Active duty soldier and mother learns to do a little at a time
Organizer Betsy Fein and her team from Clutterbusters helped Victoria McCarthy clear out unwanted items and organize what remained.
Top photo courtesy of Victoria McCarthy | Bottom photo by Gene Carl Feldman
When submitting her entry to the Clutter Content, Virctoria McCarthy wrote: "I have an aversion to open space. Dinner on the dining table has been impossible for a while now ... So, I do believe I have already crowned myself Queen of Clutter."
After spending 16 months stationed in Iraq, Victoria McCarthy's priority is spending as much time as possible with her 9-year-old daughter, Hannah, at their Silver Spring, Md., home.
This leaves the single mom — who is still on active duty with the Army and works full time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center — little time to stay organized.
"I tend to be a 'piler' until I have more time to organize," she says. "Which is never."
Betsy Fein, president of Clutterbusters in Rockville, Md., volunteered to send a team to help McCarthy reach her goals. She says approaching these projects in manageable increments is important. "Make sure to start out small and create a simple system that's easy to maintain," Fein advises.
McCarthy says she was nervous about starting the cleaning project, but the Clutterbusters eased her nerves and she found herself enjoying the process of eliminating unnecessary items. "I learned to knock things out as they cross my path," she says. "Set aside a little time every day to keep new piles from forming."
