How much clutter do you have in your house?

[prolesunited]

We've been in the process of ridding ourselves of all the crap that has accumulated as we reorganize spaces and reclaim others. It's amazing how much stuff we have been throwing out, recycling and giving away.

We almost have the office done along with the basement. All that's lef to tackle are isolated piles and drawers along with the garage, which will wait until it's warmer.

We were nowhere near the level of clutter as you see on some TLC shows, but still not as organized as we should be.

I have this horrible habit of saving boxes that gadgets and appliances come in in case I had to send it back under warranty. Funny thing is, I never had to send things back, nor did I manage to ever toss them. Our curbside recycling guys are going to hate us this week.

We also have a TON of books between the two of us, but those are staying.

So, what's your organization level in your house? What are your problem areas?

[salin]

1. sshhhh don't look/don't tell

lots of clutter here.

[prolesunited]

19. I'm sure you just lack the time

or perhaps you are one of those genius types who thrive on it. :-)

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. I threw out a ton of stuff last year to prepare for the big move....

And I still have accumulated clutter that I can't quite seem to be able to part with.

I gave away books right and left to a friend (old novels), donated countless others to the library and dumped tons of outdated travel guides in the trash. Every one of them hurt, but I now have less shelf space. Even though I took my freestanding bookcases, it was those built-in ones in the front hall that are irreplaceable.

[prolesunited]

20. When I first moved into this house

I threw out a ton of stuff and vowed never to let it build. My space nearly tripled and there was a lot of emptiness, but it's funny how the piles grow to fit the space available.

[greatauntoftriplets]

24. I eventually want to purchase another bookcase....

and I have a spot for it. Because I KNOW that there will be books I want to purchase and keep forever.

All my mother's papers take up some room, but I eventually will be able to get rid of some of those. Others. Never.

Thank the gods I have 1,200 SF. I first started looking at one-bedroom places, quickly realized I could not be that cramped...what with all my stuff. That I could not give up.

The size of the second bedroom (den) accommodates the computer desk, all the bookcases, and my father's oversized chair. Which I love. I was lucky in finding and being able to buy this place. Thanks to my parents. Sorry for being maudlin tonight.

[AlCzervik]

3. my daughters school stuff, i have a pile of her papers that i hold onto during

the school year, i'm always afraid she'll need some of them to refer back to, also the "In box" of bills, i try so hard to keep that clear and current, it's an uphill battle. the good news is that i cleaned my master bedroom closet and had 4 big bags of good clothes that i donated.

[prolesunited]

22. Getting rid of clothes is one thing that is so freeing

I just have to quit buying more. :-)

My biggest problem is weight fluctuations. I was a 10, had some health issues and surgery and turned into a 12, then recovered and became prediabetic, meaning more exercise and better food choices, so now I'm an 8.

I've compromised and gotten ridden of all the 12's because I can never be that weight again for health reasons. I packed some 10's in a storage bin if they were work/classic items like suits, that would be expensive to replace just in case.

[AlCzervik]

29. i got rid of all the 12's as well.

my story is like yours, right before i was turning 38 my weight was up so was my blood pressure and i was borderline diabetic and diabetes runs rampant in my family. Anyhow bought a treadmill and a copy of the South beach diet and 80 pounds down now and feeling a whole lot better.

[prolesunited]

32. My mom was diabetic

and after seeing the toll it took on her, it scared the hell out of me. My fasting blood sugar went from 105 to 75 over the course of six months. My doctor won't let me off the BP meds, though, because he said it was better to have it a little low than average. But my resting heart rate is down to 62.

You have me beat in the weight loss. I only lost half as much. The trick is maintaining it.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. The better question would perhaps be

"How big a house do you need to surround all your clutter?"

It's important.

[fladonkey]

8. Number #1 on my list...

of goals for 2007 is to completely dejunk my house. I started on New Year's weekend cleaning out the garage - 17 bags of just 'paper garbage' alone. Two old Chirstmas trees and assorted other junk.

