<p>Thumper, my clutter builds up on the short counter that is in the kitchen but removed from the main prep area. I just cleaned it 2 hours ago!:)</p>
<p>Okay, I’ve looked around and decided I could create at least one bag or one box of “stuff” that goes to the dump everyday. (Wouldn’t that be amazing if I did that?) I went into my son’s room (now in college) and oh-boy! It was a treasure trove for the dump.</p>
<p>I realized I also have to simplify the throwing out process. I start to put this paper in that pile, and this book in that box. Pretty soon, my piles were smaller, but i had too many piles! (dump, salvation army, thrift store, a friend who’d love outgrown clothes, someone else who’d love those old books). I needed to simplify that too.</p>
<p>As to the title of this post, “To clutter or not”, I started this thinking I’d just get some advice about how to organize the papers in the kitchen and in the garage. I figured, organized papers aren’t considered clutter, right? But I realize I could eliminate ALL the papers by using a scanner, and most other papers that don’t get scanned can just get tossed, organized or not.</p>
<p>Now Limabeans…all the REST of us have to do what we are TELLING you to do…all the time. Believe me, you aren’t the only one with clutter.</p>
<p>When my son graduated from college, we purged his room of a LOT of unnecessary stuff. It looks twice the size and the closet looks like it’s holding twice as much (when in reality it’s holding half). The room looks GREAT.</p>
<p>DD saw the “transformation” of big brother’s room and began the purging in her room during Christmas break. </p>
<p>Now…I just have to clean off the desk in my kitchen.</p>
<p>I read this thread with interest a few days ago and paused to consider the clutter of papers on my desk in the kitchen - but didn’t address them instead Mother Nature (karma?) found a more rapid solution. My cold water line feeding my washing machine decided to burst (at 4:30 am). Note this machine is on the second floor and proceeded to flood the kitchen below. The light over the desk was pouring water all over the clutter, the ceiling light filled and crashed to the floor, the shut off valve at the washer did not operate so there was plenty of time for the water to do its job. I guess I should have looked at those papers earlier and although I will now have to replace my daughters wisdom teeth xrays (awaiting the visit with the oral surgeon) and a passport - I think I will have to toss the rest. I encourage you to at least pick out those important papers!!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.flylady.net%5B/url%5D”>www.flylady.net</a> is the queen of helping get rid of clutter of all kinds. </p>
<p>I have to say that I don’t follow all the advice I have heard on this, though. I do keep bank statements and any receipts related to financial accounts or stocks for longer than 7 years. Saved me some big $$ in my divorce to have some of those records. </p>
<p>One thing I do is about once a year go through my files and chuck stuff that I no longer need. Even if I can get rid of just some stuff in a file without elminating the whole file, it frees up space in the filing cabinet. Takes about half a day, but pares down the contents of my filing cabinets/boxes. And I have tons of stuff - - personal, small business, and estate executor documents. I will dance a jig the day I can get rid of the estate paperwork!</p>
<p>Second the vote for Flylady. It has helped me immensely, although I don’t follow the entire program.</p>
<p>I’m now looking at all the items we have in storage for the kids–their first little rocking chair, the baby bed they want to keep, the American Girl Dolls that I can’t bring myself to get rid of, and lots of other stuff that I’m not sure we should keep or not. But it takes up lots of storage space.</p>
<p>I am so glad that I am not alone in this “clutter” field.</p>
<p>Well…only a few months until DS goes to college, I promise, I will then tackle all his paper works that I have saved since his preschool days.</p>
<p>And those books, newspapers, magazines, papers … why are they all seem so important to me?</p>
<p>“I will dance a jig the day I can get rid of the estate paperwork!”</p>
<p>Me too! Two of the seven four-drawer filing cabinets are devoted to my Dad’s Trust paperwork and my Mom’s Estate paperwork. Our local Judge of Probate is a stickler for thoroughness and accuracy.</p>
