Feeling low with clutter

sarahs999

The magazine I work for did a big piece on decluttering companies. We got one to work on our features editor, who has the most cluttered house in the world. She's astonishing. They got to the bottom of piles of things that had been put there before she had her children. Her kids are 13 and 9.

Mupette

I am so glad i am not the only person with clutter, i don't feel so guilty or bad now.

i used to have a sparkly clean home, when i was married, the ex was a cleaner and would go behind and clean invisible dirt and dust when he got home...

Once divorced i lapsed a little and concentrated on the lil one.

but now i look around and sigh, i'm in a spot now, been ill for several years now, and coping with trying to keep working and then just collapsing in a heap at home... the housework got ignored (major cleaning jobs) clutter has built up.

I need to move to a home more suited to my health needs so i really do need to be Stearn with myself to get de-cluttering.. i have a habit of putting things in piles to organise then putting it in a plastic tub to sort out later.......

even DS (15) has now decided that i am in need to de clutter..... cheek of it... he has a messy room.

Triggles

tandraig - I have had to weed through my books over the years. I got rid of about 75% of my books on our move from the states to the UK. And when we moved from Devon to Gloucestershire, I weeded through them again. But I still have lots and lots of books. We have a couple huge bookcases, but I also have about 6 big boxes of books tucked away in a large cupboard. They stay there for about a year, then I take them out and swap them with the books in the bookcase. I like to reread my books, so then they seem a bit new again. It puzzles DH, but he's happy that ALL the books aren't all over the place. LOL

We do have toy clutter in the living room, but bought a huge rubber/plastic bucket at Asda (£3) and DS picks up all his toys and puts them away just before lunch, and then again just before dinner. So at least it's clean twice a day.

jellyhead

I have 2 bookcases and a large wall unit in my sitting room that are just for toys!! mad really, but my reasoning is that in houses where there are no toys in the sitting room the kids just stare at the TV or consoles all day.

Of course, when there's a massive load of toys they can't see what they want and ignore it ... it's better to have fewer toys in the sitting room, I just need to organise it ...

jellyhead

I love the bookcase my 4 year old has though, one in the sitting room and one in his bedroom. It's 'tidybooks' and goes behind a door so it takes up no space really, as you wouldn't have anything behind the door anyway.

They're around 6cm deep and need a screw in the wall to stabilise it. The books face forwards, and you can get around 50 in there. They were around £100 each but I've seen similar by vertbaudet much cheaper.

My youngest has always been book-mad, so he got his first 'tidybooks' at 18 months, off father christmas. Other toddlers I knew had books in their toyboxes, but they don't stay in good condition that way.

Filey

tandraig wrote: »

yet the house is clean, ornaments etc kept to a minimum, no unnecessary furniture - its just i like to be surrounded by my books!
I think i need bookshelves - but OH refuses to get some on the grounds that i would only fill them with books! .

Oh how cruel !! Books furnish a home. People actually buy wall papery stuff that looks like books. Some posh bookshops/interior decorators sell books by the yard. Books are like old friends.

Yes you've guessed, my house is full of books. I know you can find out everything you need to know about Life, the Universe and Everything on the internet, but it's not the same as books. One thing I marvel about with the internet is that it is almost like living in a library - everything is there if you look in the right place. But it is not the same as books. Books are more personal.

I live with my daughter and 11 yo grand daughter. Daughter has probably read half a dozen books in her entire life. Grand daughter wants to be an author. Takes all kinds.

lolababy

Im a clutter bug too, sounds like an aa meeting for clutter bugs, lol. Every so often I have a major clear out. I concentrate on one room at a time. Having three boxes helps, one for keeps ,one for giving away and one for the bin.

ailuro2

I'm a messy mare too, but over the years I've got better a preventing the clutter. I love books, but do get fed up of reading the same author, so I joined the library. You can get up to 10 books out for a month at a time, and it's free unless you get one specially ordered from a neighbouring library, in which case it costs 50pence. That's very MSE:money: and the best thing is you don't need a bookcase to keep all the books you read, you just need a jute bag, they live in there till they go back to the library.

Also, don't have big birthday parties for the kids, they will end up with a bit of clutter form every kid who turns up. Have a little day trip with a few of their closest friends, then you'll only have three new things to put away at the end of the day.

Ask family to put money in their bank account to save for something bigger, like an outdoor playhouse or bike. tell them it will take birthday AND Christmas to save up for it, so there's another two lots of presents that aren't clutter. If they want to give the kid something to unwrap on their special day, get them some sweets or a comic.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If only I could get organised with filing all these bills and insurance schedules and all the paper that drops through the door that somehow finds it's way to living on top of our study's cabinets.:eek:

Mupette

I got lots of paperwork.

Did a clear out last year, but what i do have loads of is CTX/WTC letter, how long should i keep them, will not really make a dent in my mess but its a start?

In fact paperwork in general... old paid bills....

How long do you keep your paperwork, how long for different types.


Being taken to B & Q for paint today, want to buy some plastic containers (big ones) to help with deciding keep/chuck/recycle but am i wasting my time, as i have plastic containers full already of my clutter

BitterAndTwisted

I'm a terrible procrastinator and I'm a fiend for keeping things which "might come in handy". This is a terrible combination and I almost can't move for !!!!. I know this has a definite impact on my mental-state but I just won't get to grips with it.

This isn't helped by the quite large storage space/small room by the front door being taken up by a neighbour's stuff and she moved out two years ago. I've tried to persuade/coerce her to come over and remove it all but she hasn't yet and I don't feel like I can dispose of it all until she agrees that I can. A deadline is obviously looming.

Normally, when I've got time to start sorting I just pop in the kitchen and bake a cake instead. I have currently run out of storage-space in the kitchen and am now hoarding some purchases from Approved Foods in cartons in the spare bedroom.

I fear turning into one of those mad hoarders you see on the telly who have narrow passageways between shoulder-high piles of junk in every room. I haven't taken to saving plastic-bags and bits of string yet but it might not be too far off if I don't get a grip.