Doing it right.

(Since this post is home-focused, I just had to share this cuteness-of-a-lamp I found this weekend. )

I've experienced a breakthrough in clutter management.  There are times when you know something is good and true in your mind, but you're not ready to change.  Then, one day, for no apparent reason, you're ready.  I don't know what SNAPS to cause the change, but it happens.

For me, putting things away the FIRST TIME was challenging.  What would normally be a one-step solution  inevitably turned into three or more.  I became a master of moving things from place to place throughout the day, fully intending to put them away, and they'd never quite made it.  I'd sit on the couch nursing Sam and all around me were random things in random places.  Clutter.  I don't function well in clutter.

Recognizing my bad habit, whenever I had something in my hand I started saying to myself, "Put it where it belongs."

When I'd find shoes in the kitchen or family room I'd usually set them on the rug by the front door.  "Put it where it belongs."  I started taking them to our room, in the closet, where they go, or to the kids' lockers.

When Annie and I ate lunch, I'd set the dishes in the sink until dinner.  "Put it where it belongs."  It took one minute longer to rinse and put them in the dishwasher.

When I finished reading the paper, I'd set it on the ginormous paper-pile on our computer desk.  "Put it where it belongs."  I threw the paper in the garbage.

When I finished running or was changing for bed, I'd put my clothes on the chair in our room.  "Put it where it belongs."  It took the same amount of time to hang the clothes up if they were clean, or put them in the dirty clothes if they were dirty.

And so on.

Managing the clutter in my home helped me manage the clutter in my brain.  My mind was clear to think about things that REALLY mattered, like loving on these little people:

I never thought that doing something right the FIRST TIME would make such a marked difference, but it has.  And it's not a hard thing to change.  It just takes a smidgen of effort, a thought.  Anyone can do it.