On MLK Day I cleaned out my home office. This was past embarrassing. I have also cleaned out my bureau, got my purses organized, cleaned out the linen closet and have started weeding through my clothes. I don't like to get rid of my clothes even if I haven't worn them in years.

I am starting a branch of Clutterers Anonymouse in Orlando. Anyone interested?

PS - This is a real group.

[prolesunited]

26. What helps me is giving to somebody or group that needs them more

We had a lot of children's books in pristine condition that were donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs for their learning center. And we give a ton of stuff to AmVets, which recycles them and is one of the highest rated veteran service organizations.

There is a real psychology behind keeping things and being able to sort things. I read a couple of books that really helped. The how to's weren't enough for me. I needed to understand the why's.

I'm far from cured and my husband's cajoling has helped the process along.

[greatauntoftriplets]

27. We donated lots of stuff to the VA.

A friend works at the VA hospital in Hines, IL, and they need stuff like clothing and bedding. So we donated all my mother's clothing and bedding I didn't need to them. My friend and her sister came to pick up all up.

Many other things (furniture, additional stuff we didn't need) went to Walther Lutheran High School's Bronco Shop. My sister learned of it by accident (they pick stuff up and haul it away) and it was all good since the triplets' father attended that high school. So we felt a connection to it.

Some furniture (a beautiful dining room set and other stuff) we sold to an antique dealer at fire sale prices.

It isn't always easy to get rid of stuff. We tried to find someone willing to do a house sale. No one was, given the fact that I was still living in the house and planning to take whatever I could with me.

[Nicole]

5. Very little

I live alone so that helps. One person doesn't generate as much clutter as a family does.

Plus I have two car garage but only one car so that helps. My garage looks like a garage sale waiting to happen all the time. :rofl:

[AlCzervik]

7. oy the garage! I didn't consider that.

mine is bad, i can still get 2 cars in there but the third bay---there will never be a car parked in there as long as we live in this house.

[Nicole]

13. Mine is doomed to stay as is

Until I get a garden shed built. Most of the junk on that side of the garage is various garden tools, mowers, tiller, etc.

[AlCzervik]

14. same here, mower, trimmer, a giant wheel barrel, i don't even remember why

we have a wheel barrel.

[u4ic]

6. .

my place - :scared: :scared: :scared:

[mainegreen]

9. We have a six month old baby.

It's a death trap of blankets, swings, toys, cloth diapers and pillow-walls.

[prolesunited]

35. It will only get worse

Wait till your baby is able to take things out.

[hyphenate]

10. I am a packrat

Although I can't say I'm OCD about it, I hate to throw anything away.

My front hall has been stacked with boxes that I brought up 4 years ago and haven't been looked into since. My friend Steve started going through them for me, though, because if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. I did finally make a major decision based on my problem, and that is I told Steve to toss out any videotapes which didn't have labels on them, because I haven't looked at or taped a show since I got the Tivo and the DVR. The tapes are likely never going to be seen again, and right now, it's one area that can be dealt with simply.

Overall, I do have a lot of junk. I, too, collect boxes from purchases to be used in case I need repairs on something, but I do try to brak them down if I can, so they will store flat. I also have a lot of materials for my craft projects which haven't gotten off the ground, but those will eventually be used, once I get some energy to do them.

One of my major areas that needs organization is clothing. I end up with lots of stuff that needs to be laundered and get lazy enough to buy more tee-shirts instead of washing them! (At $2 each, it's worth it just to buy new ones!)

I read a book called "Clutter's Last Stand" and it is what finally motivated me to get rid of some of the stuff. I would recommend it, as it deals a lot with the psychological imprint that disorganization and clutter leaves on our minds, and how by getting rid of some stuff, we can move on. I think the author is Don Aslett, but I can't remember exactly if that's right.

