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Letter to the editor

Small steps key to clutter control

With 15-minute bursts of activity, home organization need not be an overwhelming chore.

By Elizabeth Bettendorf Times Correspondent
Published October 26, 2007

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF

Times Correspondent

The kitchen junk drawer is heaped with scratch pads, phantom car keys and packets of petrified duck sauce. Mounds of unopened junk mail teeter on the coffee table. The bathroom cabinet looks like Walgreens after a tornado.

You want to get organized.

You want your house to look like a photo straight out of Real Simple magazine.

You want to sock it to the clutter.

Believe it or not, you can tame the mess without spending hours - ordays - doing it. With a few hints from some organizing gurus, it's possible to corral the clutter in 15-minute intervals.

"It's amazing how much you can accomplish in just 15 minutes," says Sarah Buckwaller, a professional organizer who owns Organizing Tampa www.organizingtampa.com. "I tell people to just start with one drawer, one cabinet or a small area in a closet. You can also take on a medicine cabinet, even a small chest of drawers."

Buckwaller says that sometimes looking at your home in terms of the "whole organizing picture" can be overwhelming.

"If you've recently moved, or even if you moved two years ago, you probably have some boxes that have never been unpacked," she says. "Just emptying a box and putting things away can be done very quickly and you'll feel like you've made a dent."

Liz Witt, a professional organizer with the store Organized Living who appears regularly on HGTV's Mission Organization, says that although sorting is critical to organizing, it's possible to condense the process by setting aside a few minutes each day and taking on smaller tasks.

"You can quickly eliminate paper clutter on your kitchen counter with magnetic bins that stick to the side of your refrigerator," she says. "I have one that holds all the paperwork my kids bring home from school," she says. "Another one holds scissors, permanent markers and scratch pads."

You can tackle just about any junk drawer in 15 minutes, she says. By inserting a divider or compartment organizer, you can bring order to a space that serves as a catchall for all the wayward stuff, "like Tic Tacs and tissue," that has no home.

Large kitchen utensils such as ladles and spatulas take up room in kitchen drawers and can be quickly organized by placing them in a container that sits directly on the counter. Organize your spices in 15 minutes by investing in a lazy Susan.

"It allows you to stack a whole bunch of them and turn it," Witt says.

"Anther option is a spice rack that mounts to the wall and holds 10 or 15 spices," she says. "It's easily viewed and adds a nice design element."

In a children's room or playroom, a fast clutter buster is a rolling cart on wheels. The cart should have drawers for everything from craft supplies to crayons, markers, glue and tape. Collapsible crates are also ideal for getting clutter off the floor.

Organize bathroom cabinets with small baskets or shoeboxes dedicated to tasks and needs. Gathering related items for one basket at a time - hair care, manicures - can be done in short spurts and will help get you on your way to a more efficiently organized home.

"I have one basket totally devoted to teeth," Witt says. "It's filled with things like dental floss and extra toothbrushes that I pick up on sale."

Install a few hooks in your mudroom or back entrance for jackets, backpacks and keys. It's an almost instant way to eliminate clutter by giving family members a place to hang up items that normally get tossed into a heap.

Do the same thing in the garage over a workbench as an almost immediate remedy for tool clutter, Witt adds.

In the family room, you can eliminate piles of magazines in a short amount of time by clipping articles and recipes you want to save. For another quick project, place them in plastic sheet protectors in loose-leaf binders. "You can even organize the binders by category from food to decorating ideas," Witt says.

Julie Morganstern, an organizing and time management expert and author of Organizing From the Inside Out (2005, Holt), says that by taking on small organizing tasks, you actually tackle a "self-centered" unit from start to finish.

"It's enormously satisfying not to have to dig through and shove through clutter when you open a drawer," she says. "When all your pens are right there and they all work or you don't have to start the day searching for a sock that matches or stockings without a run, it saves you a tremendous amount of time and aggravation."

A little organizing goes a long way for the soul, Morganstern adds.

"I think in a world where we start many things and sometimes finish none, it's enormously satisfying to finish a project."

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

.FAST FACTS

15-minute miracles

Morganstern says that 15-minute decluttering projects should be easy to complete and give you a sense of accomplishment. Her list includes:

- Sorting and purging takeout menus.

- Organizing a sock, underwear or junk drawer.

- Sorting through your reading pile and getting rid of anything you don't plan to read, including books.

- Going through your medicines and/or the medicine chest.

- Sorting cosmetics and purging anything that's out of date.

- Going through your freezer, refrigerator or pantry and getting rid of any items that are no longer in date or good.

- Cleaning out your purse.

- Organizing first aid kits, sewing kits or emergency hurricane or blackout kits.

- Organizing the laundry room cabinet.

[Last modified October 25, 2007, 08:05:36]