I am Becoming my Mother: The 27-Fling Boogie.

When I was little, my mom read a book called Fly Lady, and it was the worst thing that ever happened to me.

I kid, I kid. I’ve read it as an adult and it’s actually pretty good.

Anyway, it was a book about cleaning and organizing and decluttering. It had these little “exercises” to help you on your way to having a decluttered house, many of which haunted my childhood.

Especially the 27 fling boogie.

How can anything with such a silly name bother a child so much, you ask? Well, as a kid (and now, who am I kidding), I did not like to let go of things. I had a reason to keep everything: Someone I knew gave it to me, I liked the way it looked in my room, it didn’t matter that it was broken–it was irreplaceable, no I didn’t need a new one. Okay, maybe I did, but I needed to keep the old one, too. I had too much stuff, a lot of which was really just trash.

I present to you, the 27 fling boogie. 

1. Get your supplies: A trash bag and a timer. 
2. Set the timer for 15 minutes. 
3. Go through your house and throw things away. Trash, things you don’t want, things no longer needed, junk mail. Do not stop until you have thrown 27 things away. 
4. When the time runs out, DO NOT LOOK IN THE TRASH BAG. Do not review your choices. Toss the bag in the trash and move on. 

When my mom would make me throw away a toy, I would instantly form a deep attachment to it. I kid you not, I would start imagining all of the fun I would never get to have with it, like a slow motion movie with sad music playing in the background, until I had worked myself into a state of devastation over the loss of a broken toy that had been living forgotten in my closet for six months.

No, YOU have a problem. 

This week, I’ve had the urge to really clean and organize every inch of my tiny apartment. Boredom? Early nesting? Who knows. But when it’s been awhile since you’ve cleaned everything, and you want to clean everything, it can be really, really overwhelming to begin.

And do you know what comes in handy in those moments? My old archenemy, the 27 fling boogie.

You may think there’s no way you have enough junk around your house to actually throw 27 things away more than once, but let me tell you this: It hides in plain sight. I just went to clean my desk, and do you know how many pieces of useless mail were stacked on it? Seventeen. SEVENTEEN pieces of trash. See? It’s easier than you may think.

So here’s to a day of getting organized and spending some time with my nemesis, the boogie, who actually is starting to become a really good friend.

I really am becoming my mother.

What’s your favorite way to get organized fast?