[Crabby Appleton]

33. I just ordered the book, I'm a world-class packrat nt

[RushIsRot]

11. How much would you like?

I suspect I could spare an extra Dumpster or two if you need it...:evilgrin:

[joneschick]

12. this isn't a picture thread is it?

we thought this house was so big when we bought it........1800 sq ft. from roughly 900 sq ft. It should have been an easy fit. And yeah, the boxes that my husband must save just in case of the need to return something. sigh

[prolesunited]

37. You can post pics if you want

Has he ever returned anything? I know I didn't. I had boxes for items I didn't even possess any more. :eyes:

Perhaps you can make a deal: Only keep the boxes until the warranty has expired. I have found labeling things with index cards taped to the boxes to come in handy. You can write the expiration date on it.

Next, I need to make myself part with all the product manuals I have saved. Yikes!

[scarlet_owl]

15. My house has lots of clutter.

It has a very "lived-in" feel.

[peacefreak]

16. Clutter, what clutter?

It's all junque.

[ashling]

17. I have too little house around my clutter

actually it could be worse. LOL

[SeattleGirl]

18. Waaaaay toooooo much!

:blush:

[kedrys]

21. I finally started unmucking my *desk* today

Much to the s.o.'s alarm...I set up shop in the living room to sift and sort through all the paperwork and crap, and apparently we must have lots because the s.o. had to leave the room. :P

I'm happy to report that while my desk is still invisible under its covering,

1) I can see bits of it...
2) ...and see the s.o. on the couch instead of having my line of sight blocked by a rather tall pile of paper.
3) I took pictures of the desk in case I ever get it cleared, so I can post a "before and after" thread. :P
4) I reduced about 3 feet of stuff down to a neat little box, everything sorted and marked...
5) ...which should give me a nice head start on doing the taxes this year.

[Midlodemocrat]

23. Not too much, thankfully.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. Clutter is what is holding my walls up.

Damn stuff breeds...

[Rhythm]

28. there is no 'organization level' here...

the house is cluttered as hell... the storage unit is just as bad.

This spring, when the weather warms up, i am having a gigantic yard sale, and getting rid of everything that we don't truely need or want. It will make things so much easier to keep cleaned up.

[prolesunited]

45. I tried a yard sale twice

It seemed like too much money for the money I got. And I hated getting so little for all of my "treasures."

Trying to find ways to feel good about getting rid of things has helped me feel better about it. For example, I have some business suits that are too big and I want to find a group that helps women get back on their feet. That means more to me than the $10 or $15 I could get at a yard sale.

[Deja Q]

30. I'm back in "pig sty" mode...

:(

Lots of surface clutter.

Maybe by Wednesday it'll be done and over with...

I've had much to do...

[cloudbase]

31. There's enough

that you know that somebody lives here, but not so much that we have to wade through it. A few too many cat toys and marbles, though.

[prolesunited]

34. Our dog has a basket of toys

and every time I pick them up, she insists on taking them out, just like a little kid.

The marbles have me curious, though. Do you collect them? Are they scattered about?

[cloudbase]

67. No, no collection. They belong to the furry ones.

The cats love to roll them around. It's great entertainment to watch them chase the marbles across the floor, but they wind up everywhere.

[dropkickpa]

36. Most of my clutter

is Dropkids toys/stuff. The rest is just stuff that wouldn't be clutter if I had a few more pieces of furniture (I need a sideboard and a couple other things, my huge dining room currently has a dinky litte table, a guinea pig cage w/pigs, and boxes of crap that would go into more attractive storage if I had it). Time to start trolling craigslist while I still have a couple extra bucks.

[QMPMom]

38. Enough that I fantasize about the Clean Sweep Team to

come in and reorganize the whole freaking house.

[prolesunited]

42. Wow, that sounds pretty bad then

Is it the whole house or just specific rooms. The living room, kitchen and bathroom are always the best. The dining room table gets cleaned off every few days and the bedroom needs more work. The basement, garage, etc. are (were) entirely different stories.

Can you recruit anyone to help or hire someone to get started? Or, heck, even use the same methods as the Clean Sweep team.

