mulberryshoots

 

I guess some people have getaway plans for the long Labor Day Weekend that we just started. Looking around me at the various areas in our living space and because George is out on piano moving appointments in the mornings today, tomorrow and Monday, I’ve decided to clean up the house. To truly make a dent on what I’ve been procrastinating about all summer.

Yep, even watched an online video to de-clutter and organize your house in ONE WEEKEND.

Here are helpful suggestions:

1. The most important axiom is to “find a home for each item you want to keep.”

2) DAY ONE & TWO: “Sort “like” with “like things.” This is an important guideline – rather than just willy-nilly going around trying to re-sort things to make the room look better. So, consolidate plants with plants, books with books, magazines with magazines, clothing, bathroom stuff, etc. etc. Just sorting things will make a big difference I think. And it’s easy to do while getting one’s spirit in gear to do a lot of de-cluttering in one-go this weekend.

3) “Decide what to give away.” This is usually the hardest step for me because I like what I have and usually feel like I’m going to use or read something again. . . later. And there’s usually more than I need and not enough space to put it all, never mind finding a ‘home’ for each thingie. Hmmmmmm.

4) DAY THREE: “Organize what you’re keeping.” Instead of buying storage containers before you do these steps, buy them after you see/decide what you’re really going to keep.

5. “Work in half hour increments taking a 5 minute break up to 3 hours at a time.” This is helpful because you can wear yourself out going gangbusters for an hour and then give up completely for the rest of the weekend.

I would add an additional caveat – which is to:

6.  “Reward yourself for a day’s work well done.”What I have in mind for today’s efforts is to go to the fish market this afternoon for some sashimi-grade yellow-fin tuna to make a marinated raw tuna salad called “po-kay” or “poke” in Hawaii. I saw a feature about making it on a cooking show late last night and it looked cooling and delicious served with rice for dinner.

So that’s the plan on this early Saturday morning for this Labor Day weekend! More to come, hopefully!