Not quite a horder - decluttering
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This weekend, DH and I went through all the closets in the house and now have a large trailer full of clutter that is going to the Salvation Army soon. Great feeling.
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Just wanted to stop by and let you know that I finally got the stuff in my car to the GW drop off site. I'm thinking I'm getting better gas mileage because there isn't so much weight in my car!
Aren't you proud of me???? I only got a small amount of the shredding done... still lots more papers that have to be "gone". Does anyone besides me keep the electric, phone and water bills for three years? I'm trying to figure why I need them so long if at all....
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I have put my bills (name) and date due on a spreadsheet and the date paid, check # and amount paid. Then I shred the actual bill. The eliminates a ton of papers. Any tax receipts are needed - like past 3 years of home, property tax receipts when one sells a house or property (did that 4 yrs ago). Once upon a time I had 3 full file cabinets of papers. It is down to one 3 drawer cabinet.
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Help! My home office is a nightmare. For some reason I can keep the house organized but not my home business. There are piles of papers and sticky notes everywhere. Please don't say a file cabinet because that isn't working for my current business projects--which I need to be able to see.
Are there any articles just on organizing a home office? I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
When I had an office outside my house it was not this awful.
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I ended up with a mountain of useless stuff after my mom passed away ... electric bills going back to 1946! Why??? They were almost historical curiosities, but since I'm not a curator, out they went. A notebook my grandfather took class notes in - I haven't saved my own, why should I save his? out they went.
So far so good, but then I married a man who definitely has a keeping problem. Not quite hoarding - but way too much stuff. All of it has some sort of sentimental attachment, so going through it is hard, but we're plugging away. Meanwhile, we are paying fees, mortgage and taxes on a second condo that is not generating rent nor anywhere close to market-ready. For going on two years now. Burns me up!
When my grandmother was going through a big steamer trunk shortly before her death, there was a big bunch of cotton, well browned with age. Rather than toss it, she said "It could come in handy some day." I bet you that cotton was 60 years old if it was a day.
My personal goal is not to leave a lot of junk behind me when I die, because I have seen how it can be a burden to those left behind. I tell all my relatives no gifts, ever - my goal is to own less clutter with each year. So that's another way to look at it all.
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Something that helped me keep clutter in its place:
Shelving.
A home office should have shelving. A storage room or basement or garage should have shelving. Sounds simple but it wasn't till my brother suggested it that I realized that's what I needed for all the stuff we had.
Shelving can be inexpensive plastic, or metal, or you can build your own with wood.
We built shallow shelves(one foot deep) in the garage to store bottles and cans like windshield fluid and bug spray. If the shelves are too deep for stuff like that it gets lost. We have two-foot-deep shelves to store ice coolers, sleeping bags, ect.
We keep inexpensive plastic shelving in the basement. During rainy season, it gets damp down there, so the plastic is perfect.
For the storage room, I bought inexpensive but pretty cardboard boxes at IKEA to toss stuff in like Christmas decorations, kids toys I wanted to keep, and other miscellaneous stuff. And marked on the outside of the box what it was.
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Patty Groves, consider using color to coordinate stuff. I don't know what type business you have. But you could keep all bills in a red folder, all banking info could go in a blue folder, all tax information could go in yellow, receipts could go in purple, ect. That way, even if you have a bunch of folders on a desk, you have an idea of what's what, and it's not just a big blur of manilla and white colored papers.
When you toss papers into a folder, the oldest dated ones should be in the back. Every time you file something new, put it in the front of the folder so they go from newest to oldest.
You can also use bankers boxes to toss stuff in and color coordinate that with your colored files. Just cut the colored file in half, tape it to the front of the box and write what's in it. For example, paid bills can go in a box with a red folder taped to the front of it saying "paid bills". You don't have to have everything neatly in the box. If you need something you will at least know where to start looking. I have a bankers box with warranties thrown in it, we are always digging thru it to find something. No, it's not neat, but it's in one place so we know where to look.
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DivineMrs.
This is a really good idea. The shelves will avoid the scattered files on tables/floor problem and the color-links will help me see at a glance where things are. This makes such good sense that I feel embarrassed for not thinking of it. The rooms that are organized in my house all have shelves. I never noticed that was the problem with my office.
Thank you for rescuing me. Before I saw your message, I was sitting on my office floor, tearing my hair out. I will now scour the internet for shelving!
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My DH and I are in our late 50's. I also have a very odd sense of humor. I've thought of putting some real stupid stuff--like butter tub tops in a box, tape it up, write something like "fragile" and leave it in the attic and let my adult children find it after we die. At the bottom of the box, I'd have a note--"gottcha." They would get my crazy sense of humor.
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DH drove a carload of junk from the cellar to the city drop off site today. Made a big dent in the clutter level but there's still a lot of work to do...
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Fair warning: If you're going to spend half a day cleaning out drawers and boxes filled with old stuff, don't play anything by "Secret Garden" as background music.
otter
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Any suggestions for decluttering bedside table drawers? This subject isn't covered in the decluttering book I bought.
I'm having a hard time with these drawers. The bedside table contains two DEEP drawers containing bottles of aspirin, tylenol, tums, magnesium, etc., sleep masks, chapsticks, hand lotion, remote control batteries, the four remote controls, a hypnosis sleep tape and taperecorder. Then of course the paper and pen to make lists...
In magazines I see people with really spare bedside tables. Where do they keep their bedside "essentials"?
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Hi Luci,
It's always easier to help with someone else's clutter, so this is no indication that I don't have my own to deal with, but I try to keep my bedside organized so that my sleep can be restful. Here's a few thoughts for you:
1. Do you actually take these meds at night? Do you have water on your bedside table? If not, move them to a more appropriate place.
