Clutter and Chaos

Amidst the clutter of our bathroom renovation, it seems like the rest of our house has also turned into a bit of chaos.  To be honest, I think it was chaos before, but throw a bathroom renovation in on top of it and it seems to amplify the issue.  A word to the wise, a full renovation of any room in your house is not for the light hearted.

Having the renovation be upstairs means multiple trips through the house with drywall, cement board, and various other items required as part of the renovation.  That being said, Andrew has done a wonderful job of cleaning up after himself.  No, I'm not being facetious.  To be annoyed with the dust that comes from drywall would be like being annoyed with the dogs for shedding.

Growing up, I remember my mom telling me I left a trail of clutter everywhere I went.  At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about.  Now, I can appreciate the madness that comes when clutter seems to collects everywhere.  Keeping the kitchen clean seems to be a never ending battle.  We use our kitchen; often.  Recently, we implemented a dishes twice per week rule.  Sometimes it's three times per week if we have a lot of dishes.  My grandma always did dishes every night, which I thought was overkill whenever I stayed there and had to help with dishes.  However, I think she was on to something.  There is something to be said about waking up to a clean kitchen.  Junk mail is another pet peeve of mine.  I have a stack of mail that needs to be shredded, but I rarely get around to doing it.  Once it stacks up enough, I do go through and pull out all the pieces that can go straight into recycling.  I wish I was one of those people who dealt with the junk mail each day when it came in, but I don't.

Every once in a while, I get a wild hair and think I'm going to organize the house.  Generally it follows a long morning of pinning all sorts of cool organizational ideas on Pinterest. When it comes to implementing the organizational ideas, I'm not as productive.  The thought of organizing the whole house seems daunting.  I try to tell myself I'm going to start in one room and focus only on that room.  That only works until I have to move something to a different room and I get sidetracked.  I used to wonder growing up why the whole house seemed to get turned upside down when we were cleaning; now I know.

Which room seems to collect the most clutter in your house?  I would say it is the kitchen in our house.  It has become the catch all.  Do you have any de-cluttering tips you live by?  Does anyone else find it difficult to keep up with the clutter?   

Here are a few of the ideas I have collected for entry way organization in hopes of helping with our kitchen clutter.