Hair brushed? Shoes on? Teeth sparkly? Excellent let’s get going.
We are going for a walk, a walk around your house. We can start wherever you like but I am an organised type and like Maria I prefer to start at the very beginning: the front door. So go outside (see I told you you would need shoes).
Open the door and have a good look around. What do you see? Compare this with what you would like to see. What do you need to do to make it look how you would like? No, we are not talking paint or new furniture or the absence of the enormous teenager blocking the hallway. Get out your noteboook (you did bring a notebook? No? Go back and get one and a pen or pencil please too). Jot down the problem areas. Shoes and coats are the most likely ones here, but you might have a hallstand that has become the dump zone, perhaps there are some old and dusty dried flowers on the windowsill that once you thought might brighten the place up but now look like Miss Haversham’s bridal bouquet. You get the gist.
Move around the house and do the same in all the rooms, including bathroom, kitchen, understairs cupboards etc. Leave out any garages, outbuildings, attics or cellars. You don’t have to be specific, “videos” or “dressing table” will do. Now go and make a cup of tea or whatever rocks your boat and sit down with your notebook.
Which room upset you most? Which one would make you feel really good if you got it ship shape? For me it wasn’t a room but cupboards. I am a naturally neat and organised person so my cupboards were neat and organised and FULL to bursting and I hated it. So I started with linen and clothes. It was wonderful. I spent ages just staring at the linen cupboard and the Women’s Refuge seemed quite pleased with the sheets and towels and duvets that I no longer needed. It gave me the oomph I needed to keep going.
That’s what you are looking for – you OOMPH. The room or cupboard that will make your heart sing when you have decluttered it. Because once you have got that feeling, you will want it again and will be fired up to move on to the next one. Believe me, it is quite an addictive process. Also it feels absolutely wonderful crossing off everything in your notebook 🙂
So what are you waiting for? Off you go.
one pair of shoes at a time 
Love this! And it’s a great idea too – scary as right now my house is a disaster area (we just got back from a 3-week holiday and everything got dumped helter skelter….)
Time to continue my decluttering job!
So which room will give you oomph?!
Well…. now that I can see the floor after having done my three thousand five hundred and two loads of laundry…. I think I’m boing to OOMPH my kitchen. It’s where I spend the most of my time and there are parts of it (the clutter, the disorder in my cupboards, etc.) that really bug me. That said, I live with two teenage boys and a husband, two cats and a dog. I will only be able to see my OOMPH for a short while, I fear!
So, once the kitchen is where I want it to be, for as long as I manage to keep it so, I will move onto the spare bedroom which I want to transform into a room of my own/office space.
I feel your pain. I live with three teenage daughters, a husband, five cats, three dogs, a parrot and some geese and chickens (though at least they are not usually in the house!) What is it with washing? I swear I wash more clothes than my daughters actually posess! Good luck.
Let’s just say there was more laundry than usual, as we just returned from a three-week camping trip down in the Florida Keys so that means sheets, towels, clothes…. since I was on a roll, let’s add the home sheets and mattress covers so we can start 2014 off on the right foot! Well on a clean foot anyway!
Now I’m looking at the dog-hair-tumbleweed floating around. Sigh….
Off I go indeed. Thanks for the inspiration (and humor.)
There can be little inspiration without humour 🙂 Good luck and I loved your Christmas photos. Did you guess the presents? “Feelies” are an essential part of our Christmas too!
Ah, so true. Where would we be without the humor!?!
I failed pretty much across the board, like usual, in identifying gifts by feel, but I can’t help but repeatedly try! Matt laughs. He’s gotten smart about this known tendency of mines too–he deliberately disguised his gifts while wrapping them!
And thanks!
The one time my husband failed completely to disguise the present was our first Christmas. I got a 16ft salmon rod 🙂
Well, now….that WOULD be hard to disguise!! 🙂
The time I start planning to tidy something is in the wee small hours of the morning when I’m in bed. Of course, I never do it–life gets in the way. But I know exactly what you mean. We should look at our environment with new eyes. This happened when I returned home after a long cruise several years ago. It’s quite startling to see what you normally take for granted.
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