If you've read the first part of this series, you've already gone through your home and eliminated all of the junk you've accumulated over the years. You have made your friends and family, or several charitable groups very happy recipients of the things that were cluttering your life. Now you're ready to make your home more livable and more enjoyable not only for yourself, but for others who live with you and for those who will come to visit you.
Hopefully, your efforts in eliminating all the clutter and junk you no longer want has created more space in your home. You will need this space for the establish phase of cleaning your home. The old phrase, "A place for everything, and everything in its place," still holds true. But you can't make it a reality until you actually designate a "place" for all the things you keep. Utilize cabinets, drawers and cupboards to their fullest by creating spaces for all your things that allow them breathing room (no shoving things around to make space!). If a space isn't large enough for the stuff that goes there, take another look at everything you are keeping there and think about eliminating a bit more to keep the things you really do use, need and love.
For each room in your home, review those items that are continually left out in plain view and that make the room look cluttered. These items should have the move accessible storage spot so that you can use it often and it isn't too much of an effort to put it away when it's not in use. A phonebook should fit nicely in a drawer that opens easily and is somewhat near the place you most often use it.
Children's rooms can still be neat and tidy even if they play with their toys daily, read their books and build forts. Look at how they play; do they spend one week with Legos then forget about them for a few months while playing with a train set? Use large containers to store the toys as sets: Legos in its own container, train sets in a separate container, coloring books together in another smaller container, etc. Containers can be stored around the perimeter of the room or under a loft bed. Smaller containers with coloring books, crayons or Play-doh can be stacked in an "art corner." Make sure books are nicely arranged on the shelves. If there are too many books to keep neat, consider a rotation system where you store most of the books and only have 15-30 out at one time. After a month, you can then exchange those books for others and you'll keep the kids interested in the books they can see.
While establishing places for all your things, avoid counter tops and table tops as a permanent place. We'll get to that later, but for now, think of storage that you cannot see. Your home will appear cleaner if you eliminate the visual "stuff" including furniture that is unnecessary and makes your rooms appear smaller. Use your most critical eye when evaluation the things in each room and the most appropriate place to store each.
When looking for places for things, don't resort to adding to the wall clutter. Pictures are great, but too many pictures becomes too busy and makes your rooms uncomfortable. Use staircases and hallways for all the framed family pictures and use creative groupings to keep the numbers from getting out of control.
Once you make progress with establishing these places where you put all your stuff, you may find that you have to keep reverting back to step one and eliminate more belongings. Keep those trash bags with you to load up more unwanted and unnecessary items for donation, take them immediately to your vehicle and keep the process going. It's OK to go through the steps in a fluid manner.
Getting into step two means you've made tremendous progress in creating the home atmosphere you want most: a clean home that requires little work to maintain and is always ready for unexpected company. Your home will be a more relaxing place and your spare time won't be consumed by cleaning and sorting through junk.
