Here are some links to help us get organized. There is some good advice here and some plain talking. These ladies aren’t trying to sell us a product that will “help us organize”, they are just giving some good common sense. If you’re like me, you probably don’t need more space, you just need to eliminate or store the non-essential and clutter items that are going nowhere and doing nothing to improve your life or home. (And, by the way, if you have a reasonable size house to start with, you don’t need a storage unit to put this extra stuff in. Get rid of it or give it to someone who will use it! Why pay to store things you don’t truly need? And, if you really, really can’t part with something, buy a small portable shed – used, if possible – and store it yourself. It will save money in the long run.)
Stand Up and Move – Toss and Store – This isn’t the actual title of this article, but it’s the part I like best; maybe because it applies to me! :-)
Get Organized Part 1 – Who knew that getting organized could improve our quality of living so much?
Get Organized Part 2 – Where the rubber meets the road. Telling us what we need to hear. (The author has CFS, by the way, so she is not unsympathetic toward those who have genuine disabilities and encourages us to work in small increments.)
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After reading some of these I got inspired to clean out under my bathroom sink and discard or give away anything that I wasn’t going to use or didn’t need, and to move at least one thing to a more logical location for storage. :-) That area had been bugging me because it was too full and cluttered. Since I want to move to more natural cleaning products it was a good time to eliminate things that I wasn’t likely to finish up. Too bad I didn’t take some “before” and “after” pictures. ;-) Later I may show some other projects I’ve been working on (the sewing room) or that I want to work on (the back bedroom).
And, lest ye think that my mess can’t be as bad as yours, here are a couple pictures for proof. (Don’t look at these in the evening. They might give you nightmares.) :-)
The back bedroom – dumping ground for various and sundry and sorting area for boxes not yet unloaded since we moved here. Though the pile has somewhat improved, it is still difficult the move around in there…
The sewing room (before the desk and machine were set up in there). This mess actually got somewhat organized and some of the things were put away or tended to; but, believe it or not, the mess in there is actually worse now than it was in this picture! Ack! (More later on that.)
I can so relate to this, Mary. I have a system now that is working for our family, but when I first got married, I had a back bedroom that was the dumping grounds for everything...seeing your pictures takes me back and gives me a bit of a chuckle, because I've so been there. It is hard combining two people and all their stuff. I purge on a regular basis and offer things up for recycling, reusing or garage sales when I can. I use white vinegar and Shaklee Basic H to clean with and so I know how good it feels to only have clean, folded towels and toilet paper under my bathroom sinks. I think "stuff" can be so burdensome for so many and here in America it takes constant vigilance to keep it under control, because we have access to so much. Can't wait to see the after pics! You can totally do this!
ReplyDeleteDanielle, thanks for your encouragement! :-) We have the added interest in our situation of having quite a bit of my parents' stuff in the mix. We are storing stuff for them in our garage, and that back bed room was being used to sort through some of the stuff. Unfortunately, Mom and I got bogged down in it and never seriously got back to it. :-P Thankfully, my parents are willing to reduce their pile and we want to reduce ours. It's just a struggle to make the point of working through it. I still haven't found things of my own that I want to use. *sigh* Ah, well. We have been getting a bit more motivated lately, so maybe something will come of that! They've been working on their house too. :-) At this point I actually think the back bed room would be easier than the sewing room! haha
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