I have started to listen to the podcast from Dana White called “A Slob Comes Clean”. She is a self proclaimed slob. It was her darkest secret. Now the world knows. I find her rather funny and also inspiring.

She also has books, book on tape and of course the podcast. There she is below, crazy but oh so inspiring.

I would not call myself a slob…..I am an over clutterer. I have too much stuff. At times I feel that I am baby hoarder, you know, the first stages of hoarding. But I do not have those unnatural attachment to things, but I do hate to think of valuable things, many unused being given away.

I have finally come to the conclusion, I may never get to those projects I have been saving things for (I am a crafter and have tons of craft projects in a variety of stages _ quilt, I scrapbook, I make cards);. I cannot find homes for my items because I have too much stuff.

So it is time to let go some of this stuff. Give it a new home. Toss it away.

But there is just so much stuff I am almost paralyzed. I have no idea where to start. I started to watch videos about the Fly Lady and her method. A lot of it made sense. What I gathered from her was the following

• doing just one thing is a step in the right direction
• Dont beat yourself up, forgive yourself and keep moving
• you did not make this mess in a day, you cannot clean it up in a day
• establish small routines everyday to keep your house in order.

This was a great start but I struggled with her keeping the house in order. Having a clean sink when the entire kitchen was a mess just did not resonate with me. How do I get rid of clutter???

Then I started to listed to A Slob Comes Clean podcast. In the first podcast she said stuff that sounded just like me. Piles. No empty counter space, no place to put things, buying the item again because you can not find it in your house, hate having people over because of the mess.

Ugh this was me.

Although I have just started to listen to her, I have gained some insight on my dilemma

• If one thing comes in (new shoes, new kitchen appliance, new sheets, an old one must leave, you cannot keep adding to the pile.
• The concept of containers. She had a light bulb moment when she released the beauty of containers. No, not buying containers to hold your stuff, but every drawer, cupboard, closet is a container. Once the container is full, you get rid of the excess.

The container concept intrigued me. Yes, if my cupboard is filled with coffee mugs, there are mugs I do not use, or shoved in the back. Take all the mugs out and only put back the ones you really use and like. Seriously I cannot possibly like 80 mugs, I probably really really really like 10 of them.

So based on this new found knowledge, I am going to systematically go thru every drawer, every cabinet and get rid of stuff.

I am starting in my kitchen so I can finally have a clean counter.

Keep checking my blog to see the before and after pics and stories.

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