What is your clutter nemesis?

[Deleted]

I try to be pretty good but fail miserably at:

A) Hats, coats, mittens and other outdoor gear. Living in the barnyard requires SO much stuff. There's chore gear, "town/work" gear and dress coats. Chore gear requires like 3 of everything because if you wear it in the morning it either needs go in the wash or won't be dried out by night. I have a mudroom, my main entry is full of hooks and a decent closet and it's still SO much stuff. I'm tired of keeping tabs on it all. 4 people in this house Xs 3 of everything equals insanity.

B) Dishes. EVERY TIME I turn around there's something I missed. It doesn't help that when I'm at work all day 3 other people are in and out. No one is really messy, but still, it's stuff being used. I wash a sinkful of dishes every other day and run my dishwasher 2xs a day. I love my open floorplan, but this is the downfall. I see dishes from EVERYWHERE.

C) Bedding. I had to take it all out of the closet to make way for baby and I don't where to store it right now. I don't even have that much. Extra set for our bed, a set for the pull out, a set for the air mattress and 2 sleeping bags. It's all in a pile on the floor right now.

I'm feeling a little claustrophobic in my house tonight. And I have decent closets, cabinets, baskets you name it. I need to get out and do something fun I think. I'm way over analyzing this.

[Susie]

Oh we have a bunch. Our problem was that 5 years ago, we moved from 900 sf with no storage to 1800 sf (with modest/not terribly efficient storage). We responded by just spreading out. Clothes in all 4 bedroom closets, winter gear sprawled across a couple different closets, and every misfit item in a pile in the basement. Stereo I got for my 13th birthday? In the basement. Two CRT TV's, a VCR, and a low-def DVD player? All in the basement. Eventually it caught up with us. I totally hear you on claustrophobia in your own house.

This month we've started to get a handle on it. We cleaned out the misfit basement crap, and threw away a ton. We cleaned out the clothes closets, consolidated, and donated 6 bags + 1 box of clothes to Good Will (plus threw out a lot that was not donation quality).

One place we still struggle is kitchen cabinets + countertops. We don't have a pantry, and our kitchen cab layout is pretty crappy. We have 5 separate small segments of countertop space, very few of which actually make good work spaces. That will have to wait until we reno the kitchen, which is $$$, and not on the immediate radar. In the meantime we are working to just organize by frequency of use. I also need to finish painting the bookcases for the LR which have a cabinet apiece, which will be good for serving pieces.

[finally]

My desk.  So much accumulates here. I bring things here to go through at a later time (mail, magazines, coupon books), I put my make-up on here, do my hair here (I have make-up and hair stuff in filing cabinet under desk), jewelry ends up piling up here, lotions, dog treats, things I need to bring back downstairs.... I feel like I am forever straightening and cleaning-up my desk.

[adhdfashion]

Children's toys. They are everywhere and breeding.

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2013 20:32:16 GMT -5 KellyEasterbrook said:

A) I would kill for a closet. The house we are in right now does not have a single usable closet (there's one in the enclosed back porch, but the mice already claimed it). The house comes with two small wardrobes for clothing, but they're each only about 5 feet wide. We just don't have enough storage for clothing but I'm not going to buy anything since we don't know how long we'll live here.

B) I would also kill for a storage room or garage. The outdoor storage room that we pay for is overrun by critters. It smells like hantavius and the entire thing is covered by a layer of mice, rat, bird, bat feces. We've got ten large tubs of extra linens, Christmas decorations, outdoor gear, etc and the only place to put them is in the corner of a room. It drives me crazy. A couple of DH's tools and large outdoor gear stuff is just sitting on the front porch, since there's no other place to put them. It looks bad.

C) Dishes. No dishwasher + half the cabinets in the kitchen either doesn't open or literally falling apart = dishes always spread out on the counters.

I really like where we live...but holy moly, having absolutely no storage has resulted is a huge amount of stuff just laying around. It drives me absolutely crazy, especially since I work from home so I look at it all the time. A glass of wine usually helps, though. Or hot buttered rum.

Perhaps a good exterminator and some caulking could help you out?

[Deleted]

My dining room table is a dumping ground. Everything seems to land there - mail, papers, packages, coats, etc. I don't have a defined entryway, front closet or mud room so because the DR is near the front door, stuff just lands there. I try to stay on it but right now I'm looking at it and see a stack of paper plates, an empty binder and 2 leftover plastic containers from a recent organizing project. Just totally random crap.

[mrspez07]

Mail, artwork, receipts and random papers.
I am generally ok w/ kid clutter, clothes in my own room, etc. but I cannot keep random papers, mail, kids artwork, etc in check. I toss a lot of junk mail before it even comes in the house but there are so many other pieces that I keep to do so something with and I end up with piles on the front entry table, the kitchen counter and the bar (near the door to the garage)

[kaylie]

We have a bench at the end of our bed that is NEVER clean. I use it to pile up clothes. I've tried to keep it uncluttered but fail miserably every time.

[bunnymendelbaum]

Dec 30, 2013 20:18:11 GMT -5 Susie said:

Oh we have a bunch. Our problem was that 5 years ago, we moved from 900 sf with no storage to 1800 sf (with modest/not terribly efficient storage). We responded by just spreading out. Clothes in all 4 bedroom closets, winter gear sprawled across a couple different closets, and every misfit item in a pile in the basement. Stereo I got for my 13th birthday? In the basement. Two CRT TV's, a VCR, and a low-def DVD player? All in the basement. Eventually it caught up with us. I totally hear you on claustrophobia in your own house.

