I hope you have made some new year's resolutions??? Well, people are now calling them goals. I guess is a little easier to take if you just don't make your goal rather than not being able to keep a resolution. Funny how we can trick ourself isn't it?
Most of us want to start the new year with a clean slate. We have all the stores advertising the containers for organizing your stuff. The magazines are touting three easy ways to declutter and how to store your things efficiently. So I thought I would add an idea to the mix.
Do you have a hot spot? I'm not talking about a place that is especially warm in your house. LOL. But a place where everything seems to land and pile up. Here's a picture of the hot spot at our house. It's suppose to be my command center but it doesn't look very impressive in this photo.
At our house this is how a hot spot occurs:
1. It is the first flat spot when you come in from the garage.
2. It is normally where important things are placed that need attention from
Thrifty Honey or myself.
3. Things land there because nobody knows what to do with them.
4. The biggest reason hot spots happen is because we get busy and things
don't get put away where they belong.
Now this hot spot is not too bad but believe me if it is left alone for a day or so it would be overflowing. The absolute worst resident of a hot spot is the mail. Oh my word!!! I just can not believe all the advertisements and junk mail that creeps into our house. Normally when I bring it in I go through it right way and shred or recycle the papers, but if I miss a day or two it becomes a real mess.
So what's a girl to do about the inevitable hot spot? Since we know they are going to happen we just have to clear them out every night before we go to bed. So even it one does occur for a little while it will not be allowed to continue for too long. Yes, that sounds a lot like discipline to me but let's just call it "practice" to make it easier to get started.
It's that old saying: "Have a place for everything and keep everything in its place." Just doing this one little thing will solve a multitude of organizational problems. Plus you don't have to organize or declutter the entire house in one swoop. You can take baby steps to get started and be kind to yourself when you forget to practice.
When you keep your hot spot cleared off there is a lot less chance of it eating your keys, cell phone and your bills which need to be paid. I read a story about someone who finally cleaned off their desk which was their hot spot. This person found a $50.00 check and a several gifts cards mixed in with all the paper clutter. They also found the scotch tape and scissors which had been lost for a long time.
I hope this will inspire you to put out your hot spot before it sets the house on fire. Have a wonderful week and remember to stay "thrifty."