<p>BTW, my Mom kept every check she wrote from the day she got married. Why? I have no clue.</p>
<p>I enjoyed this thread and thought I’d revive it for those of us having trouble getting into the spring cleaning mode this year…like me! My son’s former bedroom became a storeroom when my mom died 2 years ago and S moved to the downstairs guest quarters (now known as the “man cave”). My intention was to turn his old room into a home office (sorely needed as I work from home a lot) which could double as a guest room, but suddenly my Mom passed and I had to clean out my parent’s house and prep it for sale 
Somehow about 40 boxes of photos, knickknacks, jewelry, linen, dishes, music, etc. and some of Dad’s keyboards and related equipment landed in my “free” space…at one point, I could barely pick my way through it all. I have a decent sized house with a large storage area in the basement (full of usable “good stuff” like furniture, camping/fishing gear, pool supplies, and tools but it also needs a good purge) but I can’t seem to get rid of, or find a space for, the remaining Mom stuff. </p>
<p>D recently brought her roommates home for the weekend and I psyched msyelf up by watching several episodes of “Hoarders”. Managed to whittle 10 boxes down by sorting and donating, then stacked some totes in my own bedroom where I’d be sure to look at them (I truly dislike clutter but have managed to avert my eyes for a month now!). I cleaned out the closet in the now storeroom, shoved another dozen in there, and slammed the door (and will definitely stand aside when opening again)! That still left a two floor to ceiling stacks of totes and boxes as well as two bookshelves full of smaller boxes…ugh! I was able to clean pretty well but felt defeated and ashamed that the girls had to sleep in there, though they knew the deal in advance and were very gracious about it.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m determined to get this room straightened out, repainted, etc by the time D gets home from college at the end of the month! Any suggestions, word of wisdom, or advice to get me started? Also, any suggestions for good color for a small (10x12) room with only one north-facing window? I’m looking for something that would work for a bedroom and office and prefer interesting colors in earth tones. Carpet is a light neutral berber. I don’t have much time to experiment with paint colors and hate buying them to try, so if you know the Mfr and name that would be especially helpful!</p>
<p>You’re doing great! You have the problem under control and are making progress. All you can do is use those available chunks of time when you have them, and whittle, whittle, whittle.</p>
<p>I have a paint recommendation for you. It’s a soft green-gray which I used in a room with white trim and natural colored doors. Only at Lowe’s, it’s Valspar 5004-3B ‘Carolina Inn Aqua.’ My room is 10 x 13 with only one window that is a guestroom/office and I was astounded at how great it looked - it made the walls recede and the white trim and cherrywood desk “pop.” Two of my sons even complimented me on the color (!) It will look dark at first (and it did take two coats, as many darker colors do) but the results are well worth it.</p>
<p>Watched an episode of Hoarding:Buried Alive with DD over spring break. Oh, my. I couldn’t believe the state of the places they showed. One was a young man who seemed pretty normal and together, whose girlfriend hadn’t seen his place. I was dumbstruck by the whole thing. Made me want to grab a bunch of garbage bags and just get rid of anything I hadn’t used in the last year. </p>
<p>I think my main piece of advice is to set small goals for yourself. I think what is difficult is starting a project like this and starting to think of all the things you would like to do and then getting overwhelmed. I am more the purging type. I love to have an hour or two to just go through a space and see what I can get rid of - I love to take bags to either Goodwill or trash. I have never had a yard sale and don’t intend to start. If it is good enough for someone to use it goes to Goodwill or to our rescue mission, if not it goes out. </p>
<p>Keep us posted on your progress!</p>
<p>I read a review on Yelp of a storage place that is about two blocks away.
It is family owned and sounds very reasonable.
Even though I am not ready to get rid of some of our stuff- it certainly would make cleaning ( and painting) easier.
