a CLEAN and TIDY HOME

  For Steve, who knows why

  Writer Cynthia Townley Ewer

  Project Editor Diana Craig

  Project Editor, revised edition Anne Hildyard

  Project Designer Saskia Janssen

  Jacket Designer Nicola Powling

  Pre-production Producer Andy Hilliard

  Print Producer Che Creasey

  Creative Technical Support Sonia Charbonnier

  U.S. Managing Editor Lori Cates Hand

  Managing Editor Lisa Dyer

  Managing Art Editor Marianne Markham

  Art Director Maxine Pedliham

  Publishing Director Mary-Clare Jerram

  U.S. Publisher Mike Sanders

  First American Edition, 2006

  This edition published in the United States in 2016 by DK Publishing, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  Copyright © 2016 Dorling Kindersley Limited

  DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC

  15 16 17 18 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  001–294632–April/2016

  All rights reserved.

  Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.

  A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4654-5305-1

  DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 [email protected]

  Printed and bound in China

  All images © Dorling Kindersley Limited

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  A WORLD OF IDEAS

  SEE ALL THERE IS TO KNOW

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  contents

  6 My journey to an organized home

  122 Clothing

  8 A well-run home

  Plan, shop, launder, store

  Solving the problems of clutter, disorder, and dirt

  Planning wardrobes; clothes buying guide;

  decluttering and organizing closets and drawers;

  16 Skills for a well-run home

  clothes care; laundry basics

  18 Decluttering your home

  154 Surfaces & systems

  The STOP clutter method;

  Select, save, maintain, clean

  what’s your clutter personality?

  Walls, floors, fine furniture, beds and mattresses;

  decluttering throughout the house

  plumbing and electrical systems; safety tips and

  emergency

  checklist

  36 Organizing your home

  How organized is your home?

  178 Room to live

  Principles

  of

  organizing

  Cut clutter, organize, clean

  48 Cleaning your home

  Where does your clutter pinch?

  Decluttering and organizing bathrooms, bedrooms,

  Commercial

  cleaning

  products;

  “green”

  cleaners

  linen closets, and family rooms; organizing books;

  from the pantry; choosing cleaning tools; tips

  household

  storage

  from the pros; teaching kids to clean

  218 Paper and finances

  72 Planning your home

  Sort, save, organize, store

  Daily do-its; weekly and monthly checklists;

  time-saving tips; habit, the wonder worker;

  Setting up an information center; decluttering

  the

  Household

  Notebook

  paperwork; household filing systems

  232 Resources

  88 Cycles of an organized home

  234 Index

  90 Food

  Plan, save, organize, store

  240 Acknowledgments

  Menu planning; shopping tips; food storage

  guidelines; decluttering the kitchen; creating

  activity centers; setting up a pantry

  6

  CUT THE CLUTTER

  My journey to an

  organized

  home

  Folks who know me only through my writing imagine a lot of things: that I’m blonde (sorry, brunette here), that I’m tall and willowy (I wish!), and, most of all, that I am naturally organized, tidy, and frugal. That sound you hear is hearty laughter, and it comes from those who know me best: my husband, daughter, and son. They know the truth: that I was playing hooky the day that innate organization ability and financial skills were handed out.

  I am not naturally organized, but I have learned how to be clothing, holiday wrap, stacked files, spilled coffee, and dirty

  —the hard way. I know the exact day when my journey to dishes. Dust festooned the corners, and a narrow path wound an organized home began: December 25, 1983. That’s when through the mess to the islands of my desk and my bed.

  I realized that I had a problem with clutter and chaos, and that I needed to find a solution to create an orderly and happy New order

  home for my family and me.

  That night, I confronted the truth: I had a problem. I wanted It was the evening of Christmas Day. Recently divorced, to raise my children in a clean and comfortable home, but the I had sent my two young children to spend the day with their place looked like a crime scene. I needed to learn what to do, father, so I visited my parents’ home for Christmas dinner. But how to do it, and when to do it to create the organized home when I returned to my little house late that night, broken glass my children and I deserved.

  littered the front porch. Someone had tried to break into my Next day, I began to search libraries and bookstores for house while I was away!

  guidance. I read books. I tried many different organizing I called the police and waited, shivering on the porch.

  methods. I learned about cleaning and began to plan and An officer responded, approached the house cautiously, and schedule housework in the same way as my business activities.

  slipped inside my front door. A few minutes later, he emerged, Little by little, I learned how to conquer clutter, clean house, scratching his head. “Lady,” he said, “I don’t understand it.

  and run an organized home.

