You know that person who claims they know where everything is? She has piles of paper all over her desk and her clothes are piled willy-nilly on the closet floor. The filing cabinet looks more like a trash bin, and the kitchen counter? Forget about it.
I am that person.
The photograph you see to the left is a picture of my kitchen counter, the one where I keep my laptop, the mail and any other flotsam or jetsam that might wash up in my house. One of the drawers here started out as a place to stow The Poo’s craft supplies, and quickly became the junk drawer. It houses hairbands, markers, old receipts, an herb-garden kit, and some of our tax returns, among other items.
If you think this looks bad, you should see the laundry room.
I don’t try to be disorganized. I have the best of intentions. When we moved in, I worked hard to assign everything a place, especially in the kitchen. After all, I spend 98 percent of my time in the kitchen/family room combo that is our main living space. All our activities take place in this area, from playdough making to writing for my clients and blogs. And let me tell you, it is hard to write in clutter.
As a college student and even in high school I had a highly ritualized writing routine. I cleaned the space in which I was to compose, making the bed and clearing the desk of all items not essential to my “process.” I’d dim all the lights and train a single small but high-intensity lamp at my writing area. I’d turn on my music and fall in the hole.
These days I write while The Poo naps and I have a very small window into which I need to fit all my work. I spend half of that precious time picking up. If I only had to deal with toddler detritus, I’d be done in no time. Instead, I am pushing small piles of clutter from one spot to another and stashing important papers in “safe” spots I’ll never remember.
This mess is making me crazy. And if mama is crazy, everyone is cazy. Any suggestions? I’m open to anything that might get this chaos under control.
Photo courtesy of the author. Some rights may be reserved.
[tags]clutter, control, help[/tags]
11 responses so far ↓
Whitney Hoffman // Feb 27, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Oh, we can talk for days about this, maybe even swap pictures on flickr. And let me say right off the bat: Me too.
Somethings work, like once a week triage of the counters, the basket of misc. collections of junk. Trying to say- if it doesn’t have a home, it is trash and needs to go. It is as much an excess inventory problem as anything else.
Kathleen Nadeau’s book, ADD friendly ways to organize you life, is super at giving awesome suggestions on how to help, how to get to the stuff that just gets overwhelming- whether you are ADD or not.
Let’s talk via email, and let me help! ldpodcast@gmail.com
Meg // Feb 27, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Oh please…. please please please don’t take your conversation off line. share share share.
Every few weeks I get completely overwhelmed and want to throw everything away….
Whitney Hoffman // Feb 27, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I just could talk endlessly about this. From trying to design it so when people come in the house, the books and shoes and coats have someplace to go immediately. How to get the mail sorted over the trash can and stop letting it sit around.
We use a shoe basket, for example, to prevent our morning reign of terror and choas that sounds something like
“Where are your shoes?”
I dunno.
Neither do I. They were on your feet last.
Oh.
So where are they?
I dunno.
You’re gonna miss the bus.
Oh.
and it goes on from there. Shoe basket has helped that one a lot.
Maybe we need a career mom radio series on it? One common problem at a time and we all discuss ideas either through skype or talkshoe?
Could be fun!
mcewen // Feb 27, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Good grief! I thought that was the ‘after’ picture!!! in which case I will certainly hide my picture of ‘before.’
If you struck a match near that, I doubt if you’d cause a stir. Do the same in my house and I’d expire in a bonfire.
If this is what you call clutter dearie, then you’d need to where shades before you entered my house, or maybe just a blindfold.
Best wishes
whymommy // Feb 27, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Oh, I hear you … round here these days, it’s clothes. With a toddler and a newborn and naps scattershot across the day and the house, it seems there’s always laundry in some stage of being done (but not yet put away). I don’t have any advice — but I’m here with you!
P.S. I tried the FlyLady method last week — did you know she sends 10 emails a day? I’d spend my whole day on email — counterproductive for me, at least!
