Goal Two-- Get my House Organized

So my house is a cluttered mess.  I manage to keep up with the cleaning aspects that have to get done to prevent my house from becoming a breeding ground for mold and bacteria like toilet scrubbing, dishes, laundry, wiping counters, that type of thing.  But I rarely  find time for the deep cleaning chores (mopping floors, dusting more than once in a blue moon, scrubbing windows, cleaning the fridge.)  Nor do I ever find time to declutter and organize.  I thought about hiring a cleaning person, but honestly until I tame the clutter it is kind of pointless.

So my second resolution this year is to work on getting a system in place that rids my house of clutter.  I have done okay so far as over Christmas break I bagged up a small bag of toys for my sister to keep at her house, packed up a crate of toys that I want to hold onto for the next kiddo to put up in my mom's attic and a crate of too small Destructo clothes (if I could only find the missing Rubbermaid top grr), and did an entire garbage bag of stuff to take to Goodwill.  Which is made more impressive by the fact that amazingly enough I actually took it to Goodwill right after I got my tire patched and jogged two miles.  Yeah yeah, I felt impressive yesterday.

I think I am going to do a combo of the Justmommies cleaning calendar with a little Flylady thrown in.  I love the printable calendar that was on the Justmommies site and I am going to throw in the Flylady daily missions on days I have time just for good measure.   All these links are below along with one that has all different free printables to help you organize your life.  I also found the Home Storage Solutions site that looks like it could be helpful as well.  Check them out and let me know what you guys think!

And now, here are a few pictures of my secret shame.  The most cluttered areas in my home.  I hope that in posting these, it will motivate me to get the house more organized so I can post some decluttered after pics!

The office is our worst area in the house.  On the other side of the room from this pic, is a futon that my poor sister has to sleep on once a week when she keeps Destructo on Monday and Tuesday.  This room nearly makes me want to cry every time I step in it.

Cluttered Office

 This picture really pains me as usually my closet is the one place in the house that is fairly organized.  I was storing all the presents in there before Christmas and  it just got worse and worse since I couldn't get in there very well.  Then I got a new organizer that I am waiting on Mr. Destructo to put together so I pulled the old one out for Destructo's closet (which is super organized right now yay!)

This is under my bathroom sink.  At times I have gotten it organized, just to let it slip back into chaos.  It is currently driving me insane.

These ledges (there is one on the opposite side above the kitchen sink as well) are hot spots for clutter.  The good news here is that they do get clutter free fairly regularly, but then it all builds back up.

So what tips do you guys have for keeping the clutter beast tamed in your house?


Helpful Links:

http://www.justmommies.com/articles/home-organization-plan.php

http://www.organizinghomelife.com/archives/4388

http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organized-home.html

http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

http://www.mysimplerlife.com/decluttercalendar.htm


Linked up at:
Courtship Connection Tuesday Link Up
Modest Monday
Mop It Up Monday
Teach Me Tuesday
Titus Tuesday
Welcome Home