Isn't that true? Clutter attracts clutter, If I let something start to get out of control, it instantly becomes the place to put stuff you don't know what do to with. Things pile up until your house looks like a page out of a Dr. Seuss book, sigh.
We moved into this new (old) house in September and it has taken about that long to actually get to the point where we can start organizing our things. We have a table in the kitchen that collects our bills, the kids artwork, pens and pencils, business cards, receipts, etc. Well last month it had got so out of control that I decided to clean it and discovered 3 bills that we missed because they were lost in the chaos! Being unorganized is one thing, but when you miss bills because of it... no bueno. Anyway, inspired by Better Homes and Gardens' cover story this month on organizing your paper, I decided to bring a little calm to the chaos. A small project that took about an hour and cost $0.00.
Here's the result:
I started by organizing, trashing, and clearing the mess. If you have bills or personal documents that you want to throw out, you should definitely use a shredder. We burn our trash ourselves so I don't use a shredder, but when we lived in Seattle I took all of our personal stuff to work and shredded it there. Better safe than sorry. I hung a calendar (it is a new year after all) and kept the up-cycled shutter on the tabel for displaying cards, keeping stamps, etc.
I found two baskets in one of our drawers, both filled with tea, some from literally 5+ years ago ... Brett and I had a good laugh about why the heck we still had it (and moved it 2500 miles!). Needless to say I was able to condense our tea options down a lot and use the baskets for a new purpose. The one on top is for the collection of stray crayons and coloring books. I put it high because I can easily take the basket down for the kids, but when it's not coloring time they don't have free access to their crayons and draw lovely murals on our walls. The other basket is for incoming mail. All unopened, unprocessed mail goes there. the vintage box on the table stores sorted bills, unused envelopes, checks, and our (very skinny) phone book.
I hung an old trowel on the wall to hang my cameras and next two it two clothes pins adhered with that gooey sticky stuff, u-glue (i think it is). It can be a challenge rubbing it off the wall, but it doesn't peal paint.
The best part is that I can put a rotary phone on the table and two charming pen jars and they will actually be noticed, not covered in incoming paper and catalogs!
Well I hope this little clean sweep keeps us organized for awhile, and our bills paid on time!
I know Bobo is happier:
and the flowers on the cill have a better view:
Cheers to a organized New Year and a happy home. Bon Soir.
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For like the millionth time, I LOVE your house! I received my copy of better homes and gardens a week or two ago and still haven't really looked at it. But after reading your post and looking at my desk that barely fits my computer right now I think maybe I should read about getting organized. Clutter does attract clutter, if you could see my room you would die. But I try to tell myself I only have this much stuff because I tried to fit the things from my days of living in an apartment into this one room in my parent's house. Your organizational skills and thriftiness are amazing and you make me want to be organized. Another person I know always tells me "a cluttered home is a cluttered mind" or something like that and it's true. Whenever my space is completely picked up and organized I feel so much better about everything in life.
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