Holiday spruce-up: Guests are coming! What to do? Elk River MN

Soon your home will be filled with guests. Right now, it's filled with clutter -- the overwhelming, "where-do-I-even-begin" kind of mess.

"It always frustrates me when people say that Christmas snuck up on them this year. Christmas isn't a surprise," says Deniece Schofield, Iowa-based author of four books on home management, including "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker."

Talk about tough love, but Schofield has numerous tips as a busy mother of five who admits she was once unorganized and overwhelmed.

"I had a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a newborn. I must have been about 26, and I hit bottom. I said there's no way I can continue living like this. The first thing I did -- and this was 1974 before organizing was an industry, so what I did was really trial and error -- I made a list of all the things that were wrong.

"I chose just one thing and worked on that, and then I tackled my list one problem at a time. I think being organized is a lot like dieting."

In other words, while some are blessed with natural organizational skills, most of us have to work at it.

Step 1: Schofield suggests starting off with a list. Make a list of everything that needs to be done, and don't despair, she writes. You are putting the pressure of it all on paper so it doesn't need to keep nagging at you.

Step 2: The next step is to choose a starting point. "Resolve right now that you're going to finish what you start," Schofield advises. "So often when we have many things screaming for attention, we do a little bit here, a little bit there -- things move and are sometimes straightened -- but nothing is finished."

Step 3: Clear the area. Whether it's a drawer or a closet or a cabinet, remove the contents. Remember that true organizing creates a temporary mess.

Step 4: Schofield suggests organizing the room with four boxes labeled: trash, donate, belongs in another room, don't know. Handle the first three boxes accordingly and put the last box in the attic or garage or some other out-of-the-way place. If you don't open that box for a year or six months, get rid of it.

"One year, after Christmas, I sat down and wrote myself a letter about all the horrible things that happened that Christmas, and I used that to motivate me to get started early the next year.

"I recall that we lived in a neighborhood that was very social and while everyone else was passing out homemade cookies, I was doing my baking at the last minute and running around with flour prints on my rear end," Schofield says.

Many of us tend to underestimate how long something takes, Schofield believes, and rarely do we have big blocks of time for cleaning and organizing, so she suggests breaking up the work in bits.

"Even if you don't have time to wash all the windows, you might have time to wash one," she writes.

One last piece of advice that might seem to run counter to Schofield's no-nonsense tips: Don't become too organized.

"The goal is to make home a place where people want to be, where they can relax and feel welcomed."

Jennifer Davis can be reached at jdavis@pjstar.com.