  Your deadbolt held and the door wasn’t opened—but

  Did it work? Fast-forward five years to September 1988.

  somebody got in and ransacked your upstairs.”

  I’d met a young doctor-in-training at the medical school library the week before, and this was to be our first date. My house Guilty secret

  was clean and orderly. My school-aged children were eating Embarrassed warmth flooded my face. “No, no,” I protested, dinner at the kitchen table, as clean and orderly as it was in

  “that’s just the way I left it!”

  their nature to be. All was well as I opened the door.

  The officer peered at me keenly. “Do you know what it My date followed me to the kitchen as I made coffee, looks like up there?”

  and to my amazement, began to ask me about my c
alendar, To my immense shame, I did. The two rooms that served my tickler file, and my family information center. I showed as my home office, bedroom, and sewing area were knee-deep him my lists, my cleaning schedule, even the little note with in crumpled photocopies, legal pads, fabric scraps, piled the date and time of our date.

  MY JOURNEY TO AN ORGANIZED HOME

  7

  He seemed impressed, but I had a little sinking spell when Sharing the journey

  the evening was over. How could I have shown this man my Since 1998, I’ve taught those skills to the thousands of people housekeeping system? What could he be thinking about my who have visited my Web site, OrganizedHome.com—and

  schedules and file cards and notebooks? They seemed a long more lately, to print readers who found the 2005 edition of way from the hip-mama image I wanted to project.

  this book. Along the way, I’ve learned much more than I’ve shared, traveling together with visitors and readers—male, Homemaking skills

  female, older, younger—on the path to better home

  Later, I learned that he was impressed, indeed. On the night organization and management.

  he proposed marriage, my husband Steve told me that he In this book, we’ll take that same journey together. Our knew I was right for him from that very first evening. A fourth-goal: a clean, organized, and cost-efficient home. The methods generation physician, he understood that a doctor’s wife has offered here worked for me, and they’ve worked for those who to be organized, self-reliant, and independent in order to deal have found them on the Web or in the first edition of this book.

  with the demands of her spouse’s profession. Nothing could Put them into practice and you’ll find them working for you, too.

  have shown that capability more clearly, he felt, than the There’s hope. There’s help. Come join us!

  visible evidence of my skills as a homemaker that he saw when he came to my house on our first date.

  ▶ Need help running a calm and cost-

  efficient household? Look to the Web!

  Clean your house, cut clutter, and save

  money with online tips and resources

  from OrganizedHome.com.

  a well-run

  home

  10

  A WELL-RUN HOME

  The problem:

  clutter, disorder, and dirt

  How do you really feel about the state of the house? Here’s a quick test: imagine that the doorbell rings. Is there panic in the pit of your stomach at the possibility of unexpected guests—or a bill collector? You’re not alone. For many, clutter, disorganization, and dirt interfere with the day-to-day business of life at home.

  Sound far-fetched? Not for those of us who find it difficult to maintain a clean and organized home. Studies have shown Taking aim on clutter is a great first step to that around 40% of American families find it difficult to keep more sustainable living. Tackle domestic

  their homes neat and organized.

  chaos and live a greener life with these tips:

  een!

  For these families, keeping a clean house seems like an impossible dream. Working parents struggle to find time to

  ▪ Bag the bags. Stow reusable shopping

  clean. Disorganized spaces send the whole family into a bags on a hook near the car keys. They’ll be

  tailspin on a regular basis. Clutter mounts up and puts the easy to grab on your way out the door—and

  brakes on a streamlined, organized life.

  and gr will stop plastic supermarket sacks from invading your organized home.

