After many failed attempts trying to emulate others, I have finally realized that each person is unique, and each will have to find something that works for them. My husband chuckles at my daily chore list. I have a list of minimum chores for each day of the week, but Sunday. I have a notebook and a separate page for each day with columns for all the dates of the month landing on that day. Each task is checked off, or I put a slash through it if I don’t do it. It keeps me accountable and I really KNOW if I haven’t mopped the basement bath for two weeks. I have a “comments” area for anything related to non-routine maintenance, or last week for four days it read “vacuum cleaner is dead”. I keep the records in the notebook. I like seeing everything checked off. I eliminated some chores that I felt didn’t need done as much, and added some that needed done more often. Seeing the little rows of checks makes me feel good.

I love having a cleaner house and just doing the minimal work on my list keeps it clutter free. I am still finding ways to organize areas of the house that need help, but what I have completed has stayed clutter free and manageable.

When I moved into my first apartment, I was determined that it was not going to be like home. But it quickly became like home, because I didn’t know what the heck to do besides the pile-and-stash routines I’d learned at home. It frustrated me to no end, until the day I realized:

“Wait a minute – I’m beating myself up for something I was never taught how to do? I don’t beat myself up because I don’t know how to dance the tango or because I don’t know how to repair an air conditioner. Why am I beating myself up because my house is a wreck? I didn’t learn much about organization and housekeeping until I got into high school Home Ec class.”

Since then, I’ve had areas of organization in my life. The things I treasure most are organized and have always been that way. Unfortunately, I’ve also had family members play the ‘I don’t want this anymore, so I’m giving it to you’ game (a LOT!), and I do have a tendency to invoke what I call the Scarlett O’Hara philosophy (”Tomorrow is another day”) in regards to putting things off. End result: Clutter that bogs me down.

I’ve found that getting organized/clutter free and staying organized/clutter are two totally different ballgames, and it’s the latter one in which I am more likely to strike out. When I lived alone, it was easier to win both ballgames, but moving in with DBF has thrown me back several steps. He, too, has super-organized areas in his life (such as his music collection, approximately 11 *thousand* albums, 45s and CDs filed alphabetically by artist, then by release date) but he also has a tendency to hang onto things simply because he doesn’t know what to do with them. We’re both to that point where we are fed up with the disorganized areas (me more than him, I think), and we’re learning organize/declutter the space we have so that we are able to enjoy it more.