Hang a few of those zip-up mesh lingerie bags (available pretty much everywhere, including the dollar store) from your hamper. Use them to keep socks or other small washables together. Bonus: it makes putting things away about 10x easier.
Everything can be useful somehow. If you’re in a Hoarders-type situation, you need to let go of “potentially useful” and focus on “this shit is creating an unhealthy and possibly dangerous living situation.” Take no prisoners. Kill ‘em all. Get rid of it. If something is actually important, it won’t be at the bottom of a pile of trash or stuffed in the back of a drawer.
Items are not important. The health, safety, and sanity of the person in this hypothetical disaster situation are.
I think the NaNoWriMo method would serve you well here. Set yourself a word goal to write every day. Perhaps less ambitious than their 1667, but 500 would probably be manageable. And write every single day.
Congratulations! Eventually I will get to my secret shame, also an extra bedroom. It’s been in various states of appalling over the years. I’d say it’s about an 8 out of 10 compared to the worst it’s been. :-/
Mine wasn’t too terribly bad; we just take advantage of the fact that you can chuck stuff in there and shut the door. It was last unfucked a few months ago. I’ve just been putting it off and realized today that I was being stupid, and a little hypocritical.
That said, my dishwasher and dryer both just stopped, so I need to go put dishes and clothes away right away.
It was my secret shame, y’all. Just horrible. It, of course, took me half as long as I thought and looks twice as good as I expected.
The take-away lesson from this (besides that I’m not a huge hypocrite with a perfect house and the fact that I get behind on stuff sometimes, too)? Unfucking is a continual process. You can’t just do it once and expect it to stay that way. You need to keep up.
Suddenly find yourself with a bunch of new possessions? If they’re coming into your home from somewhere else, don’t even let the bags or boxes hit the floor. Put stuff away RIGHT AWAY, and then dispose of the packaging/wrapping/whatnot. Keep a list, if you need to, of who gave what if you need it for thank you notes.
Something need to be returned? Get all of the necessary components together, and give yourself a date that it needs to be back by, preferably within a few days. Write that date on a big piece of paper, and put it on top of the stuff that needs to be returned. Put the whole pile someplace obvious but not in the way. If you have a car, put it in there so that it’s ready to go and out of your house.
Holiday cards. I bet you have a bunch because you probably have great friends and family and this time of year, people love to send stuff out. This might be difficult for some of you, but you don’t need to keep these cards forever. You got your joy out of opening them, the senders got their joy out of sending them, and now they’re your possessions to deal with. You can throw them away or recycle them after a while. No one’s feelings will be hurt. Holiday cards, after the holidays, turn very quickly into clutter. Be mercenary about it. You have my permission to throw stuff out. This might be controversial, but I feel this way about crappy presents, too. The giver has given; it’s yours now. If you know you’ll never use it or that it’ll only take up room, you can get rid of it. It may seem wasteful, but it will be useless clutter otherwise.
Were the festivities at your house? Keep on top of the mess by making a run or two out to the trash cans if needed. Again, put stuff away right away. Don’t let opened presents languish in a pile for days or weeks or months.
but unfucking I must. Mostly because there’s a lot of unfucking to be done and also because the UNYH blog is mad at me. So I have some making up to do.
I’m not mad; I’m just disappointed.
Suddenly find yourself with a bunch of new possessions? If they’re coming into your home from somewhere else, don’t even let the bags or boxes hit the floor. Put stuff away RIGHT AWAY, and then dispose of the packaging/wrapping/whatnot. Keep a list, if you need to, of who gave what if you need it for thank you notes.
Something need to be returned? Get all of the necessary components together, and give yourself a date that it needs to be back by, preferably within a few days. Write that date on a big piece of paper, and put it on top of the stuff that needs to be returned. Put the whole pile someplace obvious but not in the way. If you have a car, put it in there so that it’s ready to go and out of your house.
Holiday cards. I bet you have a bunch because you probably have great friends and family and this time of year, people love to send stuff out. This might be difficult for some of you, but you don’t need to keep these cards forever. You got your joy out of opening them, the senders got their joy out of sending them, and now they’re your possessions to deal with. You can throw them away or recycle them after a while. No one’s feelings will be hurt. Holiday cards, after the holidays, turn very quickly into clutter. Be mercenary about it. You have my permission to throw stuff out. This might be controversial, but I feel this way about crappy presents, too. The giver has given; it’s yours now. If you know you’ll never use it or that it’ll only take up room, you can get rid of it. It may seem wasteful, but it will be useless clutter otherwise.
Were the festivities at your house? Keep on top of the mess by making a run or two out to the trash cans if needed. Again, put stuff away right away. Don’t let opened presents languish in a pile for days or weeks or months.
I have set a UnFuckYourHabitat Challenge for myself: I am off work for 12 days so I have a list of one UFYH task to do each day. Not super exciting or sexy but I am looking for a sense of acomplishment here. My goal is to do a little something every day so that when I go back to work the house is in better shape than when I started my vacation. A lot of the jobs are not easy to see the before and after (cleaning the curtains and blinds for example) but I will post the most egregious befores with the afters. I know I can get this done with 10/20’s or 15/45’s and still get all the other holiday stuff taken care of and have time for friends and family! Get started, stick with it and sprinkle the work with some downtime.
So here is the list:
Day 1 - Clean upstairs bathrooms - every surface Complete
Day 2 - Wipe down the blinds and wash curtains (this hasn’t been done in years and it makes a big difference) Complete
Day 3 - Rearrange kitchen cabinets and wipe down shelfs Part 1
Day 4 - Clean and de-clutter entryway closet (an easy one but it is Christmas)
Day 5 - Rearrange kitchen cabinets and wipe down shelfs Part 2
Day 6 - Rearrange kitchen cabinets and wipe down shelfs Part 3 (I have a lot of cabinet space in my kitchen which is a blessing but it takes time to tackle)
Day 7 - De-clutter and wipe down basement shelves
Day 8 - Clean basement bathroom every surface
Day 9 - De-clutter bedroom and dust every surface
Day 10 - Clean the ovens
Day 11 - De-Christmastize the house
Day 12 - Rearrange and de-clutter attic when putting away the decorations.If you aren’t following UFYH, you are missing a great blog that helps you realize that a little bit of work time mixed with a little bit of play time can make a big difference in how your habitat looks. When your habitat looks better you feel better and it can all be done without an overwhelming effort or a lot of stress. Many thanks to POM for this blog.
Yay! I love this!
Good luck! They’re not so bad once you get going.
I’m thoroughly entertained by the lengths you’ll go to in order to justify your laziness to yourself and others.
This is unacceptable, and we will be having words.
I won’t soon forget this treachery.
and do a quick sweep of the house and collect any dishes that are scattered around. Bring them to the kitchen and wash them or put them in the dishwasher. You may then resume your regularly scheduled Tumbling.
Before you start cooking, fill your sink with hot soapy water. Chuck dirty dishes in as you make them. When the recipe calls for some time that you don’t need to be actively involved (simmering, baking, etc.), wash some shit or put it in the dishwasher. Your goal is to have all of the prep dishes dealt with by the time the food is ready to consume.
That’s like asking me not to breathe. OPPRESSION (but you’ll be happy to know my surfaces are pretty damned clean right now).
O-PREG-SSION. I love you and all your smart-ass-ness.
But what if I am ALREADY STANDING. (I’m unfucking dinner right now)
Don’t be a smartass.
