My new cleaning system.
I have a shameful dirty secret:

I buy organizing books. Lots of them. Pretty much every time a new book on organizing comes out, I buy it. I am the queen of (ownership of books about) organizing.

But no more. I now have a method I can live with, and it isn’t in any book out there.

Tentatively, I call it the laundry method.

Back-saving Laundry method:

1. Acquire a smallish laundry basket. If the one you have is large, use it, but be careful as it is easy for it to get overwhelming.

2. Acquire two trash sacks or largish boxes. One will be for giving items away, the other will be for things to toss.

3. For a very messy room, address a small section. Sit on the floor (if possible) and fill the small basket (or half-fill the large basket) with items from that vicinity. Doesn’t matter if it’s something you aren’t planning on keeping, just put the proverbial lotion in the basket.

4. Put the basket on a flat surface high enough that you don’t have to bend much to reach it. Be careful when you do this, because the basket can get heavy.

5. This bit is obvious, but the rules behind it are important. Sort all the items into a keep pile, and fill the sacks or boxes with trash and giveaways. Put away the keep pile.

THE RULE: DURING THIS TIME YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LOOK AT ANY OTHER PART OF THE ROOM. WHEN YOU FINISH PUTTING AWAY YOUR KEEPS IS THE ONLY TIME YOU MAY LOOK ELSEWHERE.

6. Wash, rinse, repeat until the entire room is clean.

I’m thinking that this will also work as a maintenance method, wherein I go around an entire room and collect everything that is out of place. We’ll see.

Today? The basement. Tomorrow? The world.