Is your home more than 15 minutes' worth of messy?

If you have lots of hot spots then I will answer this question for you — yes!

You ask, what is a hot spot? A hot spot is an area that when left unattended will gradually take over.

My favorite analogy is a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone, will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest.

This is what happens in our homes. If left unattended, the hot spot will grow and take over the whole room as well as making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see. Your eyes are locked on it. Clutter attracts clutter! If you put one item on this flat surface it attracts more items. Do you have areas like this that continue to grow if left alone? Does the rest of the family see this as a place to put things when they do not want to put them where they belong? It is our job to nip this in the bud. Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop the hot spot from becoming a raging clutter inferno!

Our hot spots make our home feel and look cluttered. Why is it that we feel the need to fill up every flat surface in our homes? It is because there is an empty place to put something down. We walk in the door with our arms loaded and are desperate to unload; that is when we drop things in the first clear spot we find. It can be a chair, the countertop or even the floor.

Let's look at why we are trying to carry so much in the first place. We don't want to make a second trip to the car. Isn't that funny? We weigh ourselves down because we don't want to waste a few extra steps. I want to change your attitude about trying to carry too much and making just one trip.

We could all use a few more steps in our day. I have to walk up one level to get to our front door. If I come in through the basement, I would have to climb a flight of steps. It only takes a short amount of time to get up to the house and back down to the car. Here is what I do when I get out of my car: I gather up all the trash and my purse or computer and head to the door. Then I go back for anything else that is left in the car.

I do this with groceries, too. I take the refrigerated groceries first and put them all away and go back down for another load. Every time I come in the house I put everything away. This keeps me from being overwhelmed. I don't like to see my countertops covered up with bags of groceries. I love coming into our home and seeing clear counters.

When our flat surfaces are covered up with stuff; we get overwhelmed. If my coffee table is piled high with clutter, I can't write. A messy desk is not an example of a productive mind. It is a symptom of a cluttered mind. We have to stop and clear off the hot spot to get the clutter out of our minds so we can think.

Our poor babies deal with this problem, too. They have so much stuff in their bedrooms that they don't know what to play with. Get rid of the clutter and find peace and help them to enjoy their rooms. With less stuff they will be able to better concentrate.

With fewer things we will be able to better focus on what we need to do. Get rid of your clutter and find peace in your home!

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For more help getting rid of your CHAOS; check out: www.flylady.net. Also see Cilley's book, "Sink Reflections" and her new book, "Body Clutter." Copyright 2006 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.