Clean up, live well: Expert will share her secrets for getting organized

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Monday, April 30, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

RAPID CITY — Deniece Schofield wants people to spend less time cleaning and more time living.

The nationally renowned home-management expert and author will offer seminars in home and time management Monday and Tuesday, March 26 and 27, in Rapid City.

Admittedly, the best-selling author from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had to learn methods to manage her time, keep her home tidy and her life running like a well-oiled machine.

“I wasn’t born organized,” she said.

Struggling to keep her young family and household functioning was a big motivation to create a better system, she said.

“When I hit bottom, the youngest one of my four sons was 4,” Schofield said.

What she learned was enough to produce best sellers: “Confessions of an Organized Homemaker,” “Confessions of a Happily Organized Family,” “Kitchen Organization Tips and Secrets” and “Springing the Time Trap.”

“When the publishers started translating my book into different languages, I realized it’s a universal problem,” she said.

In the first 30 minutes of Schofield’s two-hour session, she will offer ways to find more space in homes without throwing anything away. Tips on tackling those overwhelmingly neglected wardrobes, storage spaces and closets, ridding homes of the constant flow of paper and organizing the home to be more sufficient will also be discussed.

“You have to tell yourself, ‘Don’t let an imperfect situation be an excuse to do nothing,’” she said.

Sybil and Chuck Rounds agree.

Last summer, their son, Charlie, came back to Rapid City to sort through all of the possessions he had accumulated over a lifetime. The 30-year-old Carnival Cruise Line music director had pretty much left everything he owned at his parents’ home.

When they went through a recent move, the Roundses boxed up all of his things to store at their new home.

Charlie’s elementary school crafts, high school annuals, collections of T-shirts, books, sports equipment and other items might have stayed at the house indefinitely except for two things, Sybil Rounds said.

“First, he’s lived most of the last six years in a small room in a cruise ship; and second, he’s going to marry a woman from Australia,” she said.

Storage and shipping Down Under would cost a small fortune. It was time for her son to downsize, she said.

The Roundses left for vacation while their son spent days paring down his belongings to the essentials.

Even the scaled-back amount of stuff he left was substantial enough that she sorted through it again to donate to her church’s spring rummage sale.

“You still manage to keep more than you will ever really need,” she said.

Schofield says that in those first moments of pulling back the drapes that reveals the state of dust, grime and neglect in your home, don’t despair.

She recommends that people make lists of household tasks that scream for their attention. This will be their project that consumes about 15 minutes of work at least three times a week. Instead of washing every window in the house in one day, Schofield wants people to start by washing the window by the sink.

“You’re more satisfied if you do things incrementally. Otherwise, it’s just too overwhelming,” she said.

She also teaches how to simplify and prioritize the items in your home into four categories:

- Vital items that are used every day.

- Very important, used several times a week, but another object could be substituted for this item.

- Used less often than once a month like a turkey baster, large platter or grill.

- Items that are a waste of space, such as those odd batteries rolling around in the bottom of a drawer, plastic lids that don’t fit anything or that blackened cookie sheet.

In her own home, Schofield organized her wardrobe, drawers and closets by shedding clothing that she hadn’t worn in the past year.

She cleared an entire kitchen cabinet of cookbooks after she realized that she only used two cookbooks from her collection.

She also stored away half of her 12-piece set of ice-cream dishes when she figured she only used the complete set on occasion.

“The biggest mistake we make is putting low-priority items into our handy, easy-to-reach spaces,” she said.

She also treats the garage as she does the inside of the house by grouping things together and putting them into bins.

By using crates, dishpans, open boxes or anything that won’t tip over, she converts the garage’s storage shelves into drawers. She stores car-cleaning materials into one drawer, painting supplies in another until finished. In this system, it keeps everything condensed, confined and labeled.

“Don’t overlook the overhead loft. There’s lots of overhead systems you can use in the garage to create storage space,” Schofield said.

If you go

- What: Get Organized, new ideas for saving time and space

- When: 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Monday, March 26; 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 27

- Where: Quality Inn, 1902 N. La Crosse St.

- Admission: $25

Tips for an organized home

- Make a list of everything that needs attention.

- Resolve right now that you’re going to finish what you start.

- Clear the area, empty the drawer, remove everything from the shelf and remember that organizing creates a temporary mess while you’re rearranging things.

- Start your organizing project with clean cabinets, drawers and closets, or whatever.

- Place selected items into newly cleaned area.

- If you’re organizing shelves or drawers, use plenty of containers so you can handle several things as one unit and convert your shelves into drawers.

- Use anything that is square or rectangular such as boxes, baskets, standard drawer dividers, dishpans or ice-cube trays.

- Before buying organizers, measure the container to assure the desired space will accommodate it.

— Source: Deniece Schofield