Clearing up is hard to do!

I attempted to clear my kitchen bench last night.  This is an area where everyone dumps their stuff.  It also seems to maganetise clutter to it.  I have cleared it before, only to have it build up stuff more or less straight away.  I'm thinking one reason for this is I have not paid attention to keeping it clear, and just resigned myself that is is going to be cluttered.  I am coming to realise if I want it to stay clear, I have to pay attention and check that its in good shape everyday.  So above is how it was when I started.

After 15 minutes I had removed a couple of layers.  At this point I was feeling kind of fed up.  It seemed such a big job.  I will admit I decided to put all the stuff in a box to tackle today.  Now I know I have done this before.  There are boxes from years ago in my roofspace, still full with the things I have cleared off.  The difference this time is I really will empty the box.  I will share how that goes later ;)

Ta da! This is the end result.  Now here's the funny thing.  I really was quite despondent after doing the initial 15 mins.  Cleared the stuff into a box, and suddenly it didn't seem so bad.  I ended up emptying my kitchen bin (its a lovely cream Brabantia 50 litre, I have to say I love).  On doing this I discovered a vegetable which was in bad shape in my fridge.  This led to cleaning the fridge, not a perfect clean, but a wipe over.  I then clean my kitchen windowsill and threw out a plant which had died.  I was so surprised how energised I felt after doing this.  Amazing too considering I had really felt like giving up.  Good lesson for me is it just takes a start to get me motivated!

How do we achieve freedom from clutter?

I have a problem with clutter.  Its everywhere!  I live in a fairly large house with 4 kids and a DH.  I have started this blog to record my journey with clutter amongst other things.  I would like to be clutter free or at least have a place for everything in my house.  I have read lots of 'tips'.  None seem to quite apply to my particular situation. 

I will confess I suffer from the same problem that most clutter bugs do, I get overwhelmed easily.  I want to make changes but find it all seems like too much.  So what to do?  Start off small? Use a timer?  Of course I want in all gone yesterday.  I want to feel like I am making a dent in it. 

Well what I am going to do is post my before and after photos here.  Maybe that will prove to be motivational.  Now I'm gonna go and clear my first hotspot (yeh I read FlyLady too ;)www.flylady.net