I still have stuff to work on, but I try to do a little more each week. It didn't happen all at once, so you can't expect to fix it all at once.

[QMPMom]

44. The trouble is that no one else in this place will help. I am

seriously depressed over it all.

[borlis]

55. Me too. My house would have to be a 2 hour special though.

Or one that is To Be Continued...... My basement is really the only place that is bad. But it's really scary. My 10 year old son's room was pretty bad but I cleaned that room recently. Only took 8 hours. What a way to spend a Sunday.

[InvisibleTouch]

39. More clutter than house. :) n/t

[qanda]

40. Less and less every week

I am almost clutter free. Right before Christmas, I gave away half of my clothes and have not purchased any more. I gave away tons of toys and other items that haven't been used in a while. I organized all of our receipts and papers and I'm doing my best to keep up with it all. It's easier to keep the clutter since I put a moratorium on my spending this year.

[prolesunited]

51. Is there a particular reason

for your no spending rule? I've been reading more about voluntary simplicity and I find the idea intriguing. Although I don't see my husband letting me cancel cable or TIVO any time soon.

[qanda]

54. Trust me when I say that we haven't cancelled cable or TIVO

LOL

We're just trying to do something different this year. My husband and I want to get out of debt and the only way that is going to happen is if we stop wasting money on stuff we don't need. I know we don't really need cable or TIVO, but those are things that I enjoy and so I'd rather cut back on clothes, shoes, eating out and other stuff that eats away at our funds.

It seems to be working already. We are close to being caught up on all our bills and by next month we should be able to actually start saving some money, which is our other goal.

[Wapsie B]

41. I plead the 5th.

[RevCheesehead]

43. Oh my dear Lord....

:cry: you don't want to know. :cry:

[alarimer]

46. Way too much clutter

This apartment is smaller than my last (450 sq. ft or so) and not much closet space. I did find some stiff to donate when I had to empty my closet after the bathroom flooded and drenched the carpet in there but I have not yet made it to Goodwill.

I also keep an 11 foot kayak in the bedroom. That sounds kinkier than it is, trust me. I just have nowhere else to put it.

[jane_pippin]

47. Virtually none. For the first time in ages.

I moved not too long ago but when I originally was planning on moving, it was to be a move across the country. I wound up selling, donating or tossing out so much crap that I've been carrying around for years. I didn't wind up moving far away, but I'm so glad I got rid of all that crap I don't need. And in the new place, everything has a home--no more just tossing stuff on the table to be put away "later." I do, however, share your habit of saving boxes. The boxes from this move are all tossed in a spare closet.

[Kali]

48. oh god

house? it's a frigging REPOSITORY!

[KitchenWitch]

49. Our garage is a nightmare

I am working on that little by little. Once I get that straightened out I am considering hiring myself out as a professional organizer.

[Broken_Hero]

50. A lot...

not clutter yet, everything has its place...but if I was given a small computer desk, I would be hard pressed to find a place for it....

[Poiuyt]

52. Just be thankful you're not the crazy ebay mom:

more at:
http://www.badjason.com/RegularArticles/Crazy%20eBay%20mom.htm

Caution: Dial up warning

[Lex]

62. That's what I think of everytime I think I'm getting slack about

cleaning my house or buying too much junky stuff.

I remember seeing those photos a couple of years ago. It keeps me motivated never to get anywhere close to that crazy.

[Crabby Appleton]

66. The place looks OK to me, I hope mine house looks that

neat & tidy when I get it straightened up.

[bullwinkle428]

53. Not a whole lot - moving a number of times over the years tends to

make one reduce the clutter, because you're just too lazy to want to carry all that crap around from place to place!!

[Le Taz Hot]

56. My house was built in 1956

and is in a constant state of remodel (we're currently doing the guest room) which means there are ALWAYS boxes in the living room, or family room, or patio, or garage.

The office? Honey, I BOLT that door shut when company comes it's SO bad. There is literally merely a path to my computer and my husband's computer.

