DeCluttering and Organizing the HOME

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Goodness! Did anyone else hear on the radio this morning about the woman who was missing for two days, and finally found, in her own home, under a pile of clothes that had toppled over on her? They said it took 10 hours of seraching the house to find her. There was stuff piled up to the ceilings in every room of the house. Maybe my house isn’t so bad after all…then again, maybe I’ll try to pick up a few things tonight when I get home.
 
I had to put my mission on hold, what with getting back to work and routine, sitting with DS’s homework… well will have to pick an area this weekend to attack. I think I will continue with the baby nursery and get rid if toys and clothes. DS moved out of that room when he was 26 months and then it became the dumping grounds. His keyboard is in there and he must practise daily. Also, we never did take down his crib:( …so will continue getting rid of stuff in there.
 
A lazy solution to driving to town with stuff…put it at the curb with a sign that says “free”. It will disappear in a flash. In fact, in this small town, some of the best stuff comes from cruising the neighborhoods and seeing what the folks have put out. One woman I know is very well to do and she tires of her possessions quickly. She has been known to put a rocking chair, and also a recliner out at the curb for no other reason than she wanted new furniture. Nothing wrong with the old, just tired of it. My timing is off, so I missed those treasures. But my neighbor got rid of some nice figurines and a heavy blanket that I rescued before the trash truck arrived.
 
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sanctareparata:
Now if I can just get my husband to throw out that stupid plastic 5" alligator he acquired in college that he thinks is just too awesome and I think is just plain taking up space! 🙂 It has a mouth that opens and closes, that’s the only reason he likes it. It’s place is in our master bedroom closet, husband’s side, top shelf. Always there, looking at me.
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See if you can get a child to “fall in love” with the alligator, and then you can keep it with the other toys 🙂 If you have neices/nephews or grandchildren–even better!

But if not, why not put your husband’s clothes on that shelf, with the alligator on top of the clothes? That way your husband has to go through the inconvenience of lifting it up each time he needs something on that shelf. Leave it for a few weeks. Then just suddenly take it out and place it in the attic in a plastic bag. Your husband will probably just be happy to have that thing out of his way, and he’ll know it’s safe in the attic and probably won’t bother retrieving it.
 
Oh man, this thread is for me!!! I also was blessed growing up with packrats. My mom and Gramma kept everything, mom especially. It gets so bad that she gives me x-mas presents that she got me in July, usually because she loses them in her never-ending closet. My little sister keeps everything and her place is usually a huge mess (good thing her fiance is straightening that out of her before they get married!!). My one older sister shops for stuff she doesn’t need and my oldest sister can’t even walk through her house. My step-dad and I were the only 2 people in our family that hate clutter. It was almost impossible to grow up with…lol.

That being said, I know live with a messy husband and have an even messier room mate. She got stranded in a big lease fiasco and we offered her our spare room. BIG MISTAKE. She’s leaving in April but I can’t wait, I just want to give away everything in the house. I hate “stuff”. Because I’m in school and working, I don’t have enough time to declutter but when school is out and the roommate is gone, there isn’t going to be a thing left in this apartment…lol.
 
I have 4 children, the oldest is 12, and we have so many toys. I struggled with this for years. I finally found a solution. All the toys go in the basement. (A few things do go in their rooms like special toys, or books to read).

Then I bought heavy duty shelves to line the walls of our basement. They’re pretty deep too. Then I bought a lot of clear plastic containers in various sizes. All the toys came out of all those individual boxes that collapse after a while and never seem to close all the way and don’t stack very well. Like lincoln logs, blocks, legos. I put them in the clear containers with a label I printed stuck on the outside where they could read it. Clear works well because then the kids can see pretty easily where the toys go. My daughters toys boxes have pink labels, one son has green, one purple. Green is for community toys like crayons or markers.

I love this system! All the mess is in one space, I don’t have to take this toy to this room and that toy to that room. Once in a while I have to check the containers and make sure they have the right toys in them. But overall it works well for us.

And if we ever move again, it will be easy to move the toys, at least.
 
Oh, how I wish my house could be de-cluttered!

Unfortunately, I’m married to a pack rat.

You have no idea how bad it is. I cannot look anywhere in my house, even at the ceiling, without seeing clutter in my peripheral vision. It’s so bad that a few years ago, when we had to evacuate due to brush fires, there was a part of me that was hoping my house would burn to the ground.

I would appreciate any advice on what to do about it. We already put a storage shed in the backyard–cost us $3,000–just to house stuff I don’t want but my husband can’t seem to live without.
 
I spent about 4 hours in the basement this weekend “organizing”, and about all I did was make a noticable dent. (and now my elbow hurts) It is funny you mention the fire thing 'cause after a while I kept thinking “If only I could try doing a controlled burn to clear some of this out.” Alas, you can’t do that in the house.
 
Kay Cee:
Oh, how I wish my house could be de-cluttered!

Unfortunately, I’m married to a pack rat.

You have no idea how bad it is. I cannot look anywhere in my house, even at the ceiling, without seeing clutter in my peripheral vision. It’s so bad that a few years ago, when we had to evacuate due to brush fires, there was a part of me that was hoping my house would burn to the ground.

