I’m totally not a clean freak but excess mess and things piled up can really drive me nuts. After a Costco trip, there’s always boxes piled up in the living room waiting to be broken down and recycled. My daughter begs to keep them so that she can use them for crafting projects; these projects are sometimes cool, like a climbing house for the cats, but often it makes for a ton of cardboard scraps all over the living room that just get moved around and stepped on. I can usually last about 3 days with these cat houses before it drives me bonkers. Then I “mommy rage” and force the kids to help clean the entire living room right away because I can’t stand it one more minute. I don’t like “mommy rage” so I try to beat the mess.
Put Stuff Away as Soon as Possible
I have found that this is huge after going shopping: put away the groceries as soon as I walk in the door (starting with frozen stuff first, obviously). How many times have you gone shopping and just dumped the bags on the counter or floor and felt like plopping on the couch or running off to handle something else at home? The cans and toothpaste might end up sitting there for days, just being pushed around or stepped over until you finally get around to it. I now try to rally up the kids and take the 5-10 minutes to put EVERYTHING away when I first walk in the door and just be done with it.
When we go on vacation, it is often too easy to just throw the luggage in the corner and forget about it until we need something out of it. We end up digging through everything searching for hair brushes or favorite socks for weeks sometimes. Instead, I have tried to batch pack items before we leave the hotel. Dirty laundry goes in one bag. All bathroom stuff is put together in a ziplock bag. Everyone’s items are hopefully separated into their own sections. Then when we get home, one bag gets dumped in the hamper, the bathroom ziplock gets brought to the bathroom and emptied, and each kid is sent with their pile of clean clothes to put it away in their dresser. Just like the groceries, it only takes a few minutes but it helps me feel so much calmer upon return.
Know Where Something Will Go Before Bringing It Home
Target makes impulse purchases way too easy. “Look at this super cute coffee mug, I totally need it.” Then you get home and there’s no space in the cupboard. Costco has great prices on canned tomatoes and we will totally use them, but how am I going to fit them into an already full pantry? We live in a 750 sq ft condo, before I purchase something, I have to picture where and how it will fit at home. Even if you live in a 4,000 sq ft house, you will need to figure out where to store items you bring home. Every house has a maximum threshold before it starts to look like an episode of hoarders.
The idea of “I’ll find a place” is no good, it allows you to buy whatever, whenever and deal with the consequences later. Taking the time, whether at the store, if a friend is offering you something they’re getting rid of, or as a prize at the fair, to think about how and where it will be stored.
My daughter loves stuffed animals and loving family members enjoy surprising her with them but she brings them into her room and feels totally lost thinking where to put them. Her bed is overflowing! We got 2 stuffed animal storage packs to help calm the chaos but they still take over the room. Every year before Christmas and Birthdays, we have to take a day and decide what to purge to make room for any potential new gifts. Because of this, when we are shopping and she starts asking for something, I’m actually able to say “where will you store this?” and after thinking about it, she often decides against the purchase because as cool as the thing is, she doesn’t want to deal with the storage. More adults need to ask themselves this question before buying. Saves your sanity as your bank account.
Throw Away Trash
Trash is old banana peels or dirty diapers right? That stuff is easy to recognize and throw away (I hope 🤢). But what about that make-up brush that has stiff bristles you don’t like? That toy your kid got from a valentines bag and you know he will never play with it? Those pans that were supposed to be non-stick but only worked for a few months and then became ultra-stick? Yes, I hate when that happens! If it’s in your house and you hate it or will never use it, it’s trash! Throw it away! Or donate it or give it away on Facebook free-trade groups if someone else can use it. But get it out of your way.
That unusable (for you) stuff is just clogging up your house and getting in the way of you living your life. We all keep stuff just because it’s there but why? Make a point to start looking out for “trash” in your house and getting rid of it now. Maybe choose 1 area of the house and give it 5 minutes a day. Start small, maybe a junk drawer in the kitchen or the top of your dresser, in my case, and just look for all the items there that you never use. Put them in the trash or make a donation box and decide to take that donation box to actually be donated by a specific date. It’s the easiest way to clean clutter and has nothing but positive effects.
Listen to Your Stuff
This kind of goes with throwing away trash and can be a way to help sort through things without really thinking about it. Maybe your kid constantly throws toys on the ground that she never plays with, could it be because she’s having to get past those toys to get to the ones she really likes. Get rid of those toys, or if they’re her brother’s, figure out another way to store them so that they are not always in the way of her primary toys. (Yes, this happens quite often in my house.)
If you constantly have to pull out 15 cans of green beans to get to the corn you want for dinner, maybe it’s time to lay off the green bean sales for a bit and put the corn closer to the front because it’s used more often. (That never happens in my house, HA) Maybe you have to play coffee mug Jinga every morning to get to your favorite cup, you could get rid of some excess mugs, or if they’re for company that you legit have over (not some imaginary 20 person HGTV type party in your head that will likely never happen) store them on a higher shelf so they’re not in the way for your everyday use.
Notice the little annoyances that bother you throughout the day and take a moment to think about how you can adjust your stuff to make it easier on yourself. I hated having to wrap and put my hair dryer in the drawer every night, it always got tangled or fell out when I needed something else behind it, so I got a Command Hook and now hang it on the wall near the outlet in the bathroom. Took a few seconds of time to set it up, and it totally got rid of that little daily frustration in my life. Same thing for our foldable wagon storage (a foldable wagon is a totally necessary game changer if you live in a high rise) it would always fall down in the closet and block the doorway, so again, Command Hook to the rescue and it stays out of the way. (Sorry, I legit love Command Hooks even though they don’t always peel off easily like they claim to.)
If you get easily annoyed by clutter and mess, like me, take the time to think through your house and make the small changes so that it’s easier to enjoy. Messes happen because you’re living, they’re inevitable. But just try to clean up one mess so that you can move on to the joy of creating the next one.
What are some little messes that drive you nuts? Do you have any tips or tricks for keeping your house livable?
2 thoughts on “Beat the Mess”