I may as well fess up and admit that I'm not a naturally tidy person. Clean? Absolutely. But I'm uniquely blind to clutter. I'll chuck my work bag on the kitchen table as soon as I get home from the office, leave loose shoes in the hallway, adjacent to my neglected shoe rack, and dump freshly-washed clothes on the floor of my bedroom for 'future me' to deal with.
And if it wasn't for my mom's brutal cleaning routine, I'd probably appear in a future episode of a hoarders TV show.
Fortunately, I've been dealing with my own mess-blindness for long enough to know that there's only one way to force me to clean up my mess, and it's with a joy-inhibiting clutter dump.
What's a clutter dump?
As far as I'm aware, I made the term "clutter dump" up, but it's exactly like it sounds: I collect all my clutter, and I dump it in one shameful mountain. Ideally, a mountain that comes between me and something I really want to do, like sleeping in my bed, or sitting on the sofa to catch up on some TV.
The one rule is, once it's been dumped, it cannot go back on the floor. Every article of clutter, whether it's a purse I've been meaning to take upstairs to my wardrobe or a book that needs to go on the shelf, will sit on the couch or bed until I brave up, put in some headphones and tackled the issue head-on.
How to do it
My mom used to do this because my teenage 'floordrobe' (as she called it) was such a problem; it made it tricky to vacuum. So before I vacuum, which I do a few times a week, I will pick every piece of clutter up off the floor and dump it on my bed. I'll then run my trusty Dyson around, before tackling the mammoth and unimaginable task of actually dealing with the consequences of my bad habits.
It can apply in a few ways, though. Let's say your kitchen is a state: you can take everything in the room that's not where it's meant to be, put it on the dining table, and tell yourself that you can't eat dinner until the table is clear.
Or maybe you always forget to take things that should be upstairs in your office up the stairs: create an unmissable barrier of Upstairs Stuff that absolutely needs to go back in its place the next time you go up a floor.
Even if you're broadly good at staying on top of tidying, this method can come in especially handy this time of year. Whether it's a pile of new toys that your kids need to find a home for, or some spare cooking detritis that you've not put away after cooking a Christmas feast, creating a clutter dump is an ideal way of beating back the seasonal messes in one decicisve hit.
And if you're anything like me, you might find it helps to correct bad habits in the process.
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