Is excess clutter and disorganization affecting or getting in the way of your happy marriage?
Who’s to blame for that mess? Who’s responsible for the clean up? What do you do if you your partner doesn’t want to get rid of anything? These are questions to which many couples can relate.
Although as a professional organizer I’m not trained in any way in couples therapy, I’ve had my share of clients who were looking for solutions to their issues beneath all their clutter.
The couple I’m working with at the moment are opposites: The wife can follow households systems and the husband can create them. That’s a perfect combination if the procedures are actually implemented. Which they weren’t, of course.
The following process will help you sort out your stuff together without fighting:
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Work together, utilizing your own strengths.
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Visualize a clutter-free room.
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Plan a purpose for the room — i.e., a guest bedroom — rather than a dump zone.
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Schedule a chunk of time to implement the task.
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Have supplies on hand for easy sorting, such as bankers’ boxes, clear bins, tape and markers, and clear bags for giveaways, laundry, recycling and shredding.
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Remove all items that do not belong in that room, using the hallway as your sorting area. Have your partner disburse of all the presorted items in the hallway as you continuing working in the room.
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Collect and group all the bits and pieces that belong together for a specific category and place them in their new area.
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Remember: If you don’t need it, why keep it?
Celebrate together when your job is complete!
Brenda Borenstein is your professional organizing guru. Look for her column every second Thursday. For more tips, visit www.organizedzone.com. Brenda has organized hundreds of homes and says, “There is nothing I haven’t seen and nothing that can’t be overcome.”
