Not quite a horder - decluttering

Faithroad and others, make sure where you store the cardboard boxes will never be susceptible to water, like a pipe busting or flooding.  Friend of mine had tons of "stuff" stored in cardboard boxes in her basement and, yep, lost most of it because of a flood.

I also love my Kindle.  You buy on Amazon and it downloads directly to the Kindle.  I believe everything purchased is stored on their servers - I should check that but I'm certain that if you have a problem and have to reset your Kindle that you can then just go to 'manage your kindle' on your account and download them all again.  The prices for most books are usually several dollars less than paperback and they also have thousands of books you can download for free.

I'm really happy with electronic books because I don't like keeping a book once I've read it.  I do worry about the demise of libraries though - might that be a casualty down the road?

Patoo and Teka-  Thank you for your the info on Kindles.  They sound fun.  I don't think I can get rid of all my paper books but maybe cut down on the quanity with a Kindle.  Also, that's a good idea to think about water damage.  I'll probably just use the paper boxes up stairs.  I think I can get motivated to this.  I'm getting there.

^..^

Okay,

Are there any rules for throwing out/recycling all that stuff that accumulates under the bathroom sink cabinet? I hate to throw out rubbing alcohol and peroxide just because I haven't used it in three years. I think Oprah actually did a show on this once called, "What's under your bathroom sink?"

Hydrogen peroxide is in a brown bottle on purpose - light tends to make it useless over time.    If it no longer "foams", then it is useless.    I do not think rubbing alcohol goes bad unless it has been contaminated - use a new, clean q tip or cotton ball each time you apply it to avoid contamination.    

I went to Office Max tonight and bought three watertight file boxes!!! And hanging files!!!!

Wheh!  One small step!! 

GramE, I remember microfilm and microfische!!!

Samsue - my kitchen table is a "catch-all".  Maybe when I get my files set up I can just put things away right away or shortly thereafter.  One can dream!

OK, this has been an exceptionally GREAT week for organizing for me!

First, my mother came to spend the week to help organize papers.  She has a great filing system, took my year's accumulated papers and put them into files, labeled them, and now (theroretically) I should be able to find them.  It took her a week, working 6-7  hours a day, but I have been able to toss 4 garbage bags of paper or shredded paper!  My mom is the best, and I can trust her with my personal sensitive information. And she is cheap - works for food and entertainment!

Secondly, I hired a woman to help organize and deep clean. She is a little expensive, but helped me toss another 3 garbage bags of trash, give away 3 latch-hook rug projects, 2 bags of knitting yarn (I had great ideas of crochetting each of my nieces and nephews a baby afghan, got 3 done, the last of 8 is now in high school - highly doubt I will get his done!), 6 bags of gently used clothing I no longer fit into, and 2 boxes of greeting cards and craft materials; she will deliver these to a preschool, two nursing homes, a senior center, and our local charity.  She is coming back in a couple of weeks to do another 2 days of sessions.  I can see my desk top and the floors!!!!!   (just can't quit smiling!)

In both cases, I am using clear storage boxes, grouping things together.  I can now see that one box contains photos, one contains old 35 mm slides, one contains quilting supplies, one contains craft supplies, one contains greeting cards from friends that I will read and respond to, etc. Old files from banks, retirement accounts, and health-related go into a file cabinet if they are within the last year or so, otherwise go into clear filing boxes to be stored in the atic or basement (pastic boxes will protect papers in floods!).

n3ypb, I think it was an excellent idea to hire someone to organize and deep clean.  It sounds like this person really helped you purge what you didn't need plus how wonderful that so much stuff can be recycled for someone else's use.

I'm a believer in furniture with drawers or doors.  In my living room, I have a waist-high dresser that blends in nicely with the decor.  The phone sits on top and a tiffany lamp. It has three long and three short drawers. One drawer holds paper, pencils and phone book.  One drawer holds all school work from DS that I want to save. When the school year's up, I put the stuff in a box and start anew.  One drawer holds extension cords.ect. And of course a miscellaneous drawer to sweep in any clutter that gets collected that I'm not sure what to do with. I have another small dresser at the entrance of my front door with two large drawers.  DS uses it that to hold his miscellaneous stuff, car keys, wallet, school papers, ect.  

I once had a beautiful hutch in my kitchen (have since remodelled). I never used it to display beautiful china--wasn't my style.  I covered the glass doors with beautiful fabric on the inside, and used the hutch to store paperwork, envelopes, school supplies, ect.  No one ever really knew, it just sat in the corner looking pretty, but it was so functional.

So think "outside the box" when looking for ways to store things. 

Youth group at my church is going to Costa Rica on a missions trip next month.  To raise money they are having "rent a kid" day tomorrow so I have a teen coming over to pull stuff out of the storage space in my garage.  Stuff has been in there for 8 years without seeing the light of day.  So I won't be able to park in the garage for the next month until after the yard sale. 

I could sure use rent a kid too!

I am drowning in stuff. No way did i think I would be off work this long and be no furhter organized. Books, fabric and yarn are everywhere. Our town yard sale is tomorrow so I am putting out hundreds of books, bushels of the yarn and gosh knows how many pillow forms. PRICED TO SELL!!.  If they aren't gone by the end of the day they are on their way to a yard sale donation sitefor the animal shelter.

At this point i am too embarassed to have a pro come in. I am overwhelmed but determineed to get it done. I am glad I found this thread-there is some good inspiration here!

lilylady - good luck with your yard sale!!  Hope you sell a ton of books, fabric, and yarn!!!  I have found motivation as well, from this site.