The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold, wet day.
You know the Dr. Seuss story about the day the Cat in the Hat came by for a visit and wreaked havoc on the tight little household of Sally and Dick. The kids mope around the house -- unattended, which would land their mom in Family Services court these days -- when this furry prankster comes along. In no time, the place is a mess. And then, just as quickly as he came, the nameless feline leaves the premises. The nervous goldfish, who should be happy to have survived an afternoon with a cat, frets.
And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
we can not pick it up.
There is no way at all!
Let's set aside, for now, the goldfish's needless negative predictions -- a pessimism that would ruin any constructive effort to make things right. As it turns out, the Cat in the Hat saves the day with a huge cleaning machine. "I always pick up all my playthings," the Cat in the Hat announces as he sets out to fix his mess.
But what if the Cat in the Hat had not come back? And what if he did not have that miraculous cleaning machine? Could the kids have saved the day themselves, cleaning the house before their mom returns from God-knows-where?
Yes. A review of the "literature" on cleaning reveals these Ten Commandments of getting an out-of-control house under control -- and keeping it that way.
(1) Put It All in a Heap. When your room is a mess, you don't know what you have anymore. Some Oscar Madisons claim they can find anything in a flash. Maybe there are some Rain Men out there who can spot a checkbook underneath a pile of clothes, bills, books, CD's, gloves, candy, and more. But most of are not slob savants, so we need to sort our junk, piece by piece. The only way to do that is to pull it out of all the usually cram spaces -- shelves, boxes, drawers, under the sofa -- for a wholesale sorting. Only when our storage spaces are completely clear can we decide what really goes where.
(2) Follow the One-Second Rule and the One-Year Corollary. Once the stuff is in a pile, we need to sort the stuff fast. The major problem slobs have is that they're easily distracted and sentimental. Sitting amidst a pile of treasures, they cannot resist taking the time to inspect each item: "Oh, look at this picture of Lindsay when she was a toddler! Isn't she cuuuuuute?" Or: "Oh. My. God. Here's that library book. What am I going to do. My God! The fines must be huge now. Should I call the library?" But you have to avoid lingering over objects. Save the trips down Memory Lane and Regrets Road for another time.
The One-Second Rule states, simply, that you should spend only a second on each item. Look at it, and put it in the appropriate pile. The great thing about having a neat room is that you have more time linger on things that matter because you're not going to waste all kinds of time frantically looking for keys, gloves, library books, and so on.
The One-Year Corollary states that you should get rid of anything that you have not used for at least a year. If you have a sweater that you have not worn in the last year, you're not going to wear it in the next year. So either put it into deep storage, give it to Goodwill or a friend, or throw it away. Exception: You can keep things that you would use -- no hesitation -- right now. But be honest. Don't clutter your active space with junk that is just going to get in the way of using really useful things.
(3) Get Containers for Everything. All messes consist of jumbles. You put mix your things together and so you cannot find what you're looking for. You have a miscellaneous drawer where you keep pens and pads and old letters and paper clips and credit cards and rubber bands and coupons and affadavits and notes and lists and tacks and screwdrivers and bracelets and batteries . . . and a hundred other things. And when you need a paper clip, you can't find it . . . so you go out and buy more paper clips, or steal a paper clip off another bundle of paper (creating a new chaos opportunity).
To avoid this chaos, you need a container for everything. Books need shelves. Shoes need a box or hanging shoe holder. Coats and scarves need hangers and hooks. Computer or camera equipment needs cubbyholes. Sports equipment needs bins. Dishes need shelves and Rubbermaid racks. CD's and DVD's need shelves or floppy books. Magazines and newspapers need racks. Photos need boxes or albums, which need shelves. School books and notebooks need cubbies. Bills and other mail need filing cabinets or nooks in a secretary. Toys need boxes that actually hold the pieces, and they need shelves. On and on.
Do not mix different things in containers. Every item should go in a container that holds only one kind of thing.
(4) Set Up a Front Stage and Back Stage. Businesses these days talk about back office space, the storage areas where "dead" records and other rarely used materials can be stowed. Libraries, museums, archives, government agencies, stores, law firms, sports complexes -- everyone, these days -- use "off-site" facilities to keep the stuff they don't need on an everyday basis.
