OT: I need help from all of your super-organized/decluttered moms!

[mattysmom]

We visited friends this weekend and it made me realize how much JUNK we have in our house - and I want to declutter! I'd love your suggestions/resources (online or print) on how to do it... I really want to get rid of a ton of stuff - all of my and dh's old clothes that we haven't worn (or hasn't fit!) in years, old magazines... I'm such a "saver" - how do you decide what to keep? And what about old recipts/bills? PLEASE HELP!! I plan to start next week when my mom is around and can watch the boys...
Thanks!

[thomma]

You are not alone! I need to declutter too!
I'm home for the summer and my house is clean but I'm up to my eyeballs in stacks of stuff. (DH calls calls me the "stacker") I logged onto flylady.net this afternoon and, while she scares the crap out of me, she has a page on decluttering that I found useful. I decluttered the surfaces in my kitchen today. There's so much more to do but it's a start. I'm looking forward to seeing the replies that you get.

Kim
t&e 5/03

[JMS]

You have to start by setting small goals. I think you will really overwhelm yourself if you think you can get it all done while your mom is visiting.
Start with one cabinet/drawer/closet (small) per night. Taking and accomplishing baby steps will inspire you and motivate you to tackle bigger projects and you'll start feeling a great sense of accomplishment before you know it.

Throw out ALL old magazines .. it will liberate you. Only keep receipts for big tickets items and go through your mail every day, throwing out the unimportant and organizing the bills and other items that should be saved.

Even when you do finally get organized and declutter, it's a continuous process/project that must be maintained daily. I try to live in a house where if I had to pack it all up and move (for example, if my dream house suddenly became a reality), I could do it in less than a week.

GL!

[Raidra]

Starting small is a huge help. When I get overwhelmed with clutter (which is always, really), I start with one specific spot - say, the counter next to the fridge - and don't work on any other areas until that's done.

As for what stuff to get rid of, I have a really hard time with that, too. My husband and I are both total packrats. I try to really make sure I only keep stuff we will actually use in the very near future. It's hard to be realistic about that sort of thing, but so far I've never regretted throwing away anything. Any time I hear myself saying, "Well, we might use it at some point..." whatever it is gets tossed out.

[kijip]

You have to let go. That about sums it up. Well, techincally you don't HAVE to let go. You only need to if you want to declutter! ;)

Start with 1 area/drawer at a time and go into it with a litmus test in mind. My general rule is to toss things, period, that I don't need to use regularly that have no compelling keepsake value. One good intermediate step could be to put stuff that you just can't see getting rid of but that you don't use in storage in th basement or wherever (box it all up!) and get it out of you living space. Then toss any box that you have not needed to look into within a year.

It will be liberating to get this stuff out of your living space!

[brittone2]

I'm not a super organized mom by any stretch, but we are doing increasingly better. We had a big out of state move last year and we ruthlessly decluttered. We just went through our stuff again over the weekend and donated 7 or 8 bags of clothing, toys, books, etc. to charity.

I like the website www.organizedhome.com. It was a tremendous help to me when we were trying to get motivated before our move (they also have an organized Christmas site that is helpful FWIW).

2 books I got out of the library a while back that I liked were Confessions of an Organized Homemaker
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1558703616/sr=8-1/qid=1151547829/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-2591903-9861658?ie=UTF8
(she has some followup books now but I haven't read those)

and Sidetracked Home Executives:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446677671/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_12/002-2591903-9861658?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
If I remember correctly, this book has a system where you take index cards, and on them you write the "chores" you need to do daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally. You put them in a filebox and sort of make your own system out of them. I don't do this, but I like the idea, and for those (like me) that can't keep up with flylady, you could kind of curtail this to your own system, kwim? FIgure out what YOU need to make your house livable. Once you get those things mastered, go from there.

I think Suze Orman has info on her website about how long to keep various paperwork (and I believe organized home does too). Here's a link that might help:
http://www.cleverparents.com/index.pl?id=5137

We're not great filers but we're doing better. The key IMO is to find a system that works for you, and then you'll have more success sticking with it.

2 things from organizedhome.com that have been a big help to me are a warranty/instructions guide/etc. type of binder. I have a giant 3 ring binder, and in it I have lots of plastic page protecters. In each one, I put manuals for various products, warranty info for the product, etc. and I have it broken down by each room in the house mostly. I have all of the manuals, etc. for our babygear in a section, which makes it easy to reference if there is a recall or something similar. I'm also glad we have that so when we have to reassemble everything for #2, we have it handy.

The other helpful thing has been a "home notebook" which there is tons of info on at organized home. It can be anything you want it to be. Ours is in a big zippered binder (sort of a modern day trapper keeper LOL). In it I have our typed address book info, a "yellow pages section" of our most frequently called numbers (things like pharmacy, hair salon, take out restaurants, etc.), etc. I have an emergency section with our physician names, numbers, and insurance info. I need to update ours since our move, but at our old house I also included directions to DS's pediatrician and our hospital in case someone would need that info while babysitting.
We also have a section where we keep all of our takeout menus in page protecters. It is nice to not have them cluttering up a drawer.
We have a calendar section.
I have a zippered pouch with a few pens, stamps, and some envelopes.
We also keep extra copies of a standard grocery list (I need to update ours, but I basically typed up the items we buy most often at the grocery store on a master list, fairly organized by aisle for the store we use most often. I print a bunch at a time. When it is time to go grocery shopping, it is a good memory jogger to check on what we might need rather than just trying to remember while writing out a list and then forgetting something. I haven't been doing this but need to get our list redone again. If you are a coupon user, you could also have a section to stash coupons.
Some people keep a list of all of their utility company info...phone numbers and account numbers for recurring bills, etc.

Really, it can be anything. But it is nice to have a lot of that info all in one single easy to find place.

HTH.

[niccig]

I'm with you on this. I started a major declutter of the house, but then went back to school, so it got shelved. Now, I'm back to it for the summer.

I look at the message boards on organizedhome.com for some inspiration or problem solving.

For receipts/bills, I have an expanding file for each year. I got the idea from the organization tips at momready.com I have the current year in the filing cabinet and previous 7 years in boxes in the garage. I love the expanding file as at the end of this year, I'll just replace it with a new one for 2007, and put 2006 in a box with the others - no sorting necessary.

The main problem for me is motivation, I'm a major procrstinator, so each night I'm writing a small list of things to do the next day, just 1 or 2 things, and then I get to cross those off the to do list and put them on the done list - I like to see that list get longer. DH wasn't committed, but when he nearly missed taking photos at DS's party because he couldn't find his camera battery, he agrees we need to do something. It's easy if everyone is on board, previously he resisted my attempts to clean up and I had to work around him.

I say start small, and keep chipping away at it. This reminds me to shut down the computer and go stain the sandbox that we've had for 2 months and still isn't assemblied. This weekend I promise it will be done!

Nicci