NBR: Getting Organized

Jess.O

Before school starts back up, I'd really like to get my house in order.  It's just DH and me so it shouldn't be such a PITA but it is.  I get so frustrated because we have so much clutter and we have papers everywhere.  We also have a bunch of stuff that we need to get rid of but I feel like it's too much to donate and don't know much about having a garage sale. I'm afraid of how I'm going to cope with it with a baby in the house.  (I know that's awhile but I have time to deal with it now and I won't once school starts.)  

So, genius Nesties, if you were telling me exactly how to get un-cluttered and organized what would you tell me to do?   How do you stay organized and keep a neat house?    

TIA!

MrsMillerTime

Jess.O:

How do you stay organized and keep a neat house?    

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

 

In all seriousness - it doesn't "stay" anything.  Even if I'm just tackling one part of the counter a week or cleaning one room a day, I just break it down into small pieces.  A lot of the time it honestly feels like I'm just moving the clutter around, but eventually it does get taken care of.

Sell stuff on ebay/CL.  At the height of our "spring cleaning" I would list a new item every day.  We had a garage sale in the spring and we honestly didn't have *that* much stuff because I sell so much online.  Sure, we made a few $$ but majority of what didn't sell in the garage sale got donated anyways. 

As for paperwork - you really just have to sit down and deal with it.  I established a filing system for stuff we need to keep (for taxes, insurance, whatever) and make a point to file stuff away once a week.  Invest in a paper shredder.  It makes getting rid of stuff fun.  

HSartteach

ditto MMT on the laughter.

But seriously, lots of the clutter gets moved around--to my studio, to DH's office, then to the back rooms.  Since the back room is becoming a big boy room, we've stopped adding things that weren't baby related.  

We sold what we could at a garage sale, and I threw out some stuff.

As for paperwork--I had a ton in my office.  I just went through bins of paperwork from the last 4 years of teaching and decided if I didn't use it in the past 3 years, as long as I had one hard copy and a digital copy--it was recycled.  I am slowly working on organizing my studio--not an easy feat as I have a ton of art supplies.  But I slowly go through and if I haven't used it to make some art in the past 3 or 4 years, and I can't use it with my students, it's going in the trash.  If I don't do this...my studio space will get smaller and smaller.  

I know it sucks and it piles up, but every now and then I get annoyed and go through and have a big garbage bag with me.

agran

we're cleaning out for baby too... it's tough!  We try to keep ahead of the paper-- every night we go through it.  Recylce all junk mail, put all bills in a to be paid file, and anything we might want to keep in a to be filed file. 

 I have 5 filing "binders" that I use to file household bills, things for taxes, anything we might need.  Once every few months I go file all the paid bills in that.  We only have 5 because after 5 years I shred everything in that file and start over.  So when I started 2011 I shreded 2006.  I read you really don't need anything beyond 5 years.  we do have a file cabinet for lifetime keep stuff-- like marriage licenses, mortgage stuff, wills, medical records, etc.  I'm just very selective about what goes in there. 

 We also only keep paper in the office.  Never on countertops or coffee tables.  DH picks it all up every night before he goes to bed and distributes it. 

 

 

Spanishbeauty

This is also on my summer to-do list.  I definitely recommend attacking one room at a time.  Have a large box/bin or two to toss "give away" items in and "to sell" items in.  That way you ca quickly get stuff out that you know you don't want any more.  After each room take your give away stuff to goodwill or salvation army. 

We don't have much storage in our house so staying organized is important.  We've been working on maximizing our storage space by adding shelving and storage bins/baskets. We added these to our laundry room:

 

After I return the extra stuff that we didn't use, we probably spent about $120 on all of the supplies for that shelving unit.  We plan on installing shelving and/or small bookshelf type storage.  Something similar to this.  (By the way they are on sale for 20 bucks at Bed Bath and Beyond)

 

Next on the list is to get our paperwork tackled.  Right now, since we don't have room for any kind of filing cabinet, I'm thinking about doing something like this...

 

I hope those give you an idea of what might work for you.  Sorry if it seems like I'm being an AW, that's not the intent.  I just find it easier to know what actually works for people than to look at things in a pretty perfectly done magazine.  Good luck!

ShernRich

I like the idea of the bills binder.  Right now, we use this filing system, and so far it's been easy to put every thing in it's place (as far as papers go). https://www.clemson.edu/psapublishing/pages/fyd/HM667.PDF

Clothes- if you haven't worn it in two years or if it doesn't fit anymore, get rid of it. 

Toys and my craft stuff are our challenges right now.  I'm interested to see some solutions. 

SaraLouiseBride08

This is totally BR I see nesting in your future. And nesting is awesome. The day I gave birth, every inch of every corner of my house was organized. Even the closets and the attic.

6 months later, it's a disaster zone!

Anywho ... 2nd trimester will hit and you'll just want to clean and organize, so that will help a lot.

My tips: Skip the garage sale. They're no fun when you're pregnant and I was a very energetic pregnant lady. Sell the big items on Craigslist and donate the rest.

Get rid of eveything you can, because you'll need the space for baby. It feels better to have a clutter free house than it does to keep that stuff.