I was looking around online this week and I found an article that put some perspective on preventing clutter in your house. It described the “ice cream rule” as the treatment of all of your belongings as ice cream. You wouldn’t ever come home from the food store and leave ice cream on the counter. Everyone does it. We rush home to put the ice cream where it goes. In the freezer! Soooooo if you can establish a place where each of your belongings, well, belong… Then only allow your stuff to leave their ‘homes” when they are used, then return them to where they are on display or are hidden from view. Great tip!
What are you guilty of leaving out? WickedHubby is a paper person. He leaves mail, magazines, notes, etc EVERYWHERE. Drives. Me. Nuts. I get it up into little piles, but never fully removed. WickedGirl likes to leave small toys all over the house. It kinda looks like a tornado follows her around leaving a stream of legos, hot wheels cars, and puzzle pieces in its wake. Myself? I am lazy about clearing the table after meals, doing dishes, and often leave clothes on the floor. I am also guilty of collecting clutter and leaving piles of it around the house. It is generally sorted into where it belongs, but I am not great about bringing the piles to their homes and actually putting the items away. Mini Mount Messmores litter the flat surfaces of my house until they frustrate me enough to put them away. It can happen as often as daily or as infrequently as once every two weeks when the cleaning people are coming over to work. I am always trying to put things away… People say that’s Type A. I am not entirely A… I like to say I’m Type S. S stands for survival. I have too much to do and too much that I am responsible for to NOT have type A tendencies. I’m a spiral minded mess that has learned and disciplined herself to know that without a place for things to belong and a place/way for me to do things then I will SURELY lose or forget things while in a daydream/stressed state. I have learned the rule of the ice cream. I just never was smart enough to put this spin on it.
How about you? What belongings challenge you to put them away?
