Housecleaning 101 - Everything in its Place (but where IS that place???)

The sun is shining upon all of the dust, dirt and grime around here. It is spurring me on. At least in bits and spurts.

I am running across a challenge that is relatively new to me in my quest to clear off cupboards, table tops and dressers. It is the challenge of finding a spot for something that has never had a spot in the house before.

I am a creature of habit. A place for everything and everything in its place is the way things are (as a rule) around here.

My keys are in one spot of a grand total of three or four spots. If they are not where I expect them to be, they are officially lost to me. Just ask my sister who borrowed my keys for a few minutes last weekend. When I reached into my pocket and they were missing; double checked the only two spots that they could be, in my wallet-sized purse and they weren't there ... I knew they were lost.What I neglected to remember was the fact that I had voluntarily handed them over to my sister just five minutes prior to the 'loss' ...

Whenever I (used to) do my top-to-bottom housecleaning, I took great pride in knowing that every single paper clip, safety pin and small home and office accessory in the house were all together in one spot. A spot that was their own and a spot that they had resided in for many years prior. Going back and finding said items was easy because they had a history within our home.

As electronic items and accessories started to add up, one shelf in the laundry room became a collecting spot of 'anything electronic or related to phones, electricity and the like'. There was logic behind putting something in that spot because there was a link in my brain to follow. In most cases, these items were easily located (if and) when needed months later.

My new dilemma are the new-to-the-house items. Items that have little or no correlation to that-which-has-resided-in-the-house-for-years. These items have been slowly collecting in the nooks and crannies of our life here. I am afraid to put them someplace, for fear of never finding them again. So they sit out in full view. And the pile grows.

Each time I picked up one of the above items, I would wonder what was the most logical place to call home. I would come up with an idea but remember all other items lost to me and I would put it back down where I found it. I repeated this step several times.

Yesterday (after I cleaned the bedroom blinds and windows .... YAY!!), I walked by my dresser one more time. This small pile had to go. Each item found a new home. Each home seemed quite logical to me when I thought of it yesterday (and all the times prior).

The questions remain. Will I find these items when I go to look for them in six months? Or will I completely forget that I even own them? And if I forget I have something ... should I really have it at all???

Housecleaning gets complicated as time goes on. Obviously the answer is to downsize the excess and get our life back to a bare bones existance. One where I know exactly what we have and where to locate it.

It's no wonder I have given up on housecleaning. There is no end to it once you begin.

Stay tuned for Housecleaning 102: The Un-Midas Touch (when everything you touch seems to break) ...