2. How many of each of these items do you need? For instance, you can't wear more than one sleepmask at a time...at most keep two (although one of those would usually be in the wash). If you have more than one bottle of any one thing, combine them, or move the extra to another place. Only one chapstick at a time (unless you've about finished one, then two, but finish the first before you open the second). For any one battery type, only keep enough batteries to make a single replacement in one of your four remotes. Then replace the extras the next day.
3. Consider adding organizer pieces to the drawers. Small baskets, dividers so that those deep drawers are organized for the things you want in there (instead of being "enclosed piles--ask me how I know!): flashlight, remotes, reading material, tissues, meds/supplements (if you decide to keep them there), paper/pencil, lotion, chapstick (not more than two at a time--and only when you've about used one up--otherwise just one).
I have a skirted table for my bedside, but I have a basket under the tablecloth for things I don't want to have visible there.
HTH,
LisaAlissa
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Patty, my own brother had to point out the obvious to me-get shelving-so sometimes that's what it takes, another's observant eye to find a solution. Years ago I took secretarial classes and picked up a few tips...the secretary at our elementary school color coordinates to keep first-grade teachers stuff separate from second, and kindergarten, ect.
Lisa, you offer great tips to declutter drawers.
I also make use of zip lock bags. All my receipts for 2011 go in a zip lock bag and I used a big sharpie to mark "receipts 2011". I keep coupons in a ziploc bag. The bags come in all sizes, so sometimes I use a tiny one for some miscellaneous stuff like paper clips, twist ties, thumb tacks, small nails and screws. They're clear so you can see the contents at a glance.
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I am probably older than most of you, but does anyone remember Dad's workshop or basement? Baby food jars with a various screws, nails, etc very neatly lined up on the work bench or shelf. The plastic bag sorting reminds me of it. Clear, so you can see what is inside.
For small items you can ask your pharmacist for Rx pill bottles - but don't ask for a dozen at a time... Mine will give me 3-4 at a time. They are not clear, but you can pop the top to see what is inside and they will not tear like plastic baggies can with things like screws in them.
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True confession: sometimes it takes time:
Last April (2010), I finally tackled three rooms and a hallway that were FILLED with outdated stuff that me, my DH and DS had outgrown.Our house was big enough to hold this junk (at one time it was a duplex) without being in the way, we had plenty of other rooms. But it just wasn't right. I had to face my old memories, clear the clutter, decide what to keep and what was junk. I began to go thru a box or section at a time, little by little. It took me 6 long weeks of spare time, 6 trips to Goodwill plus 6 weeks of very large trash piles left for the garbage man to get these rooms under control.
I managed to condense our memories to one room, using old shelving, an old desk and table, some pretty cardboard boxes. I kept the stuff that I felt was really important- childhood toys of my son, books, ect. I got rid of actual junk that meant nothing but I was trying to hold on to the past. It was emotional but cleansing. And I kept the right memories.
With that done, we were able to knock a wall down between the two other rooms to create a large room. In his spare time,it took the next year for DH to strip wall paper, repair plaster, add electric, paint. Now we have a large, lovely carpeted room with some exercise equipment in it. Okay, I haven't exercised in it yet. But DH and DS have.
My moral of the story is that sometimes, even if you need an overhaul, just do it one drawer, one boxful at a time. Even if you can only do something in your spare time, it can get accomplished a little at a time.
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Thanks for all the tips. I'm going through a suitcase full of papers and odds and ends that I found in the cellar. I'm halfway through disposing stuff. Took a break and cleaned my windows. Hopefully I'll be done with the suitcase and the windows by tomorrow.
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Lisa, Teka and Divine and all,
Boy, are you right that it takes somebody else to look at our messes to figure them out. Thank you for the objective appraisal. I can't believe I thought it was "essential" to have all that stuff cluttering up my bedside table drawers. After hearing your questions and suggestions I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't ask myself those questions.
After having joint pain and stomach distress for years, I got in the habit of keeping my remedies next to the bed. Even tho I no longer have those complaints, I still hoarded them in case of an unforeseen night time emergency. I wonder how many horders start like that??
Thanks to you guys, I emptied the drawers onto the bed, put 75% of the stuff in other rooms in appropriate cabinets and now I can actually see the TV remotes.
Geez, it's amazing how de-cluttering something you look at every day can cheer you up!
Thanks again,
Lucy
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I just stumbled on this thread today. I live in a small appartment, it fills up so quickly. I've had three surgeries since Oct. 2011 and I can't seem to get my little corner of the world presentable again. I need a file cabinate and just don't buy one cuz I don't know where to put it or what size to get. (I hate buying things I can't lift or move around.) It's going to look big and out of place no matter where it goes. But I have paper up the whazoo! I have a box I've started putting all my medical stuff into. It could fill a file cabinate drawer. I have magazines I want to read but haven't. I hate to throw them. They are trade magazines for Photoshop and graphic design. Stuff I need to keep up on for work, but they are piling up. Even my bookshelf is running out of room. I hate to take them to Good Will, but maybe I'll have to. Sad to get rid of some of those. I think I need to have a big huge throw-fest and just start thowing stuff away. Find the floor again, find the table top. And my closets....oh dear!!! What has happened to me?
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Hi Faith,
Living overseas in a tiny apartment (1000 sq ft at most) forces one to be creative with space. I scan all my medical records and put all films on DVD. I have not bought a book for 18 months now, only electronic ones for my Sony Reader. I am a professional musician and I also try to buy music scores online, if I can. That way, I only print out what I need and store the rest on my hard disk.
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