Does anyone else's homes seem to always be cluttered no matter how hard you clean and how often you pick everything up?? I decluttered a few months ago and it still seems we have too much stuff! When I say we decluttered I mean each kid went from having 12 bins full of toys to now having a 12X12 inch bin to put toys in and that is all they have. I got rid of all the extra kitchen pots, pans, and odds and ends too. I feel like laundry never ends.....I know with 7 of us it will never end, but I feel like doing 4 loads a day isn't enough! I have gone through closets and given away tons of clothes to friends and goodwill. So I guess I just want to know how do you organize all your stuff so it doesn't look like a tornado came through your house and what kinds of things do you get rid of so they don't clutter your home?
Organize. Organize. Hmmmm...that word is unfamiliar to me. Can you define it for me and maybe use it in a sentence. My dictionary seems to have that page ripped out.
I keep sterilite and rubbermaid in business by buying all of their clear totes =] It's a system that works for me and I can tell you where everything we own is.....everything except my keys, debit card and drivers license because I swear they walk away.
Oh Gosh...To be honest it seriously helps me to pick up almost constantly. I never seem to get thru the laundry (there's 8 of us here total) - and if I do get thru it, it doesn't get put away (which is frustrating.). Also, the kids are getting much better about their chores and helping pick up....but I'm exhausted at it and it never seems to be finished. Then again, we don't have enough drawers (my DH and I don't have any and the desks each have 1 small drawer - which isnt very much.). I'm still trying to figure it out.
i am pretty organized.....it even shocked me when i look at our school room compared to the rest of our "cluttered" house! i do better in our school room, but DO NOT open the hall closet! LOL it seems like I am always asking my kids to go through there clothes then my neighbors give me more clothes! it's a never ending cycle here!
LOL!! All you ladies are wonderful! Every time I feel frustrated and just ready to throw my hands up and go live by myself on a tropical island you are there to remind me that no one is perfect and it is hard work to keep a house clean! I have some buckets with labels that hold toys, and buckets of school stuff and buckets of clothes that will be passed down to younger children, but I don't have everything in buckets and I am starting to think that maybe, just maybe that is what I need to do. Wal-Mart here I come!
I love a bucket, rubbermaid, or any kind of storage box type thing. Dh has cut me off and told me no more storage boxes.LOL I am in the process and have been for awhile now at getting my house to look nice and not like a tornado hit it 100 times a day. My biggest thing is I am always picking up or wiping something down. Also if I find something that just doesn't have a home I throw it out. Also I have been using the "if you have not see it or used it in 6 months rule" get rid of it. It has really helped me out. I have gotten rid of 2 truck loads of stuff from the house. As for laundry, my washer is always going and there is only 4 of us. I find it so much easier sometimes to just load it all up go to the laundry mat and get it all done at once. Then have everyone help put it away as soon as we get home. ( we just did this today actually) I wish you the best of luck with your de cluttering adventure. Sorry I did not have much advice.
I'm jealous of your progress with decluttering. clothes and toys are our main problem. No matter how many plastic boxes and totes I buy, stuff just refuses to put itself away!! I tried rotating toys but at this point every toy is out and I can't decide what to get rid of, and the ones I want to get rid of (noisy, non-teaching, space hogs) were gifts from family and/or hubby thinks they are too cool to get rid of. ugh. as for clothes, I am up to 5 laundry baskets. Good. we're about to have people living here. makes sense to me, but hubby is all uptight about having that many baskets. hubby's constantly grumpy because his underwear aren't put away, they're in a basket somewhere. well, too bad. maybe someday he'll start doing his own laundry, or at least put it away. or he can just keep yelling about not having any underwear. his choice!! sorry, you got me about 5 minutes after the last "discussion" about laundry baskets. I had to buy the last 2 secretly and sneak them into the house. hee hee!