I don’t know why I haven’t done it before- when you live in a tiny house- ( and why do homes built in 1900- have tiny closets?), things get cluttered just getting the mail.</p>
<p>I do estate sales and home organization. What I run into is people want to keep everything and they want us to “magically” organize it or pack it away in a way that they
can find it. What they don’t understand is that the size of any given house can only take so much packed or organized. You just have to get rid of things, there is no way around it, unless you are willing to get a storage unit. Most people who have a storage unit put stuff in there they think they will use someday and never get it out again. You just have to decide what you really need and want and let the rest go. Once you have thinned thing out to a reasonable amount then organize it. It is very freeing and will make living much more enjoyable. Regarding a deceased parents home, go in and take what you want, hire and estate sale company to do the rest.</p>
<p>A new family moved in across the street into a duplex- three kids, and they were thrilled to get one of our soccer balls. ( twin boys- 8 years old- boy do I have stuff for them!)</p>
<p>Another way to unclutter- ( If I can get my H to let go of some of his unused stuff), is just to put it out on the parking strip with a Free sign. It is amazing what people will haul off.</p>
<p>I am in a constant state of decluttering. Anytime I get a call/email/bag from one of the groups that pick up stuff I say yes and then make sure I fill the bag. I find it helps if you know you have a place where it is going to go. I choose a small area, say one dresser or closet or cabinet area so it only takes a small amount of time. I have a small simple excel spreadsheet where I write down the dates I last cleaned out so I know what hasn’t been done in awhile.</p>
<p>I realize everyone does not have this luxury but the best solution we have found for peace in our “neat-freak”/“collector of everything” marriage was for my husband to have his own special spaces. I clean and unclutter the whole house for everybody, and put stuff that is unique HIS in neat piles in HIS office or workshop, whichever it seems to match. I get the lack of clutter, he knows where to find what he’s looking for. </p>
<p>Oh, also what worked HUGELY was for my husband to watch a few episodes of “hoarders”. It really freaked him out and motivated him to clean out a lot of stuff from his office and workshop (and he’s not really a hoarder, he just saw the extreme end of it).</p>
<p>Starbright- I’m in a similar situation. I hate clutter, and the living areas of the house are clutter free- with the exception of DH’s basement office. He has two desks down there, lots of books, magazines, computer equipment- all kinds of junk that we need to go through and get rid of, but he really never seems to have time or want to do it. </p>
<p>This thread inspired me, though, as this morning after reading it I went through two high kitchen cupboards where I store kitchen things I rarely use, and purged. I have three boxes ready for Goodwill now- one with old cookbooks, one with some odds and ends, and one with an old food processor that was taking too much space .( I got a lovely new one for my last B-day.) Tomorrow I think I’ll tackle one of the laundry room cupboards.</p>
<p>We probably won’t ever get to the “pit” in the basement office - until we decide to sell.
But it feels good even to do a cupboard or two. And to open the cupboard doors and see a half-empty shelf–that feels great!</p>
<p>We’ve mentioned it before on this thread, but if you haven’t tried Flylady, go for it. It is free… and she is really good about getting you started with babysteps and a timer. A little bit at a time. And then keeping it cleaned up. </p>
<p>While I am at it, buy a Rubba Scrubba from her if you don’t have one. It is great for LOTS of things (I think I’ve used it 4 times in the last 24 hours for completely different and things – got dog hair out of the dryer filter that I couldn’t peel out with my fingers, scrubbed a car mat, pulled pet hair out of the crease in the carpeting against the steps, and cleaned out the mud room sink). It doesn’t help with paperwork, though 
But it is related - - it is WAY harder to clean your house if it is cluttered.</p>
<p>^ part of the reason I suspect I declutter so much is that it IS easier to clean with less “stuff”. And I am lazy :)</p>
<p>My husband’s parents and mine have all passed away in the past six years. I am working on the last house to go through … and that doesn’t count the stuff we brought to our home when each parent moved in with us and we tried to make their spaces comfortable for them at the end. I finally got my only brother down a few weeks ago to spend a weekend doing the walk through of my parents home, praying that he’d want more than he did … lol. But at least now I have the all-clear to do whatever I want with the rest. But it’s still daunting. When my h’s dad died (his mom move moved in with us), we had 1 week to go through the home they’d lived in for 40 years. I worked like a general with a mission … cherry picked every piece we wanted, looked at every piece of paper before we pitched most and kept some, and still had a mountain of “home” to deal with in just a few days. I know we probably got “taken” by the people we hired to clear out the house, but in the end we came out even, in terms of their cost and what we made. And I was done. This time, however, i cannot do that. First of all, I am turning a home into a beach house, so I can’t get rid of everything. And, as I need to make some money on divesting their stuff in order to help pay for the montly expenses of the property, I can’t be as cavalier about how I go about getting rid of things we don’t want. But how do you keep from being overwhelmed? With coins, jewelry (both parents), stamps, antiques, etc. It’s enough to give me sleepless nights. And … we’re still going through a garage full of papers and stuff from his parents. We’ve finally spent the last couple of weekends whittling down their tax records, etc … but then there are the letters they wrote to each other right before they got married, and photos, and WWII medals, and and and and… you get the picture. I feel as though I’ve become the repository of everyone’s memories, and while I appreciate that … I also hate it. This becomes so time-consuming and I feel as though my life’s on hold until it’s taken care of … and the novel I started before the first parent got sick is still sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to get back to it.</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even consider my immediate family’s photos and memorabelia. </p>
<p>I’m ready for a huge purge; I just have to be careful my kids’ memories don’t get caught in my frustration. </p>
<p>zebes</p>