"Clutter is the enemy" -

"Clutter is the enemy." My mom read these words to me over the phone the other day - she was reading parts of a book she just got (Remodelista by Julie Carlson).  Listening to those words made my eyes go all squinty and I immediately started looking around the room I was sitting in.  

Clutter - for Tired Girls especially - is your enemy.

A book I have not read but got me thinking - 

So, I am innocently cleaning up after dinner and trying to find the right lid to the right food storage container, and cussing ensues because "Where the eff is the blue bumpy rectangular lid that goes on this thing??" Maybe we (read: me in this situation) even dump the contents in to a container where the lid is a sure thing, but then there is an extra dish to cram in the dishwasher.

Or you are heading out the door in the morning and you dig through your underwear drawer casting aside underwear that won't work for that day (or maybe any day) - too tight, too lose, those itch, the bow on those makes me look bumpy, ugh a thong, those move around all day, and so on, until you finally scrounge up a pair of "good" underwear and swear that you will throw in a load of clothes and undies when you get home that day, and of course you forget, and by the next morning you are forced to dig deeper in to the drawer or settle for one of the less popular candidates.  

These two scenarios and twenty others I can think of stand between me not resting, and me resting or doing something fun.

Clutter - for Tired Girls especially - is your enemy.

"So, great Tired Girl," you say, "I am convinced already, now tell me exactly where and when I will find the time and energy to totally de-clutter so I can have a happier existence."  

My de-cluttered underwear drawer
bought me two extra minutes which
was time I spent on the internet finding
charming photos like this one.

"Not possible," I say. I agree that the reason we are cluttered in the first place is who wants to spend their time de-cluttering the tupperware area of your home or feeling the emotional tug when you go to clean out your pj drawer and those one pj's that don't fit right anymore used to be your favorite and - you know where this is going. I am not talking about major organization here - just more basic streamlining of stuff we use all the time. 

Here are a few Tired Girl ideas though:

1) One in - one out. How fun to come home from shopping and hang up your two new cute tops and put your new flip-flops in your closet. At the very same moment you put your new things away you pull out the same number of old things. Joe and I were GREAT (just kind of good) at this at our old house where we had teensy closets.  There was just no room at a certain point.  So, anyway, two new cute tops are getting hung up, and two tops you don't like as much, have to go. You don't like walk them to Goodwill that moment, but you drop them in the "giveaway" bag you have somewhere in your house  (mine is in my closet). If you really really miss one of the tops you chose to go to a good home you can always go get it out of the give away bag and replace it with another shirt. One in - one out goes for pretty much everything - nail polish, underwear, husbands, jeans, tablecloths, tupperware containers, things with the chevron pattern (man do I love it but there is probably such a thing as too much), and of course paleo cookbooks (you really only need zero of these).  

2) Have a CAUSE that you care about. I love DOGS!! (and all animals). So for a long time all of my household stuff went to my Humane Society Thrift Shop. It was a little bit of a pain to drop stuff off there, but I made do and I loved that instead of money I was giving stuff which made them money. It was easier to part with things when I liked where it was going. Now I have a friend that takes anything I have and does good stuff with it. She does a lot with her church and she gets my items to whoever may need things. 

About a year ago, after I had given her a whole bunch of clothes, and she told me about a young girl that picked out an outfit from my clothes  - she told me the specific pieces she chose - and that the girl had worn the outfit to church two weeks in a row.  I LOVE that stuff!! That made me feel like a stinking hero, and now every time I am on the fence with an item I think about the hopefully good home it will find and I drop it in my giveaway bag.  Habitat for Humanity, tons of different churches, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Hospice, women's shelters, Boys and Girls Club - and on forever with good causes - find the ways that makes you smile (cheesy alert) and start a bag.


3) Have a giveaway bag or box or corner or whatever. When you come across something that gets in your way - that one tupperware container with no lid, grab it and do a once over in the area you are in - grab anything that stands out and then put them in the giveaway bag. Once the bag is full, start a new one and put the old one in your car. Then you have a better chance of dropping the bag off. 

4) Focus on high traffic areas. It would be awesome if my photos from high school were organized in a way besides being thrown in a box with photos from other times of my life, but that is not really something I am "in to."  I am "in to" finding a matching set of shoes, a lid to a tupperware container, my stock pot for soup making, my bills to pay, and clean pjs every night. Don't get bogged down in doing your whole stinking existence - just de-clutter the high traffic areas of your life.  The places where you get caught up, so to speak. 

Those are my Tired Girl strategies to make it palatable and easy to keep the clutter away. Maybe you love to read about de-cluttering strategies on Pinterest (I do not) or you are happy to schedule one whole day every so often to purge the whole house (I do not) or you like organize every inch of your life you weirdo (I do not).

Here are a few other posts on similar topics - 

Drowning in mail - and how to save your marriage

Closet organization Tired Girl style - 

Garage Sale - don't do it but if you do -

*OH!! - one last word about de-cluttering.  When it comes to Christmas decorating I seem to be  in kind of a hurry each year, and in my storage containers of holiday decor there were old keepsakes that I don't really put out, mixed with my tree skirt, mixed with cards from others from years past - in other words - total chaos.  So, at some point - I blocked out when and how because it was so boring - I "de-cluttered" my holiday stuff. Putting my most valued players in the same containers, and sorting them a bit within that - tree stuff, mantle stuff, other stuff, garlands, etc. Then all the other things that I haven't put out in years or don't use every year or whatever got put in other containers. Oh my God I KNOW this is like seriously basic stuff, but I just figured it out so I am sharing.   So, this way, I don't have to trash my house by pulling out all of my Christmas stuff at once. I can pull out the mantle and garland container and do that stuff and go from there. I think I hear harp music this plan is so awesome to me.