I would appreciate any advice on what to do about it. We already put a storage shed in the backyard–cost us $3,000–just to house stuff I don’t want but my husband can’t seem to live without.
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Get rid of things you KNOW you won’t need and your husband wouldn’t truly miss. Get rid of them one thing at a time. If he asks you if you know where it is, say “Have you looked behind the ______?” He’s not going to bother wading through all the junk to try find it 🙂 And you’re not lying by saying “No, I haven’t seen it.” And then when he gives up looking for it you could say “Gosh, we need to get this junk out of here so we can find the things we want!” Plant the seed!

Make an agreement with him. Tell him that if you could have a yard sale and raise $_____, you could go for a weekend getaway (or to a special sports event for him, or whatever–it could even be for him and his buddy to go to a sporting event). Then when he agrees, try and have the yard sale at a time when he’s not at home so he doesn’t start having second thoughts. Everything left over–in the trash or donated.

THEN when you have cleared the shed out, put some shelves in there, and put things you want to keep in there, in an orderly fashion, so he can’t start jamming things back in there. If he really wants to keep that broken toaster you got as a wedding gift, don’t even let him entertain the idea. Tell him something along the lines of “Oh, we don’t need that thing anymore. Let’s let it go to Toaster Heaven.” If he persists, you can offer to run it down to Goodwill where someone might be able to use it. If you have to do this, make sure you tell the person at the donation center that it’s broken so that you will be given the instructions to throw it away (you can’t be lying!). Some people are just more willing to let things go if they know they’ll be used by someone else.

I think my hubby is a pack rat at heart, but I try and “guide” him, and it seems to be working! He’s starting to abandon his pack rat ways 👍
 
Well, the easiest thing to do is to throw stuff away. You can do that a little at a time, but if you want to spend a week or so and get serious, you can contact your rubbish company and have one of those big trash bins delivered to your house. Then you can mercilessly start pitching stuff.

Of course, it is nice to segregate out things for charity which you are sure that someone else might want. Keep in mind though that a lot of times charities have to spend money throwing out the useless stuff people donate. People really don’t want games or toys that are missing pieces, stained or ripped clothing, etc. So, just go ahead and toss all of that stuff yourself.

Since you will be moving you can start boxing up books, photos, videos, household items, etc that you want to keep, but aren’t likely to need before you move. Be sure to label them well, and use small boxes that won’t be too heavy to lift. By starting this now, and doing it little by little, it will make it a lot easier when you are in the push of moving.

As far as kids toys go, keep what they really, really play with and get rid of the rest when they are not around. Do that slowly though. Really, I think it is a burden for kids to have too many toys. The ones they don’t play with get in the way of them being able to really enjoy the ones that they do play with.
 
This is a lot of good advice which, unfortunately, won’t work in my situation.

Garage sales? My husband sells at the swap meet. We sell on ebay. I am sitting next to a pile of stuff he wants to sell on ebay (when I’m sitting, the pile is taller than me and several times thicker).

What I should have mentioned is that he is a collector. We have–I am not exaggerating–thousands of CDs, records, and tapes. We’ve even got 8 tracks, 4 tracks, and playtapes. The only kind of recorded sound we don’t have is Thomas Edison cylinders. There is a MOUND of records in the garage that stretches from the door to the washer and goes all the way to the ceiling. It’s yards thick. I have to squeeze between the MOUND and the cars to get to the washing machine.

When I ask my husband why he needs all this, he shrugs and says, “I just do.” Now, mind you, it would take several lifetimes to listen to all of it–if you gave up sleeping.

I just made him take a set of record price guide books (all out of date) off a shelf to make room for my apologetics books. I honestly don’t think it’s too much to ask for three shelves of a bookcase.

My problem is that all this stuff is worth money. A lot of money. What’s inside the house is probably worth more than the house itself, and that’s saying a lot in southern California. My other problem is that instead of spending the weekend doing something about the clutter, he is out at garage sales, thrift stores, and the swap meet getting more.

Help!
 
Do have insurance on all this stuff?? I mean really what if there were a fire–something far more possible in a cluttered and crowded home. Could you get your family out safely?
You say he already ebays and swapmeets. Is this in addition to his regular job? If so, maybe he needs to take a week’s vacation and get some of this stuff sold. If the things are valuable it would be worth it. Surely not everything (eight tracks???come on) is valuable.
 
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tuescat:
Do have insurance on all this stuff?? I mean really what if there were a fire–something far more possible in a cluttered and crowded home. Could you get your family out safely?
You say he already ebays and swapmeets. Is this in addition to his regular job? If so, maybe he needs to take a week’s vacation and get some of this stuff sold. If the things are valuable it would be worth it. Surely not everything (eight tracks???come on) is valuable.
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Actually, some 8 tracks are. You pretty much can’t get them anymore, except places like ebay. The fact that they’re rare can make them valuable–to people who collect such things. We’ve got some that are still sealed!

Yes, we do have insurance. But it’s not so crowded that we can’t get out safely. It’s more like I object to having records and CDs in the kitchen, the livingroom, the bedroom. I would like to have a normal-looking house. I would like to be able to clean a room without having to move all his stuff out of the way, then move it back.

