Clutter is a huge problem at our house. We have too much stuff and no place to put it. Even those items meant to hold things like bookshelves can look unruly if regular maintenance is not done to cull clutter.

It overwhelms me to tackle our clutter. This week everyone has been sick so I’ve stayed at home for two days. The first day I was also sick and didn’t get much done. By the second day, I was feeling better and ready to do some de-cluttering. Since I was easily getting lost by what to do first, I decided to tackle a small spot. I would clear a spot and then move to another one. Once a spot is cleared, no items can be placed in that space. So when I clear a part of the floor, I will not stack up other objects on clean floor spot while tackling another part of the house. So at first I will have plenty of places to shuffle around clutter but eventually those will dwindle down. Then I must do something with everything in the house and that is the end goal.

So far I only have a small spot cleared but I’m not discouraged. If I can clear some clutter each day, then I will be very happy.

If someone loans you something like a book, how long do you keep it before returning it? I am the world’s worst – or close to it – person about returning borrowed items. Do not let me borrow anything. I never ask to borrow something but occasionally someone will say “I have that..I’ll let you borrow it.” It causes me a lot of stress because I know I may never return it.

Borrowed items then become part of the clutter. They are stored out of sight – only to be seen again in six-twelve months. So while I’m in organization mode, I will place a crate close to the door and put all borrowed items in it. My goal is to return items within the next few weeks and then never borrow anything again. I’m not really sure my co-worker is expecting her book back I borrowed ( or she let me borrow. I didn’t ask to borrow it) 15 years ago – but I still have it.

I will just have to graciously decline anyone who tries to give me something on a temporary basis. Also if I let someone borrow something – especially money – then I treat it like a gift. I may never see it again and I am okay with that. PS..don’t ask me for money. I will give someone less than a $1 without much thought – but more than that takes great effort on my part.

So, how long is too long to keep a borrowed item?

When I was in tenth grade, I bought a fishing tacklebox and used it to store my makeup. A couple of years later, Caboodles hit the market. Aside from the mirror inside and the bright colors, it was pretty much a tacklebox. I’m sure I’m not the only person to think of a use for a product and then later find it being marketed as said item.  There are many other  uses for a tacklebox around the house.

Tackeboxes are great organizers. You can buy fishing tackleboxes that come with several plastic divided boxes. This is dream storage for crafters but also is handy to store anything small like tacs, rubberbands, and staples. Everything I don’t want to deal with winds up in a junk drawer. I might as well just throw it away because I don’t want to look at it. Occasionally I will look through the junk drawer for something. It would be better to organize those items we use like safety pins and batteries in a tackebox and forego the junk drawer altogether.  If I really want to conquer clutter, then I need to start with the junk drawer. It is small and should be an easy task to complete.

A tacklebox is also a good choice for those small, tiny toys that my daughter loves. She can’t be the only one who loves microscopic playthings. The only good thing about these toys is that they take up little space – but organizing them now will make it easier when it is time to give them away – or possibly sell it. You know, a complete set will fetch more money than just a few pieces. My daughter would be mortified to hear me talk of selling her toys – but it’s just part of the toy cycle. She’s seen Toy Story. Deep down she knows she will not always find that Barney doll as fun to play with as when she was two.

So, yeah, tackleboxes. They are great for storage around the house. Organize that junk drawer and be able to find items when you need them instead of weeks or months later.

Clutter is a never-ending problem in our house. We have way too much stuff that we never use. It is exhausting just thinking about what to do with our stuff. We have way too many clothes – considering we wear that same five outfits each week.

Since it is overwhelming to think about it all at one time, I plan on micro-cleaning these next few months. I will either toss or donate items we haven’t used in six months – which is pretty much everything in storage. Going through storage is dangerous. I find items that I’ve been looking for and vow to use but never do. I must stay focused and accountable.

I will start with the house since it is climate-controlled unlike the hot storage buildings. The house will also be the most difficult since we this will be the majority of the stuff we have used in the past six months. I have a vision of how I want our home to look. Most items we own are not what I see when I think about our neat, tidy place. This vision I will need to remember when trying to toss some of this clutter.

I will start next weekend and tackle our bedroom – not the worse part of the clutter but definitely a big problem area.

