I was a pusher. I was a shover.
No, I was not a schoolyard bully.
I was a secret slob. The surface of my home was immaculate. But the closets, drawers, attic, and unfinished basement? They were a disaster. That’s where I pushed. That’s where I shoved.
All those cloth bags I intended to take to the grocery store? I filled them with stuff that I was too lazy to sort, file, or pitch. And then I shoved them in a closet, pushed them way back. And my home looked clean and organized.
Every few months, inspiration would strike. I would attack the disaster. My home would be organized.
Hot coffee. Cozy jammies. Netflix queue set up to binge-watch. I was ready to clean. I pulled bags from my closet. Hey, look. There’s the floor! I sat amongst piles of stuff…copies of insurance policies, artwork from two kids, expired coupons, pamphlets from historic sites, recipes. I managed to generate some recycling, create a trash pile, and shred a few documents.
But mid-way through a movie and halfway through sorting stuff, I was defeated. And I would end up with at least one bag of junk that I was either too reluctant to part with or too lazy to put in its proper place. So I shoved that bag back into the closet. Or if I was feeling really ambitious, I moved it to the basement where it wasn’t lonely because it joined the countless other bags I’d sent downstairs. And so the cycle went.
No harm, right? Up until this public revelation, no one knew.
But when I discovered my kids had become shovers and pushers (“Mom, we call that the quick clean.”), I wondered if it was time for an overhaul of my so-called cleaning system.
How to Quick Clean and Create Order without Shoving and Pushing
First stop in my house is the kitchen. I created a mental stop sign and nothing goes beyond this one room without processing. Even if it means a possible disaster in my kitchen, I don’t let potential mess-makers escape into other parts of the house.
I literally stand over my recycling bin and sort. Recycling catalogues without opening them prevents impulse shopping, helps with the budget, and reduces clutter! I took bill-paying out of the office and moved it to the kitchen. Now nothing gets misplaced.
NEWSPAPERS
Yes, we do subscribe to more than one print newspaper. But the only one that leaves the kitchen is the Sunday New York Times (seriously, the Sunday Times is meant to be read in a cozy chair). All other newspaper reading is kept in the kitchen – close to recycling.
PACKAGES
That box from Amazon? It gets unpacked in the kitchen. Packing material goes straight to the garbage or recycling. If the item is a keeper, even the box gets broken down quickly. If I hang onto it, I’ll just fill it with things that I don’t need to keep.
KID PAPERS
School folders. Yep, I stand right over the recycling bin. I can’t keep every sample of cursive writing. Artwork and schoolwork that I deem worthy of keeping FOREVER get filed in a folder that is right there in the kitchen. At the end of the school year, I stand over the recycling bin again and whittle it down to 3 or 4 items for the year. Those keepers get transferred to a binder that I created for each child.
If papers are deemed worthy to venture out of the kitchen, I immediately put them in their rightful place. No more pushing and shoving.
Paper was my biggest culprit. But by isolating all of things I used to push and shove, the other messes in my house seem far more manageable.
Remember all those cloth bags? They’re empty now. If only I could remember to put them in the car for the next trip to the grocery store!