This is us. We went from 400sf to 2,400sf and now to 1400sf. It is so cluttered I want to cry. We have decided to do an ultra purge when we get home this week.

[munkii]

Everything is my clutter nemesis. Mail and random paperwork (like service orders), textbooks, notebooks, crafting tools, magazines, school supplies, everything, clothes on the bench at the end of my bed. When these things find a home, they're there until I need them again. I'm working on it (donations are slowly being accumulated this week and we are currently setting up the office, which has been acting as a storage room until yesterday).

[ruthie7532]

The bar in our kitchen becomes a dumping ground for anything that we bring in the door from the garage. I have to figure out a better solution, because it drives me crazy.

Also, DD's toys are always all over the living room. Once she gets old enough to play upstairs by herself we'll have a play room for most of them to go in, but until that time I guess I'll live with it.

[msmerymac]

Tupperware! It always falls out on top of me. I can't wait to move and get a new layout!

I also let mail and my desk stuff pile up.

[Susie]

Dec 31, 2013 9:47:46 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

I also let mail and my desk stuff pile up.

I was struggling with this, but I switched most of our bills to paperless this fall and it really helps.  I don't forget to pay anything because I balance our checkbook in a spreadsheet, and I have a list of bills in order every month that I copy & past into the bottom of the register, and pay in order each month.  When I pay the credit cards, I download the statements and save.  No more paper.  I also bought a scanner and a shredder, so except for receipts that I need the original for, I get rid of everything paper.  It's a huge relief.

[Deleted]

Dec 31, 2013 9:47:46 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Tupperware! It always falls out on top of me. I can't wait to move and get a new layout!

I also let mail and my desk stuff pile up.

I finally got a handle on this! I didn't save anything that was an odd size, bought extra of my most used sizes, and bought all glass Pyrex that fits in each other with a lid holder for the covers. I also don't save things like sour cream containers any longer. 10 containers I use always has been so much better than 20 I could never find. It's amazing how little you need actually.

Lunch bags on the other hand..I have and need a ton for the busy season. I got sick of them all falling on my head so I dumped them all in a plastic tote in my pantry closet.  

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2013 22:47:20 GMT -5 ruthie7532 said:

Also, DD's toys are always all over the living room. Once she gets old enough to play upstairs by herself we'll have a play room for most of them to go in, but until that time I guess I'll live with it.

This is us too. There's always toys on the LR floor. She has a great playroom and I've been teaching her it's okay to play alone there. She doesn't always want to and I don't feel like sitting in there all day at this point either (It's on our lower level). So our LR always has toys.

I'm okay with it. She's just a kid. And they do have baskets and a home. As long as I know that, I'm fine with it.

[msmerymac]

Dec 31, 2013 10:10:26 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

Dec 31, 2013 9:47:46 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Tupperware! It always falls out on top of me. I can't wait to move and get a new layout!

I also let mail and my desk stuff pile up.

I finally got a handle on this! I didn't save anything that was an odd size, bought extra of my most used sizes, and bought all glass Pyrex that fits in each other with a lid holder for the covers. I also don't save things like sour cream containers any longer. 10 containers I use always has been so much better than 20 I could never find. It's amazing how little you need actually.

Lunch bags on the other hand..I have and need a ton for the busy season. I got sick of them all falling on my head so I dumped them all in a plastic tote in my pantry closet.  

Nesting containers sounds perfect. I'm also considering putting them all in a drawer (or a box on a low shelf) so I'm not always cringing when I open the cupboard. 

[mrs.jacinthe]

Paper. For sure. I struggle with keeping the junk mail, etc under control. It would help quite a bit if my scanner was always out and accessible, but it is not.

[sierramist03]

Kitchen gadgets. I love them but they are everywhere and my kitchen it soo small for all the stuff I have so I have a tote in the garage:( I think I need to figure out what I don't use.

[pumpkin]

Dec 30, 2013 21:02:28 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

Mail, artwork, receipts and random papers.
I am generally ok w/ kid clutter, clothes in my own room, etc. but I cannot keep random papers, mail, kids artwork, etc in check. I toss a lot of junk mail before it even comes in the house but there are so many other pieces that I keep to do so something with and I end up with piles on the front entry table, the kitchen counter and the bar (near the door to the garage)

I somehow also end up with piles and piles of paper everywhere it seems.

That and I just can't seem to get organized in general, I feel. I know I have a ton of stuff to sort through still that came from my storage unit and my garage is a disaster filled with bags and boxes of stuff I just haven't gotten to yet.  I'm hoping to go through some of it this weekend, but also am realistic that this will be an ongoing project/battle for me for awhile. 

[kayakjenn]

So many areas.....we only use the dining room to eat in for Thanksgiving and Christmas so all year long everything gets piled in there. My job especially adds to the clutter, I'm in sales and I get so much paper, sales aids, demonstrators and such that just don't fit in my car. I use the guest room as my office but it gets so full that it spills into the dining room.

Every closet in the house needs to be purged and we have no control over bills and mail.

Help!

[treedimensional]

Everything to do with my work, from my paper-cluttered office, to my reference-cluttered shelves and bookcases, to my saws and tools.
I come in after pruning trees and lean my pole tools against the wall, in the corner beside the front door. NOT attractive living room décor.

[pitterwoo]

paper piles are a challenge for us. I'm trying hard to get more things paperless and we got a scanner for Christmas.

Our house layout is not very good either. No good entryway to put shoes and coats, that sort of thing.

Also, what I think is really our biggest problem is that we have too much stuff that we don't use often enough that's out. Like, we need a better plan for storing things that aren't used frequently so that we have more room for the stuff that gets used all the time. Reorganizing like that is just so time consuming.