In December I did a self-cleansing. This second week in January I did a pre-spring house cleaning - about 2 years overdue.
Our house was almost unlivable. Around 2 years ago we had some guests over, so we cleaned up - stashing everything in our master bedroom. This remained the “storage” room for the past 2 years. About 1 year ago we shuffled around our upstairs bedrooms, moving out of one so that each of our kids could have their own rooms. This left my wife and I the living room. We set up on the futon, and have been staying there until last week.
So, to realize my New Year’s resolution, I spent about 10-12 hours each day, Monday through Saturday (6 days), working on cleaning out our house. I sorted out about 14 large contractor bags full of clothing, 6 bags of paper recycle, 4 bags of garbage, and 3 bags of toys/knick knacks.
We still have more work to do, but our house is now livable and presentable - we actually had some friends over for dinner! Our main task now will be to keep up, and slowly continue sorting and organizing.
So, I went through the Clutter Hoarding Scale from the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, here are the results:
| Comments | Structure & Zoning Issues | Pets & Rodents | Household Functions | Sanitation & Cleanliness | |
| Before | Clutterific - so much extra stuff that taking care of normal household functions and sanitation was difficult. We were always careful to clean bathrooms and kitchen areas so that we could survive, but the cleaning was always around stuff. |
1 exit blocked
Visible clutter outdoors |
Normal household pet activity (we always took care of our kids and pets) |
Clutter inhibits use of more than two rooms Unclear functions of living room, bedroom Slight narrowing of household pathways Visible clutter outdoors Narrowed hall and stair Designated bedroom unusable; using living area or sleeping on sofa or |
Limited evidence of housekeeping, vacuuming, sweeping (too much clutter!) Moderately soiled food preparation surfaces (too much clutter!) Dirty or soiled laundry throughout house, exceeding 3 hamper-size baskets |
| After | De-clutterifified. Organized the clutter, bagged and moved it outside. The next step is to do a final sort and then get it all removed. |
More visible clutter outdoors, but at least the new stuff is bagged! |
Normal household pet activity | Clutter not excessive | Normal housekeeping
Safe and healthy sanitation No odors |