Since panic was my first thought, I decided I needed to ask the experts. I asked Overcoming Busy facebook fans what they would do. I thought it was interesting that the ideas where very similar. The common thread was to just take care of the main areas and do it quickly.

“pick up toys, wipe down kitchen, wipe down bathroom (just the main one), if time left, run the sweeper”

“Big huge plastic bag to clean up all the clutter. Hide the full bag. A quick wipe down of bathroom and spot vacuum where company will be.”

“Spray air freshner in living room area, by the front door & bathroom. Then, do a quick touch-up of the bathroom. Sink & Toilet.
And if you have boys, the floor and wall ALL Around the toilet. (Ask me how I know)”

“Vacuum,sweep, mop. I have a steam.mop it takes like ten minutes. Clean the toilet. If your nosey enough to look in the shower you’ll know we actually live here. Plug in the scentsy and call it even.”

“Potties, counter tops and my personal pet peeve: clean out the sink!!! The sink makes or breaks it–IMO!”

This comment had lot of wisdom -

“I try to keep my main living areas where 15-20 min is all I need”

And, this one just cracked me up because we’ve all thought of it at least once -

“Start coughing & pretend I’m sick…..wink”

 Would you do anything different?

In the mood to de-clutter and get organized for 2012?? Click on over to Today’s Housewife where I’m sharing some tips to make the task a little less stressful.

———————————————————————————-

We have a little tradition at our house. It is the Pre-Christmas Toy Purge. It’s really simple and quite effective. It’s decluttering. It all started a few years ago when my husband and I found ourselves cringing at the thought of the kids getting more toys for Christmas. We are a 3 gift family ourselves. (It was good enough for Jesus…) However, grandparents, aunts and uncles never seem to catch on to that. Each Christmas, our kids bring home a car load of junk Christmas joy and I have to try and find a place for it all! So, we started the toy purge.

This is how the toy purge works. We sit down with the kids and ask them how many toys they want for Christmas. The number is always quite high. We then explain to them that there is no room in our house for anymore toys. If they want more, they better make some room. For every new toys that they want to come in, a new toy must go out. The number of toys they want for Christmas always drops to a more reasonable level at this point. When we all agree on a number, they start purging. The toys that they purge have to be ok’d by my husband and I. Happy meal toys don’t count. They can be purged, just not counted toward their total number needed.

This week, we are cleaning the kids bed rooms and doing this year’s toy purge. I always look forward to it. Their closets looks so clean and uncluttered…until about December 25th.

How do you handle the toy madness at your house?

I recently decided that the time had come to find another system for organizing winter gloves and hats and scarves. I got tired of rooting through that crate looking for that one glove!! As I was reading through a great organizing blog series (31 Days to {cheaply} organize your home at Organizing Made Fun), I came across a great idea!

Use an over the door shoe organizer. Brilliant! It hangs on the inside of the basement door right beside the door to the garage that we use to go outside the majority of the time. Everyone can see their stuff. No more hunting and rooting! Love it! Thanks to Becky at Organizing Made Fun for the great inspiration!

Where do you store your winter accessories?

I searched the internet and beauty supply stores for something that would minimize the manicure mess, but found nothing to use at home. Then, I went to Big Lots in search of something totally different and found a bin of vinyl place mats…for 75 cents each!! That’ll work!

Now, even if there is a nail polish spill it can easily be wiped up. The place mat can be rolled up and stored with the nail polish and supplies. This is a solution that Dad can live with, too!

Click over to Today’s Housewife and see!!

This week, the kids and I took on the toy/homeschool/tv room. This is our multipurpose room that changes with the seasons of the year and life. I needed to take that into consideration when organizing this space. This summer, it has become the tv/wii/craft room. Generally, a mess.

To get started, I used the same system as I did with my daughter’s room.

1. Empty the room. Including shelves.
2. Deep clean. We vacuumed the floor, wiped down the baseboards and washed the windows.
3. Add the large, must-have items back into the room – desks, chairs, couch, table
4. Start sorting. 4 piles – trash, yard sale, keep, storage.
5. Put old curriculum away and replace it with new.
6. Find a place to store necessary items.
7. All items in the keep pile must have a place. If it doesn’t, ask again if it is necessary.
8. Add the keepers back into the room in their proper place.

With the kids getting older, there are less toys in the room. That certainly cleared up some space. Last fall, this room became our homeschool room. So, I filled the toy shelves with books and manipulatives. It is also the location of our only tv in the house, so the couch is necessary.

I am still working on the walls. I need to re-hang the white board  and move some things around (maps, bulletin board, etc.). Now that the room is organized and clean, I have a much better idea of where things should go.

Do you have a multi-purpose room? What’s your organizing secret?

Last Friday, I introduced the Living In The Moment series that will be running each Friday on Overcoming Busy. Check out the intro post and then plan to link up your Living In The Moment story this Friday.

We decided to tackle my daughter’s room first. I knew it would be our biggest challenge. This room is always tough to get de-cluttered and keep that way. One reason is my daughter is a packrat. She wants to keep every scrap of paper, unfinished craft project, broken toy or tacky gift she’s ever had. The other reason it is hard to keep her room clean and organized is that she can look at this mess and actually say “Why do I need to clean my room? It’s not that bad.” Really.

Normally, I wait until the kids are gone to the grandparents and clean out their rooms, but this year I wanted to do things differently and see what would happen. I wanted to try and let the kids help and let them make some decisions on what stays and what goes. Dangerous, I know, but stay with me. I had a plan.

1. Empty the room. Literally. we took everything out of the room but her bed, dresser and desk. We even emptied desk drawers and took pictures off the wall.
2. Deep clean. We vacuumed the floor, wiped down the baseboards and washed the windows.
3. Move furniture. We moved the furniture to make most of the space.
4. Add the large, must-have items back into the room – bookshelves, hamper, nightstand.
5. Notice how nice, calm and clean the room feels. Let the kids come in and enjoy the space. Make sure they notice how much bigger and more usable the room feels.
6. Ask if all the stuff that we moved out of the room really needs to go back in.
7. Start sorting. 4 piles – trash, yard sale, keep, storage.
8. All items in the keep pile must have a place. If it doesn’t, ask again if it is necessary. Find a place to store necessary items.
9. Add the keepers back into the room in their proper place.
10. Have some ice cream to celebrate!

Here are the results.

Pretty awesome, huh? Amazingly, the little packrat loved how nice her room was now and how many friends could fit into it, so letting go of her junk treasures wasn’t so hard this time! Success!! To help, keep her room clean and organized, we instituted 2 simple rules. One, she can’t come out of her room in the morning until the bed is made. Two, she can’t go to bed until the room is picked up with everything in it’s proper place. So far, so good.

Now, my son can’t wait until we do his room!

How do you declutter your kids’ rooms? Do they help or is it easier to just do it yourself?

Today’s post got put on the back burner. I’ve been spending my writing time this week doing some spring cleaning. I have been tackling the house area by area, bit by bit instead of hitting the whole thing at once. Just the thought of spring cleaning all at once makes me tired!

That got me to thinking….How do other people spring clean? Are you a bit by bit cleaner or an all-at-once kind of girl? If there is a better way, I want to know about it! You can tell me in the comments or if you have a post about spring cleaning, link  it up? It doesn’t have to be new. I’ll keep the link open all weekend so you can share.

Spring cleaning is a hot topic right now! Share your wisdom with us!!