Less Clutter: Part One

I’m so excited to have been asked by Beth at FakePlasticFish.com to write a post for her site! She was wondering if I had any tips on reducing clutter. Turns out… I do have some, but I need to be better. So this will be a two part series… Part One will be listing my own personal challenges. Part Two will be what I’ve learned and what tips and ideas I’ve started to incorporate.

Luckily, Bob’s pretty much on the same page as me in terms of simplifying. He doesn’t like to have a bunch of stuff laying around for no reason and he doesn’t buy unnecessary items. However, the every day stuff is more of a challenge for him…on any given day, you could walk into my house and find these 5 items either on the microwave, the mantel, or the dining room table: eye drops, wallet, keys, sunglasses, loose change. You know those “butler” things they make for men’s dressers? Yeah, he has one. What does he use it for? I couldn’t tell you… but I do know he doesn’t use it for this stuff. We need to think of a better system for the guy. I read an article once about a builder who was incorporating a “drop zone” in a home he was building. It was the coolest thing… cubbies for shoes, shelves, drawers, cabinets, hooks. It was lovely. But, we’re not building a new house nor are we remodeling. So, we have to come up with our own plan.

Another challenge is the fact that he is a Realtor and works from home often, and at any given time you will find folders, binders, house listing printouts, scraps of paper with phone numbers – again, on the dining room table or the coffee table. We do have a home office - but in reality, lots of phone calls come in when we’ve settled in for the night, and it’s much easier for him to have access to his active files and laptop, rather than needing to go into the office every time the phone rings. But I really don’t like our family room being overtaken by real estate.

Ok, so it’s not all Bob. Here’s my confession. I HATE folding and putting away laundry. I just do. I don’t know why… maybe because my mother made me do my own laundry from a pretty early age and it used to take me so long to fold (oh yeah, I’m still a bad folder) that I just resent it now? Or, maybe we don’t have enough storage space for clothes? Yeah, it’s probably the mother thing. So as a result, there’s usually a pile of clothing on my bedroom floor. I know Bob hates it, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s a good egg.

My last challenge is this: We always seem to have a pile somewhere of random items - receipts, warrantees, manuals, coupons, pay stubs. I have some ideas for this stuff that I will put into action.

The idea is to deal with these challenges without buying a bunch of plastic storage bins and containers. As I see this on “paper”, it looks a little overwhelming… but these are workable challenges, right?