Overwhelmed by the clutter and mess

**Mamaw** · 10-03-2005, 07:47 AM

I have managed to completely fill up my sewing room. It serves a double purpose as a bedroom when my children come home to visit. I just purchased a toddler bed to put in it for DGD and boy do I have a mess. So......I hope to post the actions I take to organize and clean it up as motivation to myself to get moving.

The problem is that as I move things from this room, I have to put them in other rooms that are also a mess. So, I have to clean and organize the other rooms too! Frankly, I dont even know where to start!

I need to move furniture and clean closets to be able to fit this toddler bed in the room. Dont ask how I let it get this bad again. I DID have it clean but the clutter grows and grows! Plus I have been christmas shopping and am storing gifts in the closet!

Please send good thoughts, motivation, suggestions or the rescue dogs to find me!

**daddys3chicks** · 10-03-2005, 07:52 AM

HUGS and good thoughts to you! I recently moved my girls from the bonus room over our garage back into their original bedroom. They got bunk beds and wanted to move back to the smaller room. However, I was using it for my sewing and scrapbooking and it had become the "if we don't know where it goes we put it here" room.

I finally got DH to take the girls old beds out of the bonus room and got it somewhat organized, but in the meantime there is stuff stacked in my guest room.

I can relate! HUGS!

**Englishlady** · 10-03-2005, 08:34 AM

What are you bringing INTO the house that you don't need?

What can you let go OUT of the house that you don't need?

I would suggest you spend 10 mins doing a "first Cull" through each closet pulling out everything you KNOW is NOT going to be worn in the next 12 months ( too old/small/big/unliked etc).

This should clear a few corners

then I would put a box in one of the now clear(er) closets into which I would stash the Gifts.

THAT should free up some room elsewhere right?

I live in a tiny house and it is an ongoing, never ending job, down sizing and de-junking, but the stronger you are at NOT bringing things IN to the house the less stressful the regular de-junking becomes

Clutter control is like muscle tone, you either "use it" or "lose it"

and like exercise the more you do it, the easier and less arduous is

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress

Karen

**Mamaw** · 10-04-2005, 10:10 PM

Well, I started in on it at least. I cleaned out one bookcase completely and moved it into my office. Then I organized the books in it and got rid of about 15 of them. I also cleaned out the second bookcase that is going to go in to my bedroom. I put the toddler bed and the toy box in the right spot. Far from being done in that room but at least it is a start!

**staceyy** · 10-04-2005, 10:35 PM

My daughter swears by a website : www.flylady.com . She says it is the best site she's come across for getting people organized.

**AmyBoz** · 10-05-2005, 06:14 PM

I'm with Karen...first get rid of things that don't need to be rehomed. Trash and garbage first. Then things to donate or give to friends. Then you can tackle the rest.

I love these kinds of projects. (When they belong to someone else...on my own, phewf! Overwhelming!)

I look forward to reading more of your progress! Great job with the books, by the way!

**forestdale** · 10-05-2005, 06:23 PM

I'm like Amy. I love reading about these projects but don't like doing them myself. I know you can do it and you'll feel fabulous when it's all finihsed. GO GO GO!!!

**Mamaw** · 10-07-2005, 08:49 AM

Progress so far! The closet in the craft room was cleaned out completely last night. It looks great and I can find stuff now! YES!! I also took everything out of the closet in my office so DH can work on installing the shelf for the television. Once that is done, I need to put it all back. So the craft room still looks messy with boxes and stuff piled up every place but we are getting there! On the plus side, I did find that box of Christmas presents and can use a few of them this year! I might just wrap and tag them before putting them back away until the holiday!!

**canadian gardener** · 10-07-2005, 01:28 PM

way to go!!!! I'm with you. I've torn apart several rooms, that are being painted and "repurposed" so it's transition time.

Always hard because it's a time of deciding to let go of stuff, and re use other stuff maybe in different ways.

It's a great time for dejunking, and decluttering.

I love having an open "giveaway box" -- (it's just open and easy to toss things in from across the room!)

in the corner of any room I'm currently working on, PLUS PLUS PLUS one more giveaway box in a central location on each floor.

OK so have a giveawaybox AND A THROWAWAY BARREL or trashcan that is in each room that you are currently working on.

Those are the 2 keys to success.

Once it's tidy keep a wastebasket in each room. Period.

AND a giveaway box on each floor of the house, open and ready to dump into.

Maintenance of a clutter free house only happens when we accept that clutter is forever popping up and the best time to deal with it, is the instant you recognize it.

If you find you've made a mistake, that box is there for a little while, filling itself up, and you can always pull something back out for further consideration.

When you are heading by the charity in the car
OR
you feel it's time to call for pickup, do it.

I keep the pickup number on the back of my calendar and call several times a year.

Then that week before they come by, I do a bigger dejunking and try to really let go of more stuff.

**Michele Annette** · 10-07-2005, 04:49 PM

Good for you Mamaw. I have to agree with Karen. We live in a very small space as well and FINALLY, over the course of a year, we decluttered, dejunked, hauled off, gave away and threw out a lot of useless stuff!

Now that it's gone I can tell you (and DH too) that I feel free and less stressed. Everything has it's place and it feels so good. When I'm finished with something it gets put back into it's place. Our place is not only neater, but cleaner because there isn't stuff everywhere. I didn't realize how much it was affecting my life and stressing me out. You're doing great!