A.L. Hatch // Feb 27, 2007 at 7:05 pm
Trust me, this is the “clean” version of this spot. The rest of the house feels equally cluttered. Whitney, let me have it!
I’m ready to go crazy here. And I keep buying new storage stuff, only to find it makes things worse, not better.
I think a podcast about this would be pretty cool.
Occidental_Girl // Feb 28, 2007 at 2:10 am
Uhhh, hello. That is my life, too. All except for the whole paid-to-write thing.
Since we moved in two months ago, I’ve been determined to clear the clutter. I want no clutter! Guess what? I have clutter. But, it has been much reduced by steps I have taken.
Steps such as, I do not have hours to spend sorting papers, but that is exactly what I had to do to wade through the mess and make it organized. Because more papers were piling up in the meantime.
I set up the filing cabinet and set to work making files and actually filing papers into it. It’s helped a lot.
I don’t know about you, but I can get my child to help me clean for a while, but only for a short while. She soon catches on that it’s work and really no fun at all. I was going to suggest that the Poo help put her things away but, ha ha ha! I am so funny.
whymommy // Mar 1, 2007 at 3:49 am
Hey, thanks to this discussion and my current level of frustation with my house, I was able to devote all afternoon + evening last night and naptime again today to decluttering clothes around here … making progress … thanks for the inspiration and comraderie!
Whitney // Mar 1, 2007 at 11:24 am
I try to do a 2x yearly closet clean with the boys. My older one is a bigger kid than my skinny little micro son, so while John can wear James’s shirts, it’ll be a no go on recycling pants. So we can put some stuff down in the basement in rubbermaid containers for the next year or so, the rest to Goodwill. John’s outgrown stuff either is worn enough I just pitch it, or put it in the Goodwill pile.
I’m really bad with my closet, and giving up stuff I don;t wear as much. For that, I need therapy!
Little Monkies // Mar 2, 2007 at 2:03 am
I have a clear shoe holder over the back of every door in the house with labelmaker labels on each to direct the hubster where things go. Pens are always in the pen spot, little notecards to make lists are ever present and handy, tabe, scissors, you name it. I am *not* an organized person, so this is about as far as it goes, but this one thing helped immensely.
Leeanthro // Mar 5, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Ok, here’s my three tips that keep us somewhat clutter free:
1. Over-the-door shoe organizers. We have them in almost every closet. The one in the coat closet keeps mittens, hats, scarves, umbrellas, and little snow shoes where we can find them. The one in the hall closet keeps all those little things that seems to float around the house otherwise: a measuring tape, cards and dice, tape, sunscreen & bugspray, ear plugs, you name it. In the baby’s room: little hats, little shoes, refills of diaper creams and all the jams and jellies associated with baby care, swimsuits, etc.
2. I label everything. I use plastic label holders that you print on the little card insert to put on clear rubbermaid containers. I also love the Dymo label write (get one on sale at Target) to label everything from the little organizer cubbies in our big kitchen drawer to my scrapbooking supply cabinet. If you label everything, then there’s a good chance that it will make its way back there (What I mean is that your husband might actually put the stray wooden blocks back with the other wooden blocks where they belong. And when he asks, “Where does this go?” You can say “in the bucket labelled farm animals.” Men need such guidance!).
3. When my daughter was a few months old, I decided to clean the house one Saturday. I started in the bathroom. Five hours later, two naps (the baby, not me, I wish!), feedings, etc. and the bathroom still wasn’t completely clean. So we hired a house cleaner to come every other week. My husband and I both work full-time and I figured I would rather spend my time doing something I enjoyed than cleaning. It was surprisingly reasonable. $38 every other week, which we split (we’re one of those couples with separate finances). Its so worth it. But to the point: The night before the cleaner comes, we are forced to put everything away. With a deadline things don’t tend to pile up like they used to. So even if you can’t afford a cleaner (or you are a sick person who actually likes to clean), pick a day every couple of weeks that’s on the calender that you have to declutter.
I’m not saying we are 100% clutter-free, but we are doing pretty good staying on top of things.
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