Simply Organized by Sandy's 10:30 Diet

Do you need to lose an excess 10 or even 200 lbs of STUFF that’s accumulated in your home and in your mind? If so, can you spare 10 minutes? Come on…I know you can come up with 10 measly minutes if you REALLY wanted to. If you give me 10 minutes a day for 30 days, I will show you how you can lighten your life! I promise, you can do this – it’s a piece of cake!

What do you need?
- 1 Box
- 1 Trash bag
- Timer
- 1 pad of paper
- 10 minutes

How it works:
Dedicate just 10 minutes a day to sort and purge any room with the goal to toss a MINIMUM of 5 items per day. Multiple like-items count as ONE item. For example; A stack of 2 or 50 Magazines are one item. The 14 trial sized lotions are one item. The dozens of spare pens in the junk drawer count as ONE item… you get the idea.

START: Pick a start date and start in any room. but it’s good to begin in a small room like the bathroom or a closet so you can see “results” quickly. Grab your box and bag and set the timer. Yes, a timer. Many find the ticking sound creates a sense of urgency, keeps you on-track from getting distracted, and reminds you that this is not going to last forever. It’s just 10 minutes for crying out loud.

SORT: Trash goes into the trash bag, and donations go into the box. (If necessary, use a 2nd box for items that you are keeping, but belong in another room of the house). This is not the time to ponder, go with the obvious, be ruthless, time is ticking man.

TIME’S UP. When the 10 minutes are done write down the room you worked in and what you purged. Wow, what willpower. You made it, 10 minutes!

CLEAN UP. Toss the trash immediately, and put away the rogue items that belonged in other rooms. This is important to avoid just transferring the clutter from one room to another.

REMOVE visual clutter and temptation. Bring donations to your favorite donation site as you complete each room or every week if possible. This avoids cluttering up other areas of the home or garage with your “excess” and will also avoid the temptation for you (or others) to bring any items back into the home! You wouldn’t keep donuts on the counter to tempt you do you if you were trying to change your eating habits would you??
Feel free to mark the boxes with motivating info – such as “stuff that is weighing me down”, or weigh the box and write“12 lbs of ugly excess” – what ever works for you!

STICK with it. Work in this same room every day for 10 minutes until it is lean and mean! Don’t wimp out. Check under the sink, in the medicine cabinet, in the drawers, in the linen closet, on top of the sink etc. Get rid of mismatched and tattered towels, old makeup, personal hygiene products and medicines, bottles with ¼” inch of product left in it, broken items, and excessive travel sized products etc! No cheating – do not move into another room until you are done! Do not skip a day. It’s just 10 minutes. (I’m beginning to feel like Richard Simmons “I’m watching you!”.

ACKNOWLEGE & REWARD your work and success. Once you finish your room, take the time to appreciate the new space and feel. Review the list of items that were weighing you down – nasty empty calories! Who are we kidding? Chocolate tastes good and you miss it. This stuff does not, and you won’t. If you finish this first room in one or two 10-minute sessions, Fabulous. Move on to the next. If that bathroom takes all 30 days, that is fine too. When the 30 days are over it doesn’t matter if you transformed one room or 3 – it’s that you DID, and it was totally do-able. They say, “nothing tastes as good at thin feels”. Now I personally can't vouch for that statement, but I DO know though that clutter weighs you down mentally and physically, and have personally witnessed over and over the change in the way you feel and your life when you finally decide to own your stuff, instead of it owning you! Lastly, reward yourself. Now that every corner of the bathtub isn’t cluttered with empty shampoo bottles and toys, enjoy a fabulous bubble bath. Frankly, you really deserve a bon-bon too if that bathroom took a month to clear out...

MAINTENANCE. By the end of the 30 days you have now created the “habit” of dedicating approx 10-15 minutes a day to purging and putting away misplaced items. Now instead of purging, use these 15 minutes EVERY DAY on maintaining the health of these areas. Pick up stray items, tweak and improve systems, put things back where they go, to keep the excess pounds from creeping back up again! Make sure the family is supporting you, and not sabotaging your efforts. All family members should be contributing to the maintenance of your new and improved space!

If you find that your home still has some “extra pounds” to shed, take a break. During this time, have everyone in the family practice maintaining the areas for 2 weeks to help develop and maintain those good habits, and then start another 30 day program.

Wishing you a simply organized success - Sandy