Mom's Front Entry: HTCI Part Two

This is part of a series of posts on The House that Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark. I will be recording what I'm doing to transform my house into "one that cleans itself." I will also be helping my Mom work on her house and she has graciously given me permission to blog about her transformation, too. You can find all the posts in the series by looking for the label HTCI. Today we're talking about Mom's place. Part One is here.

Clearing out the Clutter and Cleaning.

I think that at minimum you need about three things to declutter: a bag for garbage, something for donations and something to hold items that belong somewhere else.

Mindy Starns Clark thinks you need far more than that: and she was right.

1) Trash bag and something to put the bag into to hold it up

2) Garbage bag and something to put it into to hold it up

3) Laundry basket or large plastic bin with handles

This is for things which have an assigned place in a different room. Every time this gets full,  Clark says, stop and carry those items to where they belong and put them away.

Here are the three important ones. I saw an idea on Apartment Therapy to use collapsible mesh laundry holders to declutter. They are holding up the bags.

4) Cardboard boxes with flaps cut off, in a variety of sizes for sorting.

These are for items which you will keep but do not currently have an assigned home.

5) More cardboard boxes with flaps.

These are for “Maybe” items. Put them away when full, put a date on them, and record in your day-timer a date 6 months from now to re-visit them.

6) Disposable plastic cups and tray (for sorting tinies)

7) Permanent marker

8) Blank stickers or label maker

9) A blanket

This gets tossed over it all when you aren’t working on it.
 

She hadn't though she would need a "maybe" box, but she did, so we set one up.

Yeah, it's a little full! Clark recommends shutting the box up and storing it for six months to re-visit later. I think it will function more like Maxwell Ryan's Outbox. 

We got everything out of the closet and the doors off.

I got the carpets off the floor. I used an ice scraper to remove the stuff the bottom carpet left behind. Neither of us are quite sure why the plastic/foam backing on the carpet stuck to the floor like that.

 

 

 

We washed the closet, the walls and the floor. And that's where I had to leave things. 

 

To be continued....