Crisis Cleaning- Boxes, a Bin and a Bag System

Are you wanting to get your house in order? Using this system will take your house from crisis to presentable in no time.

What you will need
Like the title says you will need 5 boxes, a bin and a trash bag.

Clothes Box- This box is where all the clothes go. If you have a hamper, you can drag that into the room too. The clothes box is for all the clothes in the room. You can take this a step further and make extra clothes boxes. My friend does a box for "clean clothes" and one for "dirty clothes". I like to sort mine into Shirts, Pants, Undies and towels/ sheets. You can decide what will work best for you.

Papers Box- This box is for anything that is paper. Put all the paper into this box. You can sort it later. Don't worry about it right now. You are crisis cleaning, not organizing your life.

No Home Box- While crisis cleaning, you will be putting things where they belong. If you find something that you don't know where it goes, don't over think it and go hunting down a home for it. Put it in the "No Home" box and continue on with crisis cleaning. You can sort your items later.

Other rooms Box- When you start crisis cleaning, you won't be leaving the room you are working on. This box is for anything that doesn't belong in that room. You can take your sorting a step further by making boxes for "Living room", "Kids room", etc but I tend to keep one box. You don't want to have 25 micro organizing boxes.

Someone Else's Box- It's not yours and you don't have time to put everything away. You are crisis cleaning! What to do? Make a small box for each person. This is great for families with kids. When it gets full, have them put the things away and bring the box back. If you are the only one cleaning this box becomes the "No Home" box. Focus on crisis cleaning. Not cleaning up after everyone.

Give away bin- This bin is a wonderful bin because you leave it out for your company to browse through and take what they want. You can donate all that is left in it each week or month. I use a large rolling Rubbermaid bin so I can put it in a closet when no one is visiting. My friend keeps hers on her porch and my other friend keeps hers behind a chair in the living room.

Trash bag- This is where all the trash goes. Broken items, crumpled paper, pieces to toys, computer parts, torn shoes, etc. If it's trash, bag it!

Other tools that are helpful
Cleaner bin-. Find a bin or a bucket and put glass cleaner, all purpose cleaner, rags, wipes and extra trash bags in it. You will be taking this to each room with you.

A snow shovel or large broom- If your house is really bad, this can help corral everything into a pile before you start sorting.

A timer- This will help keep you from getting sidetracked and time yourself so you will have a clean house in no time.

Ignore Rooms
Pick the rooms you can ignore for now. If you are crisis cleaning for company, close the bedroom doors and any other door that your visitors won't be opening. Print a paper for each room with "Stay Out!" or "Under Construction" if you want.

Pick the rooms you need to crisis clean and make a list. You can do this mentally or print it out or hand write your list. Tape your crisis cleaning rooms list somewhere you can see it. I put mine in the kitchen since that is the main hub of my house, but you can place yours where ever you feel you won't ignore it and where you can easily come back and check it off.

Let's Crisis Clean!

1) Enter the room you are going to crisis clean... very carefully!

2) Set up your boxes, bins, bag and cleaning bucket.

3) Set your timer for 20-30 minutes and start crisis cleaning! If you are easily distracted, you can set it for less time (like 5 or 10 minutes) and reset it for a total of 20-30 minutes.

Crisis Cleaning 101
Start by grabbing all the stuff that has accumulated on the floor and rake it into a pile with the snow shovel (and you thought I was kidding about the snow shovel) and start sorting. Clothes go in the clothes bin, Paper into the paper bin or trash bag and so on. If the item has a place in that room, then put it there.

Keep going until the floor is clean. Then move to the furniture. Sort away!

When the clothes box gets full, put it in the laundry room. When the Paper Box gets full, close it and label it "Papers to Sort" and write the date on it. When the No Home Box gets full, close it and label it "needs a home" and write the date on it. When the trash bag gets full, tie off, set it aside and get another one.

Don't leave the room you are cleaning until the timer goes off.

Times UP!
Move all the closed and labeled boxes to a storage spot to sort later. I use closets or the basement until I can get back to it. If you don't want it to look horrendous and you have to store them in sight; store them with the labels facing the wall, cover them with a sheet and place decorations on them. Take the trash out and then take a 10 minute break. Stop to marvel at your progress. Pat yourself on the back and get ready for round 2!

Keep up the good work!
Keep this up until your house is presentable. It really doesn't take as long as you think. Crisis Cleaning can help even if you don't have company coming over. The idea is to worry about those boxes later and focus on getting your place clean and presentable.