I look at each article of clothing/linens to see if it can be used again. If unsure, I fold slightly used clothing on my dresser to wear outside for yard work or cleaning the house. My husband does his own laundry.

We made sure the landscaping can be mowed, with no weed eating. And I planted low or no maintenance shrubs and trees, and perennials that don’t have to be replanted every year.

– Standards got lowered after the 3rd kid. The 3rd kid is “critical mass”. Clean undies, healthy dinner, and happy kids? Good enough.

– Twice monthly housekeeper at $83 a pop. Worth every penny. We all clean like mad before she arrives and things stay nice for two days due to the “broken window” effect.

– Minimal-ish-ism. I do regular decluttering sessions, which I find fun, to get rid of fast food toys/book and Grandparent’s overgenerous buying habits.

– Invite friends over. The kids clean like mad before their friends arrive!

I have 4 of those magazine holders on my table, one for each kid and one for filing. When mail, drawings an school papers come in, the get sorted in the holders. Bills get put in a to be paid spot.

We always had problems remembering to eat leftovers, so now we have a white board next to the fridge with what leftovers are available for lunch and what needs to be eaten soon. It has helped!

@M – I am a fan of the basket system. If something must sit on an otherwise clear horizontal surface, a basket contains it quite nicely.

There are a few key systems that have helped the clutter. For mail AND all the random paper that comes with family/kids, I purchased a three-tier file stacker and set it in the corner and any mail/paper that is NOT MINE and that I don’t immediately care about (i.e., most of it) goes in the trash if it’s clearly not important or in the stacker if I might want to get to it at a later date, or most likely if it’s somebody else’s stuff that I don’t want to have sitting around on the kitchen table and they can go fish it out if they need it. If it’s my mail, I move it to another stacker I have on my office desk and work through it in batches eventually (or immediately if it’s actually important). The other thing I did, which doesn’t answer this question but is related, is to buy a charging station and put it on a table in the living room (i.e., not the kitchen because our kitchen is small and does not have space for clutter). Now if there is a device in the kitchen, I can just move it to the “device charging table” because that’s where these things go. And I added a basket for random charging cords, adapters, etc. These things mostly solved the paper and device clutter problems. The only problem left is that my husband insists on leaving his keys, wallet, earbuds, etc (and the etc begins to expand to hats, gloves, watch…) on the kitchen counter, which is just not a good place. I can’t win this battle, so I put a basket there and continue to put this stuff in the basket so that hopefully he can limit this pile to that space and keep the rest of the area clear.

We do a variation of DEAT called “take 5” — everyone runs around and puts away 5 things. Sometimes we set a timer to see how many take 5s we can do in 10 minutes, or do a take 10, but really just the simple 5 is huge.

I haven’t figured out the paper thing myself (and have had to let go of my frustration that my husband can not throw the junk mail away and leaves it for me to deal with) but labeling my shelves in my fridge has really helped! Other people in my house don’t always follow, but at least the things I put in there are usually taken care of! I like being able to look at the “leftover” shelf to see what we’ve got! I’m not great at freezing (I have a pack of chicken right now that needs separating and freezing) but when it does happy, my future self always thanks my past self!

Also my strategy, though it was not easy to apply at first as I am pretty obsessive about cleanliness and order (outer order, inner calm – absolutely!). But I learned to « ignore » the dust and stains and mess and keep reminding myself that it is more beneficial to me and my family to have me in a good mood after doing something fun than having me cranky because I spent my little amount of free time cleaning up.

I am very good at the outsourcing part, and really value every cent spent on the cleaning service! And I can’t wait to involve the kids (10-months old and 3-years old for now, so not much help there… though the 3-years old knows he has to gather his toys before going to bed, otherwise they risk « disappearing » overnight! 🙂

(Huge fan of your blog, books and podcast Laura! Thanks for all your good advice!)