A New Year resolution: To unclutter the house

( Part 1 )

The feast of Three Kings by the first Sunday of January marks the end of the Christmas liturgical calendar. On this day the traditional-minded Italians throw their old household stuff out of the window. Housewives of the world should adopt this amusing gesture for many of us do not know yet the secrets of un-cluttering our homes.

Housekeeping just like mother

Now don’t say that your housekeeping is fine and dandy, "If it is good for my mother, it is good enough for me. I sort out my cooking oil as Mama would do the ‘frying oil for fish’ is separated from the oil meat and the new oil. I also make sure to classify my house clothes, Sunday wear from intimate apparel, and others. They are folded symmetrically just like mother did."

What? You are still doing that? That’s rare nowadays.So much have changed.The coconut husks (bunot) which used to polish wooden floors of your lola’s house that your mama inherited are no longer used because you just bought a new house that has granite or vinyl-tiled floors that only require mopping. Besides the old house on a 600 sq.m. lot no longer exist. It was torn down to give way to an eight-storey condominium residence building. Your reaction will probably run like this.

"Unlike lola and mama, I go to work. My own house is one of a four-family cluster home which shares a 350 sqm lot. Just transferring my family’s accumulated possession from my mother’s house made me realize that half of this was a pile of clutter and non-essentials."

The plan for home sweet home

Your home can either be a haven or a war zone.

Maybe you’d rather spend time in the backyard painting the sunset, digging in the garden or playing with the kids. Me, too. That’s exactly why I decided to get organized in the first place. Like it or not, we all must do at least an average amount of housework. Organizing is the means whereby we can streamline those necessary chores so we can get on with life’s more pleasurable experiences.

A married couple’s dream for their own house and lot is usually only realized around their 15th wedding anniversary when they have risen into the management level of their offices. Whether you construct your own house or buy a ready-made house, it is wise to get hold of the complete as-built construction plan which includes the structural, architectural, plumbing and electrical plans. Many don’t know this.

The idyllic peace of the home is often shattered by fire hazards from sub-standard electrical materials, leaky bathrooms or toilets from worn-out pipes. It is only possible to investigate the source of damage from the various engineering plans which should be provided each home buyer. Unfortunately, the usual construction business is a rip-off affair. These engineering plans are seldom given, thus the homeowners are kept ignorant of the tragic problems of house maintenance. It was a stroke of luck to have the very professional Gabby Formoso as our architect. He gave us our own set of house plans which we keep referring to for the past 26 years.

The basic organizing principles

The husband and wife team make up the home management. The father acts as the general who controls the master plan and finance, while the mother is the colonel who provides the detailed supervision of a tidy and comfortable home.

There is a formula on how to put order and get things done at home. Whether one works on his personal grooming and hygiene, cook breakfast or get the laundry done, it is like following a recipe. Each activity requires specific tools and ingredients until the work is done following a step-by-step procedure. Then the tools are washed and stored away in the same place until the work is repeated.

This is called "conditioning the environment for work". All equipment must be complete, functional, clean and beautiful in each room.

A financially independent young bachelor or a newly married couple usually starts off with mixed excitement at the prospect of adjusting to their new residence whether it is a studio or a two-room apartment.

Where does one start? The living room or sala is usually combined with the dining room. A small sofa set with a coffee table and a dining table for six is practical. A buffet side cabinet should hold the chinaware, silverware, a tray for coffee pot, sugar and creamer with cups and saucers for 12 visitors, as well as the placemats or tablecloth. A simple set of plates, stainless spoons and forks can also be kept here or in the kitchen for daily meals.

The bedroom must be equipped with clothes cabinet, shoe racks, baol or wooden chests for linens like pillow cases, bed sheets, curtains and towels. Large towels, hand and face towels can also be kept in a plastic stack-up shelf in the bath and toilet area. There must be a medicine cabinet with mirror preferably near the sink. The extra or reserved soap, shampoo, toilet paper, detergent and Lysol should also be placed here.

The children’s room could be a combined bedroom and study room for the older child. The latter area is usually his former play corner when he was younger. For bigger families, a separate library-study room will serve the children well from grade school, high school, even up to college. Mother can also complete her accounting work as well as her correspondences here.

Time and motion principle in the kitchen

The compact kitchen should save time and motion. Aligning the preparation area with the sink and refrigerator allows one to follow the sequence of cooking. Meantime, on the other side should be the stove and pantry cabinet. A stack-up set of four to five six-inch high plastic or metal stand could hold canned goods, bottled sauces, spaghetti and dried pasta, among others. Cooking pots should be separated from the baking equipment.

