QUICK LOOK

Learn how to deal ~ once and for all ~ with chronic clutter, lack of space,
and the irritating lost-and-found pattern in your home
 

INTRODUCTION

Every home has someone's belongings in it, and belongings have a nasty way of proliferation. The
more space you have the more things you acquire to fill that space. We've all had that experience
of going to put something "away" only to find "away" is already full. It also seems, according to our
research, that every home has a "pilot." ~ he'll "pile it" here, he'll "pile it" there. he'll "pile it"
anywhere there's a vacant space. And so , over time, your home, how ever spacious it may once
have seemed, becomes crowded, disorganized, and not nearly as welcoming as it once was.

In fact, space is at a premium for more and more of us these days. There's less of it to go around,
and what's there gets more expensive by the day. The cost of new housing is constantly on the rise,
and the cost of heating and maintaining older homes is increasing, too. Most people can't afford
much, if any "extra" room-and certainly can't afford to waste space.

Besides the space-crunch, we're confronting a time-and energy-crunch as well. With nine out of ten
women working outside the home, more men taking on second jobs, and greater number of people
starting home-based businesses today, there's a desperate need for easy maintenance environments.
We here the same complaints from women coast to coast: They're frustrated because they lack
control over their physical spaces: they're tired from overwork: and they don't have enough time for
anything extra, let alone senseless maintenance of clutter.

Space-, time-, and energy-crunches notwithstanding, we're by no means suggesting that you divest
yourself of your belongings-not the ones that matter, anyway. What we do suggest is that you
streamline first, then organize your entire home. In others words, forget that cure-all advice to have
"a place for everything and everything in it place." That was fine for pioneer days or the years of
the Great Depression, when folks didn't have much, but in today's possession-oriented world, there's
no way you could have a place for everything-there just aren't that many places. Thus the advice
for this day and age is to "have a place for every keeper, and put every keeper in its place."
(Keepers are possessions you like, use, need, want, or have room for-they are what make you home
yours. But combined with tossers-another word for clutter-they equal overload.)

Before we go on, let's define clutter. Clutter is the fish food sitting on the kitchen windowsill for the
fish that have been dead for three months. Clutter is the stack of Better Homes and Gardens
magazines, standing in the corner of some room (often the den, or even the master bedroom), that you
intend to go through someday, to cut out all the "good stuff." Clutter is all the "who-in-the-heck-is-this-
picture-of?" photos sliding around on the bottom of the middle desk drawer. Clutter is anything you
don't like, use, need, want, or have room for. Clutter is a space-waster, a time-eater, a morale-sapper,
and an energy-drainer. Clutter is, indeed, all the things in your home that don't matter.

We suggest you bring a "quality over quantity" attitude to your home management style. Always ask
yourself. "Am I doing the household shuffle, when I should be using the household shovel on all this
junk and overload?" because it's not enough to shuffle things around from this shelf to that drawer.
Getting rid of the clutter-the things that don't matter-is what makes the difference.

You see, before we streamline our homes, we were living chaos and confusion-we were masters of
the shuffle lifestyle. Pauline always had to move the newly folded laundry off the bed each night
before she and her husband, Ferris, could turn in. Alice was constantly buying duplicates of scissors,
cellophane tape, ballpoint pens, toothbrushes, ponytail holders, glue, hammers, weed diggers, socks,
and on and on, because she and her family could never find the ones they already had-those were all
"here somewhere," which meant find the ones they already had-those were all "here somewhere,"
which meant "forget it, there're buried. "Pauline recalls how it typically took at least two weeks of
intensive cleaning and "organizing" to get her home ready to have guests for two days. (And then,
she still had to route her company past rooms, closets, cupboards, or drawers that she didn't want
anyone to see.) We both remember the drudgery of our laundry routines-doing loads by the ton that
were composed not only of dirty clothes, but of "nonkeeper" clothes and "never-wear" clothes. (More
on this in the master bedroom, kids room, and laundry area chapters.) When we recall how we used to
live, it gives us the heebie-jeebies.

In spite of the chaos and frustration, we still had hope that there was an answer somewhere. We
would read every book on household organization we could find, attend every seminar on the subject,
and take every home management or organization class that came our way. But we consistently
found, to our deep disappointment, that the ideas and systems we came away with and implemented
had only short-term impact (maybe two weeks at the most). Then we were back in the same old ruts.

Finally convinced that organization alone wasn't getting us anywhere, we devised our own system-
STREAMLINING, which involved getting rid of and not just organizing stuff. We first put it to work in
our master bedrooms (after all, this is where we began each day, so this seemed a logical starting point).
After living with streamlined and not just organized master bedrooms for three weeks, we had what we
call an "Ah-ha Experience" (an "I-see-the-light experience") "Ah-ha," we said, "we're on to something.
These rooms still look gorgeous. We're still in control of the stuff and spaces, and it took minimal time
and energy to keep it this way." Getting rid of the clutter is what made the difference. We're
convinced you'll share this "Ah-ha Experience" when you trade shuffling for shoveling.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

One - FROM SHUFFLING TO SHOVELING
The lasting benefits of streamlined order for you and your home-
from easier maintenance to greater efficiency to dollar savings.

Two - BASIC TRAINING
Steps you can take and laws to live by
to achieve continual order and control.

Three - ON YOUR MARK, GET SET ...
Mental preparation that will get your household
transformation off and running.

Four - MASTERING THE MASTER BEDROOM
Here's how to bring order and simplicity to your bedroom
and make it and even more restful place.

Five - BRAVING THE BATH
How to make the bathroom pretty, efficient and easy to clean
and keep it that way.

Six - CRIB NOTES
Starting off with a streamlined baby's room can mean order, control
and good habits now, and as baby grows.

Seven - CREATING A KID-READY ROOM
Maintaining order in kids rooms-where order never seems possible.

Eight - FROM "NO-PLACE" TO "SHOW-PLACE
The living room is the world's window on you- here's how to spiff up the view.

Nine - ALL IN THE FAMILY
Make it easier to make yourself at home in the one room you
really live in: the family room.

Ten - MAKING YOUR KITCHEN MEASURE UP
Creating centers for people and activities to keep
your household transformation cooking.

Eleven - CABINETS, CLOSETS, AND CUPBOARDS
It's here ... somewhere: here's how to streamline the "somewhere."

Twelve - MY SOAP OPERA
How to solve the case of the missing sock-
and other laundry area trials and tragedies..

Thirteen - NO MORE SO-SO SEWING AREA
Create a sewing haven by elimination those so-so notions,
patterns, fabrics and more.

Fourteen - NO MORE NO-CAR GARAGE
How to open up parking spaces for more than just your junk.

Fifteen - THE SUPER STORAGE AREA
Keeping crawl spaces, basements and other spots for
"temporarily inactive" keepsakes manageable and convenient.

Conclusion - IT REALLY IS HERE ... SOMEWHERE!
The end of our instruction, but the beginning of a more orderly life-style

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