Dear Friends,

Do you look around your home and see a pile here and a pile there? Piles and piles of paper and stuff? I want to tell you what those piles represent.

1. You said to yourself, “I can deal with that later!”

2. You rebelled and said, “I don’t want to look at you now!”

3. You stuffed it in a pile so you could hide it from someone and all you end up doing is hiding it from yourself. Out of site out of mind.

4. Those piles represent decisions that you don’t want to make. The Scarlett O’Hara syndrome. Tomorrow is another day.

5. You are scared to throw out the piles because there could be something important in there. So you are chained to your clutter.

After a while you have so many piles that you don’t know where to start. All you see are the piles; they become overwhelming and begin to suffocate you. Then you just close your eyes to them and don’t see them any more. We become immune to our own clutter.

It is time for this to stop! When you catch yourself saying, I can do this later. Let this be a warning that you are beginning a new pile. Stop yourself right there and say, “It will only take me 2 minutes to open this mail and dispose of the trash!” Then just do it. You know what I always say, “You can do anything for 15-minutes!” There are times that it doesn’t even take a minute to dispose of a potential pile of guilt!

Now you want to know how to get rid of those piles you have everywhere. Put a garbage bag in a trashcan and set it by your chair. Also put a box/basket beside your chair. When you are finished going through the stack and sorting out the trash, then you will put these things where they belong. This does not mean that you stop and balance the checkbook or clean out your sewing cabinet. Take it and leave it at least in the room where it should go: If you have to put a box by the door for the drop offs, to keep you from getting sidetracked then do.

This may be necessary until you can find the exact place for things. Start at your front door and work clockwise around your home. Now go pick up one stack about 6-8inches thick and bring it back to your chair. Go through this pile for 15 minutes. I promise when you get on a roll it won’t take that long. Just do one small stack and stop and put things away in the box or basket. Set a timer for 15 minutes and go to something else in the house. Then you can go back to the pile and get another stack.

Your home did not get trashed overnight and it is not going to be clean in a day. This is a process: One pile at a time. As you clear out an area, then put a decorative object on the flat surface: Pictures of the family or a favorite tablecloth. This will keep you from piling stuff on the table again. Practice Hot Spot Fire Drills each Morning and Evening. Put out those fires before they become raging infernos and take over your home. You can do this.

I want you to FLY Free of your piles of guilt!

FlyLady