Usually the maid’s room is close to the kitchen and laundry area outside. A tiled deep sink with a sideboard could hold the laundry basin and washed clothes. Open shelves beneath this could store several basins, pails and tabo (water dipper). Be sure you hook up the clothesline away from the passageway.

A small ironing room by the kitchen should be ideal. Most of the time, however, the twice-a-week ironing is done in the living room. Clothes for adults and children should be sorted out in different wide baskets.

The 3 sorting boxes and the trash can

Have you ever said, "There is not enough room in this house?"The problem is not your house, but your possessions – you probably have too many things. The greatest reward of un-cluttering your house will be the time you save getting ready to do a job and cleaning up after.

Work in one area at a time. Keep three boxes and a large trash can with you. You can call this the four-container method. One box will hold anything that belongs in another room. Put things to give away or sell inside the second box. The third box will hold things that you are not sure of. The trash basket is there to encourage you to discard everything you possibly can.

Here are some methods to help you un-clutter your house.

Toss It, move It

This is simply the four-container method taken one box at a time. It is sort of a nit-picking way to eliminate your clutter – slow, but great for people who do not have large blocks of time in which to work at home.

Start with a trash basket and just wander around the kitchen, poking through drawers, shelves and cupboards, pulling out only those things you want to discard. When the discarding is completed, do the same thing again, pulling out things that do not belong.

Several days later you are ready to repeat the process, ferreting out the stuff you want to sell or give away. Continue in this manner until the job is complete. Do the same with the bedroom and other rooms.

The six-month test

Get what you need, throw out what you don’t want.

This is an interesting method, to say the least, and works extremely well in the kitchen. All you do is box up everything in a given closet, cupboard or drawer. Put a date on the container. As you need things, you pilfer them from the box and put them away. Whatever remains in the box after six months is given away, sold or discarded.

"Do I really need this?" You often ask yourself.

Fear and sentiment are probably the two main reasons you hang onto things. You are afraid you might need them someday. If you have a collection of useless articles (souvenirs, baskets, spoon or glass collection from foreign countries) that you are keeping purely for sentimental reasons, remember that things are only symbols of love. Can you keep the love and get rid of the symbols?

If you are stashing one thing after another, chances are you won’t be able to find anything when you need it anyway – so why keep it?

Let’s party

The party method is perfect for those who can’t part with anything. Do it with a friend or friends. It is much easier to get rid of things when you’ve got someone encouraging you, particularly if she has a devil-may-care attitude. She can help you decide about the value of certain items.

Since many of us curry the approval of others, friends can sometimes embarrass us into parting with stuff. When Mary uncovers your novelty cake pan collection – you know, the ones shaped like Yogi Bear, John Kennedy, and a lunar landing module – and wonders out loud if you’re brain dead, of course, you will part with them. Or maybe you will concede to storing them in a less functional area.

Discarding and sorting has a cathartic effect. Pretty soon your cold feet will warm up as you discover how fast you can find things and put them away. Trust me on this one.

Taming the wild junk receptacle

Every home has one: the ever-receptive junk drawer. Here lies the half-dead batteries, a few rubber bands, paper clips, the envelope with Tita Elisa’s new address, a safety pin or two, copies of credit card purchases and maybe a piece of candy. The junk drawer is always willing to accept any little morsel that may come its way. Actually, the junk drawer is a menace. It looks awful and there is no system to it. More than likely, when you really need a junk drawer item, it won’t be there. If, perchance, a needed something is in the junk drawer, you will probably have to spend several minutes rummaging.

Things (especially clothing) deteriorate with age. Somehow they never look quite as good as when you first stored them. If you haven’t used an item other than seasonal things for several months, you probably won’t.

Duplication of things is especially evident in the kitchen, but look around. Do you really need 20 lipsticks and a dozen shoulder bags? The less you have, the less you have to take care of.

Keep away from bargain sales. Be certain that you will really use whatever it is you are buying. If you think you’d like to have an electric egg scrambler, borrow one from a friend or a relative and try it for a while to see if you’d really use it if you had one. Maybe, after all, you wouldn’t.

The key principle when organizing anything, from junk drawers to kitchens, is the formula of the "prepared environment" where every room in the house is fully equipped with basic essentials.

It only takes seconds to maintain but hours to clean! Take a deep breath, swallow hard and swear off junk drawers forever.

(For more information please e-mail at exec@obmontessori.edu.ph)