How to Declutter without losing control of your life

I know we’ve all been there. You start a decluttering project and work tirelessly for hours. Around 5:00 p.m. you still aren’t finished AND your kids have the nerve to ask what’s for dinner. Ha.

Honestly, when this would happen to me, I barely had the energy to even drive for take-out, which on a budget is a no. Plus, the kitchen was a mess, I still had loads of laundry to do and the rest of the house would look like a tornado hit. How do you continue to declutter without the rest of your life falling apart?

I’ve finally found a way!! I have 4 rules I follow no matter what. I follow these while decluttering, re-decorating a room or when I’m sick (well, I have my family do these when I’m sick). My house still isn’t perfect, but life can continue and I feel like I still have some control.

I call them my 4 walls. If you are a Dave Ramsey fan (LOVE DAVE!), you’ve probably heard of his 4 walls. Mine are a little different but a similar concept. My 4 walls are the essentials to having my life run smoothly. The little things that, as long as these are done, we will survive, even if I can’t walk in the living room. Ignore this post if you already do these. I’m sure these are obvious to a lot of people but it just wasn’t to me. I would simply run out of energy at the end of a project so it would become every man for himself–which would cause even more chaos. Now, these are automatic. They are no-brainers. I don’t even have to think about them, I just do them.

Here are my four walls:

1. Dishes and Trash. Every night I run the dish washer. EVERY NIGHT. I use to run it whenever it was full. But sometimes I wouldn’t have time so the dishwasher would be overflowing and we would also have a sink full of dishes waiting to go in when the load was done. OR, I would think, hmmmm, the dishwasher is not completely full, I don’t want to waste electricity. Now, I don’t think, I don’t analyze….I just do. Every night.

Every morning, I unload the dishwasher. Every morning. So throughout the day, dishes go, not in the sink, but in the dishwasher. Dishes do not touch the sink. They go straight in the dishwasher. EVERYONE MUST PUT THEIR OWN DISHES IN THE DISHWASHER. Saves energy. Human energy…..mine.

Same for the trash….EVERY NIGHT. Trash goes out. No more trash can spilling over. No subjectivity. No, well, maybe we can fit a little more in.

2. Meal Plan. I’m still working on this. I have tried many and have not quite found my groove HOWEVER, I keep trying. I know that meal plans are a life saver because when I do have meals planned out, oh my gosh, my life is so much easier!! What I’m trying right now is having both my kids and my husband pick two meals they want to have that week. I check our calendar. I always include one unscheduled day for going out to eat or leftovers. And I don’t write certain meals on certain days, I try to make it flexible. One day I might feel like cooking, and another I might only have the energy for sandwiches or tacos. So we just pick 6 meals and that morning I decide what we will eat of those 6. A little lose, but still a plan, and for now, it works.

3. Laundry. Every morning when I first wake up, I put in one load of laundry to wash. Then during my morning routine, I start the dryer to “reboot” and fluff the clothes from the day before. I quickly empty the dishwasher, then fold the warm, fluffed clothes and leave a stack in everyone’s room to put away. I know this is not energy efficient but it is my plan for now. After the load I washed is done, I quickly throw it in the dryer. I probably spend about 10 minutes a day on laundry. Soon I will teach my kids but for now, no clothes are ruined from lack of proper sorting 🙂

4. 5 Minute Pick-up or LIFE SAVER. This one will take a while to get right b/c, you have to find the best time to do it. I’ve tried right before bed, ideally this would be the perfect time but everyone in my house goes to bed at a different time. So, we do it after dishes. Not fun. Yes, we’re tired from cleaning up after dinner BUT it is only 5 minutes and the rest of the night is a free night. As it states you just set a timer for 5 minutes and everyone tidies. Doesn’t have to be perfect but anything helps and you would be surprised how much you can get done in 5 minutes!!

So those are my “No-brainers”, my rules, the Four Walls that keep my house maintained even in the midst of a tornado of decluttering or a reno project that lasts 10 years or even when I’m sick. If these things get done, I know we’ll be ok. Maybe the house won’t be “Company Ready” but we will be fed, have clean clothes and our house won’t be an absolute disaster.

Let me know if you’d like to hear the secret to decluttering without making a bigger mess. It’s ideal for maintaining progress on a project when you know it will take some time. I hope these rules are helpful to you. I know some of you will think, DUH. But please tell me there is someone out there like me that these things don’t come naturally to!

Do you have any house “Rules”? Anything you know you must continue to do no matter what so you don’t lose you mind?

I would love to hear them, and with your permission, I might just adopt them as my own.