I CANT STAND clutter...........It drives me nuts.....Actually my hubby gets upset with me when i get rid of something because sometimes ill do it prematurely..... so I have been trying to just put stuff upstairs in totes on our enclosed sun room and not sell it or give it way for atleast 6 more months....we will see..................:lol: I love bins, totes...I actually have a playroom down stairs as well for the DC...I had this small 3 drawer dresser in my daughters closet it had no purpose so i brought it down and made up pictures and labels of what went in each dwarer to keep the toys at bay in the dc because it usually was a wreck....Luckily in my dining room I have a great big built in that covers one wall made of oak and it has shelves and cabinets so alot of stuff is neatly organized in small totes. and stacked nicely.
I am an organizational freak. I am anal about it. I don't really have advice though because there are 4 of us compared to 7 of you and my dd is 13 and is able to do a lot with me. I just constantly keep things picked up, make the kids pick things up when they are finished playing with them and I have certain laundry days. I go through everything about two - four times a year and donate things to charity.
Me too! Our entire lives are stored in Rubbermaid/Sterilte containers. They're great for the kids old clothes, homeschool stuff, and craft stuff. We also use a step basket at the stairs. That's where we drop miscellaneous hair bows, books, small toys, brushes, etc. Someone cleans it out a couple times a week and that helps keep clutter down. Toys and games (especially those with small parts ) really started becoming a problem until I cracked down. As soon as a part goes missing or something gets broken, we say good riddance. It was hard at first as the kids were saddened to see some favorites go, but now they know I'm serious and they put things away more carefully and take better care of their toys. To keep the paper under control, everything stays in the Household Organizational binder. That alone has saved my sanity! We go through clothes at least twice a year. If it hasn't been worn in a year, it is donated. Organization is a constant battle! :roll:
I am a... what's the word for it? Disaster organizer, maybe? Everything is everywhere and my office/school area looks like a tornado has blown through it. But I know where everything is and I know if something has been moved or is out of place.
I feel for you I do! I feel it is never ending as well, not so much the clutter as I really do toss and get rid of stuff..My problem is NO ONE ever seems to put anything away!!! Just today hubby made a chore chart that we will use daily while schooling, it shows that we are to straighten up daily but every day there will be a room that will need to be deep cleaned..example dust, mop, etc..I HOPE it will work!!! I am very thankful that my boys 9 & 13 are out of the "toy" stage and soon Chloe will be also...I know when they were younger is was always a MESS Good luck finding what works for you! Rebecca
Oh my goodness, we have been in the toy stage here for 19 years now, since my boys are so spaced out in age. We literally still have toys still hanging around that belonged to the oldest son (19 now). It does make me feel good that he took such good care of his things, but this is not a large house and only so many toys can live under the bed, sometimes I swear when I turn my back the darn things crawl out and wander the house! lol
Organize..LOL. Not possible..lol. I have clothes still in hampers from this weekend, my kids room you could get lost in...lol. My kitchen is nice though, but i do dishes as I go so i won't have to worry about them later or in the morning. My kitchen table is now a school desk so we don't even eat at that anymore...lol. My living room is a day to day thing, it may look good or it may not..lol. I am slowly becoming organized but it is a SLOW process...LOL. I wish you luck because I know I need it also...lol.
We sold almost everything in our house and moved into a motorhome for a year. We've been in a house for a year and a half. Chaos. Epic fail on the organization and decluttering over here. I tried to get rid of kids toys and *I* just love them too much!
You can take pictures of old toys and keep a memory album of old toys for your kids. I do this often with the kids' artwork. They take up much less space on my hard drive=) I donate stuff to other families I know that have small kids and to our local women's crisis center. Those moms might need itmore than we do..if they lost their husbands in the military, or illness..or they had to leave an abusive situation. I find a lot of comfort that some other children could be comforted during a hard time with the cool toys we have=) Or that some needy child might be read the bedtime story I donated, or taught to read with it.. Organization is so much easier when you have less stuff in your house. Having my house on the market has made me pare our stuff down to a minimum. Now I just have to stop bringing IN so much more stuff... Have you read the flylady book? I never followed her procedures verbatim, but the understanding and ideas helped me alot=)