One of my big problems with clutter is paper. Being such a computer geek, it is kind of ironic how much I depend on paper. I read better from paper than on a computer screen, so I will print out writing guidelines and craft patterns instead of using them on screen. We also have other paper like receipts, coupons, and bills. It stacks up pretty fast, and I hate going through everything.

Sometimes it just becomes too overwhelming and debilitating. I have to do something or I cannot get anything done. First I go through all of my papers and sort in piles of keep and toss. The toss pile goes into the garbage and the sort pile is then sorted into subcategories. I may have patterns, instructions, articles, etc I want to keep in that pile. Once I have sorted them all, I then decide how to store them. I like to keep guidelines and other important documents in a three-ring binder. It keeps the paper protected and makes it easy to find it down the road. My crochet patterns are so disorganized. Right now they are stacked in a clear drawer waiting to be put away. At least that gets them all in one spot.

When I can see my desk again, then I will know I am getting close to being done.

Last night we went to open house for my toddler’s pre-school program. She starts next week which means life is about to change for all of us. It’s exciting and we are all looking forward to it.

This summer I tried to get some stuff in order like all of our clutter and to blog more. I’ve done little with both tasks, so here’s hoping that with this new routine that I will be more productive. I always have a lot of optimism at the beginning of anything. Too bad it usually dissipates before it truly becomes routine.

Anyway this week is all about that start of pre-school and getting ready for Saturday’s rummage sale. My goal is to get rid of at least half our stuff in storage. If I can do that then I might forgive myself for all the summer hours I wasted on Facebook.

Today I did something I’ve never done before. I made a special place for my shoes and then organized them by placing them in plastic shoe boxes.

These shoe boxes are cheap and are great for small shoes. My husband’s shoes will just have to hang out on the shelf because I doubt we can find a cheap plastic box to put these in. I’ve tried shoe racks and other shoe storage solutions but never stick with them for very long. I really like these shoe boxes and hope that this is a solution that I can stick with.

Our closet space is very limited. In fact, we don’t have a closet in our bedroom, so there isn’t really a spot for us to hide our shoes. So by using these shoe boxes on the bottom row of a bookshelf creates a clean, neat shoe storage spot.

This is just one small step in hoping living a more organized life. There’s still much to do but it’s nice to have at least one small part done.

Anybody a FlyLady? I was years ago but have decided to give it a try again. All I really remember is to shine your sink each night before you go to bed. I always feel better when I have a clean sink and no dishes awaiting me first thing in the morning.

I definitely need some motivation when it comes to cleaning out clutter. So I think FlyLady will be a big help. I know I can spend 15 minutes de-cluttering. I also like the idea of taking a garbage bag and going through the house to throw 27 things away. There are some items that I can eBay or give away. But there are some things that I’m not sure anybody will be able to use as it might be broken or missing pieces. If it’s a large enough item, I could try it on Freecycle or Craig’s List just to see if anyone has a need for it.

I’m hoping by doing the FlyLady principles that I can de-clutter as well as keep a cleaner house. A messy house just in general makes me less productive.

This week I have been spending cleaning up the three-year-old’s room. Her toys are located throughout the house and she has way too much stuff. So I’ve been going through her toys – much to her dislike. It’s amazing that I put something in the giveaway pile and she immediately picks it up and plays with it. Unbelievable.

I had considered getting her some sort of bin toy storage solution but really didn’t want to shell out the money for one as I just didn’t think it would hold that much. So yesterday I ran across a three drawer rolling cart for $10. It works well to hold a lot of her toys. I could use a second one. Even if I buy two then I’ve only spent $20 and have a very versatile storage system that she can use for a long time. Sure those cute colorful character bins are cute but she will only like those for a few years. I’m always interested in buying versatile storage solutions that can be moved around the house.

Between the cell phones, Nintendo DS and digital cameras, we have quite a few chargers lying around.  Organizing all those chargers is a job, There are just so many that it can be confusing to keep track of them all.

When we have fewer electronics that needed to be charged, I used a 6 outlet extension cord and just kept them all plugged in at the same time. I could just turn off the extension cord when I wasn’t charging something. I took my label maker and labeled each plug so that it was easy to find the cord you were looking for. Now that we have more cords than outlets, it’s a little chaotic. Right now our best solution is to keep all the chargers in the same place and use the same outlet for everything. At least when we go to look for a charger we know where it is even if it may take a few minutes to find the right one.