You have to do the same thing with your home or office. Keep handy only the things you use on a regular basis. Put all the out-of-season clothes in a cedar chest in the attic. Put all the dead files -- old tax records, bills, calendars, etc. -- in well-marked boxes. Put the children's many school creations -- show-and-tell, stories, costumes, pictures -- in "memory boxes." (When your kid gets engaged, you can haul out the memory boxes to show off your child's artifacts to the new fiancee.) Most of all, when you have something you have no intention of ever using again, get rid of it. Obviously, that's hard for some people to do. Some people have a sentimental attachment even to trash.
Here's the best way to think about stuff of marginal value taht you have a hard time parting with: (1) Acknowledge, honestly, that you don't use it anymore. Maybe you used to use it all the time, but you don't anymore. (2) Think of getting rid of it as a way to help others. Books, CD's, videotapes, records, clothes -- when you give them away, you are blessing someone else with a chance to enjoy them.
Now that you have cleared out the extraneous junk, you can set up the stuff you actually use. have the books that you actually refer to once in a while, the CD's you listen to, the dessert dishes you like to use when company comes over. Everything that truly makes your life better will be right at hand.
Bottom line: If you have a small house or room, don't try to stuff too much stuff in it. You have what you have, and no more.
(5) Put Trash Bins Everywhere. Messes develop when people don't know what to do with things -- especially rubbish. When you come in with the mail, you drop the mail wherever you are if you don't have a better option. Go right to a trash can and drop the junk mail -- catalogues, fliers, campaign brochures, credit-card come-ons, pennysavers -- right into the trash. In fact, the best thing you can do is to put a nice-looking trash bin in every room. Pay attention to where people are when they;re unwrapping a candy bar, sorting mail, opening packages, etc., and put a trash can there.
(6) Follow the Daylight Savings Rules. You know the rule about smoke-alarm batteries -- every half year, on the day we move clocks backward or forward, change the batteries. That way, you know they'll work if there's a fire.
Adopt similar rules for updating and sorting things in the house. Set a date for putting seasonal clothes in storage . . . for putting away memory boxes . . . for sorting shoes (especially with growing kids in the household) . . . for putting away seasonal sporting equipment . . . for gathering books, kitchen equipment, toys, and other things for yard sales . . .
(7) Use "In" and "Out" Containers. A lot of a household or office's activities take place in cycles. You wear clothes, get 'em dirty, wash 'em, and then put them away for the next use. In the office, you pull a file, use it, add to it, and put it away for the next time. Paid bills get mixed with unpaid bills. The problem happens when the stuff coming and the stuff going gets mixed up. I know a family that regularly mixes dirty an clean clothes because no one's ever sure what's what.
You need an "in" and an "out" container for these things. You need one laundry bin for freshly washed clothes and a hamper for dirty clothes. You need one file for paid bills and another for pending bills.
(8) Carry As You Go. Over the course of the day, you go up and down stairs, in and out of rooms, dozens of times. But too often, you leave behind the things that belong in another room. Someone puts clothes and toys on the stairs, and then eveyone in the family walks past them when they go upstairs or downstairs.
Just take something every time you go from one room or floor to another. It takes no extra time whatsoever. And if you immediately put it where it belongs you have the pleasure of a clean-looking house, you avoid the danger of tripping over something on the stairs, and you can always find the things you're looking for.
(9) Design Space for Center, Circulation, Traffic, Outside. This is a topic for another post, but for now, remember this: Every room needs a strong center (a place that attracts people and gives definition to the whole areas), a good circulation system (paths that help people get from here to there, without bumping into each other or knocking stuff over), strong edges or peripheral spaces (walls, windows, entryways), and outside (a connection with nearby spaces).
(10) Set A Day for Every Room and Task. It's hard to give every room in a house or office a complete makeover. But every room demands regular sweeping, dusting, mopping, and clearing miscellaneous objects that fall between the cracks. Set aside one day a week for each room. Use the weekend for the house or office's "public" spaces (living room and dining room, foyer, reception area). Set aside another day for the kitchen. Another for the bathrooms.