From where I’m sitting now–in the kitchen–I can see literally hundreds of CDs and records. It’s a *kitchen, *for heaven’s sake, not a record store!

But I like your idea of taking a week to do something about the situation. Thank you. That’s one idea I might suggest to him.
 
I am very glad to hear your home is safe. I was concerned because of an article I read about a woman being suffocated under a pile of clutter. So senseless and sad!

Maybe the two of you could take aweek and work on it? Who knows, maybe it could grow into a family business. Maybe start in the kitchen as that bothers you most.

About the eight tracks–I just find that so funny! I’m old enough to remember them and they seemed like just a blip in time. They went from great to despised in about two seconds! One mans trash—well, you know the rest.

Good luck and God bless your home!
 
Well, wish me luck, I’m tackling the clutter problem right now. The clutter isn’t as bad as the mess, my husband doesn’t put anything away. He really doesn’t do anything but make messes and never cleans them. I guess it is because he was spoiled as an only child and his mom did all the cleaning up from his and his dads messes. oh well…again, wish me luck!!
 
I love the flylady. sShe often talks about how “stuff” takes over our lives. Time,emotions and spirituality. She talks about the blessings you give someone when you give something away that they could use or enjoy when it just sits in your house taking up space.
Also about resale it sometimes causes frusration because you don’t get what it’s worth or what you paid for it. A reason to beat your self up.
I love, her encouragement. She has put me in such a better frame of mind about all aspects of my life.
I know she isn’t for everyone, but I believe that the love of material things is something that is talked about often in the bible. No judgement intended)
Another thing now that my house is beginging to be less cluttered, I really think hard before another item is purchased.
 
Kay Cee:
Yes, we do have insurance. But it’s not so crowded that we can’t get out safely. It’s more like I object to having records and CDs in the kitchen, the livingroom, the bedroom. I would like to have a normal-looking house. I would like to be able to clean a room without having to move all his stuff out of the way, then move it back.
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In California it is extra dangerous to live like that because of earthquakes. All of that extra “stuff” could be deadly.

Do you know, my sister was telling me that her in-laws have that problem with having too much. They have so many books that the weight of the books has damaged their foundation. That’s a real problem in earthquake country.

I have had a similar problem with my husband and all of his musical instruments and recording equipment. A lot of it is vintage stuff. Fortunately he started browsing through E-bay and discovered how much he could make, and has gotten rid of maybe 1/3 of what he has collected in the last 20 years and has made a nice chunk of money doing it. Has your husband checked out E-bay at all?
 
A good way to go through clothes is to begin each season with all the hangers in the closet with the hook facing you - if something is taken off the hanger, worn, and washed, that item gets put on a hanger facing the proper way. At the end of the season, all the hangers with the hook facing you hold clothes that were not worn - at least not enough to get dirty. Get rid of them.

I can’t stand clutter - thank goodness we move every three years because it forces us to get rid of stuff. However, we still have boxes of DH’s stuff that are marked ‘2000’ from 2 moves ago with 2 different moving company stickers on them. He’s got his own room in the basement where all of it goes for now.
 
DD suggested one simple change which has really helped, I hang my clothes by color, first dresses, then jumpers, skirts, slacks, short sleeve tops, long sleeve tops, jackets. T-shirts, shorts etc. go in plastic baskets on the shelf.

once I did that I seem to have more outfits, and can choose faster. When the closet gets to full I get rid of something that has not been worn this year. If it doesn’t fit, it goes in the St. vincent bag. can’t buy anything new until a bag goes to St Vincent. Same with shoes, they are lined up on a floor rack. no new shoes until there is room. I pared down to 4 purses, one in each basic color, hanging in front hall closet.
 
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dulcissima:
In California it is extra dangerous to live like that because of earthquakes. All of that extra “stuff” could be deadly.
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I’ve told him. I’ve told him and told him–for all the good it does.
Do you know, my sister was telling me that her in-laws have that problem with having too much. They have so many books that the weight of the books has damaged their foundation. That’s a real problem in earthquake country.
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Our house sits on a cement slab, so this hasn’t been a problem. The floor in the storage shed, however, slopes toward the middle.
I have had a similar problem with my husband and all of his musical instruments and recording equipment. A lot of it is vintage stuff. Fortunately he started browsing through E-bay and discovered how much he could make, and has gotten rid of maybe 1/3 of what he has collected in the last 20 years and has made a nice chunk of money doing it. Has your husband checked out E-bay at all?
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We’ve been selling on ebay for years. We have items up for bid right now. I would insist on him putting more up today, but he is going to sell at the swap meet tomorrow and will spend the day getting ready (going through stuff in the garage, pricing it, loading the car). He usually makes a couple hundred dollars each time he sells at the swap meet. We have made thousands on ebay. The problem is he brings in more than we get rid of, and it piles up.

What he’s got is an addiction. No amount of pleading seems to do any good. I almost didn’t marry him on account of it and only did because we made a pre-marital agreement that he would keep everything in one room–a promise he has broken over and over again. But what can I do to make him keep his promise?
 
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