[never cry wolf]

57. TONS, probably literally

My wife is a pack rat, saves every damn thing and if I get caught throwing something out I get yelled at. First the attic I built over the garage, the garage is about 2.5 car size, maybe 4' on either side of the door, packed to the rafters. I literally have to walk sideways to squeeze into the car and often crap tumbles and scratches the vehicles. I used to have an office behind the garage, it is packed over my head. Then the spare bedroom filled up, about 2' free below the ceiling now. The back porch? 3' high. There are piles forming in the living room now, maybe 6' x 5' x 4' high.

We have my son's old toddler 2 clothes and all the thin kids books. My son is 21 and my daughter is 17. We have board games missing half the pieces, broken happy meal toys, toasters that have not worked in a decade and my wife saves empty boxes too. I could literally fill up 2 dumpsters.

I am not the neatest person but I cannot deal with this much longer.

[Lars39]

58. I am in the midst of tackling my dad's house.

We moved into it 34 years ago. When you don't move very often, things tend to accumulate. There's probably going to be about 4 pickup truck loads to haul to the dump. And that's not counting the donation piles.
I have de-cluttered the knick-knacks like crazy. It also didn't help that both my parents lived thru the Depression...they didn't throw anything away if they thought it could be use somehow.
And that included boxes from gadgets and appliances. :D
I've yet to tackle his bookshelves. I'll be doing that this week. :scared:

I have to say, though, that Dad's level of organize only failed the last couple of years. His organization skills, especially of important papers, etc has my deepest admiration.
Never seen anything like it before, and I know I won't ever rise to that level.

At my own home I use the blue bin system. I have room in the basement(that is very dry) for shelves that we stack these bins on. The bins are numbered and the numbers and contents are listed in a small notebook.
It is the best system for me that has worked. Contents can come and go, but as long as you take the time to list them in the notebook, you can find anything in about a minute.

[Rambis]

59. I have stacks on stacks

Every surface in my house in stacked with shite. I buy things to organize, they get filled up and then a new stack appears next to the box for the first stack.
It is crazy but when I ask what can I do all I get is I will take care of it but it never happens.
My mental state is in disarray and it has to be in part due to the clutter.

[tigereye]

60. I pick different areas of the house to de-clutter

I've gone through most of the kitchen cabinets and thrown out all kinds of stuff - I do this once a year or so. I also got rid of most of the kid's baby/toddler toys that didn't have sentimental value. We did manage to get a lot of books into new bookcases in the dining room and that was helpful. We have WAAAAY too many books.


Now the bedroom and the front room/office need serious consideration. The basement is another story. :scared:




Every few months I go on a big "redd-up" (for those of you Pittsburghers) ;) But it is still astonishing how much crap we have - and it's worse when you have a kid or kids.


:hi:

[Lex]

63. Yes, I pick one area of the house and work on it.

This weekend I decluttered one room and took out 2 big bags of junk--stuff not even worth selling or taking to Goodwill.

[tigereye]

65. I know the decluttering folks recommend cleaning in

quadrants or sections of a room - that seems to make it less overwhelming!

[Deep13]

61. Depends. How many buschels are in a shitload? eom

[spinbaby]

64. Well...

Our living areas aren't too bad, but our attic is STUFFED. Sixteen years ago we moved into a big old house with a full attic. It's about 500 square feet of storage space and it's packed full. We have camping gear (we don't camp), exercise equipment (don't exercise, either), furniture, clothes, dishes, a safe we can't get into, Cub Scout stuff from 20 years ago, spare siding for the house, and lots of other stuff I can't remember at the moment.

[azmouse]

68. Our clutter is limited to 2 rooms inside the house...

The den where I'm sitting now because this room is mostly my husband's and he's a slob, and a back bedroom we use for storage.
Then there is the garage. I hate the look of the garage. But it's mostly my husbands for his tools and workbenchs so I just go in there as little as possible.
Any area I have to live in is kept neat. I can't and won't live in a mess.