Those beautiful hardwood floors in older Garretson homes – many dating back to the early 1900s when the town was booming with quartzite prosperity – collect an impressive amount of dust between the floorboards, especially during our dry South Dakota summers. Add in the cottonwood fluff that invades every corner come June and the fine dust that blows in from surrounding farmland, and you've got a cleaning challenge that's uniquely ours. Walking into a cluttered living room with piles on every surface means all that seasonal debris just settles on top of your belongings, making it nearly impossible to actually reach those gorgeous original floors or properly wipe down windowsills coated in prairie dust.

Here's the thing about deep cleaning: it only works when you can actually access the surfaces you're trying to clean. That stack of mail on the dining table, the kids' toys scattered across the family room, the winter coats still draped over chairs in May – all of that has to move before any real cleaning happens. Decluttering first isn't just about aesthetics; it's about efficiency and thoroughness. When you clear surfaces and floors before breaking out the cleaning supplies, you give yourself the chance to address the actual dirt, allergens, and grime that accumulate in our homes rather than just cleaning around the chaos. Think of decluttering as the essential first layer that makes every subsequent cleaning task more effective.

Declutter First: The 40% Rule

Professional cleaners consistently report that homes with clear surfaces take 35–45% less time to clean thoroughly. That means a better result — or the same time spent going deeper on what matters.

Where to Start in a Garretson Home

The Kitchen Counter Problem

Garretson kitchens accumulate countertop appliances quickly: air fryers, Instant Pots, coffee systems, smoothie makers. The rule: if you don't use it at least weekly, it goes in a cabinet or out of the house. Goal: one clear strip of counter behind the sink and at least half of all counter space unoccupied.

The Bathroom Surface Audit

The average American bathroom has 17 items on the counter. Ideal is 3–5. Everything else goes in a drawer, medicine cabinet, or under-sink storage. This transforms a 15-minute bathroom clean into a 7-minute one.

Bedroom Floor Rules

Anything on a bedroom floor that isn't furniture is clutter. Under-bed storage with a flat lid surface is the best Garretson solution for extra storage without floor clutter.

The Flat Surface Principle

Every flat surface — dressers, nightstands, coffee tables, bookshelves — should have at most 3 objects on it. Everything else creates visual noise and collects dust.

Room-by-Room Declutter Plan

Kitchen (2–4 Hours)

  1. Pull everything out of one cabinet at a time
  2. Group: keep, donate, toss, relocate
  3. Apply the "last used" test: if unused in 12 months, it goes
  4. Tackle the junk drawer last
  5. Clear all countertops; return only daily-use items

Closets (1–2 Hours Each)

  1. Remove everything entirely
  2. Clean the empty closet
  3. Evaluate each item: does it fit, do you love it, have you used it in the last year?
  4. Return only what passes; bag the rest for donation

Living Areas (1–2 Hours)

  1. Remove all items not permanently belonging to that room
  2. Reduce decorative items to "gallery-worthy" only
  3. Cable management — loose cords are clutter and dust magnets

The Donation Schedule

In Garretson, these organizations accept household goods and furniture:

Maintaining It

The one-in-one-out rule: every time something new enters your home, something equivalent leaves. Applied consistently, this maintains your decluttered space without periodic purges.

Once you've decluttered, TotalCare Cleaning can give your Garretson home the deep clean it deserves. Call (888) 378-7451 to schedule.