  Impossible standards

  ▪ Junk the junk mail. Removing your

  For all their numbers, they may as well be invisible. Modern address from direct mail databases and calling

  media pummels people with misleading standards of perfection.

  catalog companies with stop requests takes

  Even in real life, we seldom see the truth about our time up-front, but saves the household—and

  neighbors’ clutter and chaos. At a friend’s holiday open house, Clean … Mother Earth!—from being buried in

  we admire the beautiful home, but don’t realize that it was unwanted paper.

  achieved only by tossing dirty clothes, surface clutter, and

  ▪ Set free the surplus. Recycling or

  stacks of newspapers into a padlocked bathroom.

  repurposing unneeded appliances, clothing,

  tools, and craft supplies not only clears

  Perfect pitch: the haves and have-nots

  storage space, but also gives these items

  Take heart: you are not lazy, crazy, or stupid. You just a new and useful life.

  need to learn the skills necessary to create a clean and

  ▪ Waste packaging waste. Smart menu

  organized home.

  planning means less reliance on single-serve

  Think of innate organizing ability as a kind of musical or convenience food items—and a

  pitch. Some people have very little—they’re the “tin ears”

  corresponding reduction in needless food

  of the musical world. Others have perfect pitch: an inborn packaging. Build a pantry and buy in bulk to

  and accurate sense of which note is which and the

  keep packaging waste to a minimum.

  relationships between them. The rest of us struggle at scales in-between.

  THE PROBLEM

  11

  In the same way, some folks naturally have an orderly

  ▲ Children’s toys are one of the prime spawning grounds for relationship with their stuff. They keep things tidy without clutter and disorder. Learning the necessary skills can help even the organizationally challenged to keep the problem under control.

  thinking, and they breeze through domestic life without turning a hair. They have the home management equivalent of perfect pitch hard-wired into their brains.

  Doing what doesn’t come naturally

  The rest of us have to work at learning organizational Problems arise when the two camps try to communicate. Tell skills. But, just as we conquered musical scales and intervals, someone who’s been gifted with a big slug of organizational we can master planning and scheduling, cleaning, and clutter ability about your new menu plan, and you’re apt to get a control. And, like a well-rehearsed recital piece, our organizing puzzled, “Huh? Doesn’t everyone do that?” On the other hand, abilities strengthen and become part of us as we use them.

  it’s not always possible to benefit from the experience of a naturally organized person. For them, it comes easily, so they short-cut directions, assuming that the rest of us can follow.

  “Most of us are not born with Naturally organized people write way too many books about home organization. It’s easy for them, so it should be organizing skills. They are

  easy for the reader, right?

  something we must learn.”

  Wrong. It takes one to know one—and to teach one.

  12

  A WELL-RUN HOME

  The solution:

  skill sets and cycles

  How do you go from chaotic to controlled, cluttered to clean on the home front?

  Learn four simple skill sets, and apply them to the cycles of home keeping. In this book, we’ll start with the basic skills needed to declutter, organize, clean, and plan a well-run home. Then we’ll apply these skills to the cycles of life in every home: food, clothing, surroundings, paper, and finances.

  Part One: Skills for a Well-run Home

  In the declutter skill set, we learn a 20-minute method to In high school home economics classes, I learned to make banish clutter anywhere. We gain a deeper understanding of bound buttonholes, set a pretty table, and bake a dozen cookies personality traits that encourage cluttering, and explore ways that were all the same size—but I wasn’t taught the real skills to fight the thought processes that tie us to our stuff. Finally, needed to create a clean and orga
nized home. How to keep we share tips to deal with other people’s clutter.

  clutter under control. How to organize and clean house. How to plan my time and family activities.

  Organizing your home A well-organized home makes life Think of Part One of this book as Home Ec 101 for the real flow smoothly, speeds cleaning, and means you’ll never have world: an introduction to the four basic skill sets everyone to look for misplaced items again … well, most of the time.

  needs—declutter, organize, clean, and plan.

  In the organize skill set, we focus on the three basic rules of home organization. We establish a place for everything, Decluttering your home At bottom, the problem isn’t bring the family on board, and create activity centers to focus about “stuff;” it’s about the habits, personality traits, and space and possessions. Finally, we look for storage solutions thought processes that encourage the build-up of clutter.

  to contain clutter and make living spaces work.

  declutter ▲ see pages 18–35

  organize ▲ see pages 36–47

  THE SOLUTION

  13

  Cleaning your home It’s not how long you clean. It’s not centers to make it easy and quick to get the family fed. We how hard you clean. It’s how efficiently you clean that makes also tackle bottom-dollar issues of energy efficiency, kitchen the difference between grimy and gleaming.