Decluttering is one thing; how do you keep the clutter gone?

[bounceswoosh]

The "Going without" thread got me thinking. That, and I just did some reorganization in my kitchen and the counters are actually cleared (don't ask me how much of that stuff just ended up on the dining room table for later processing. It's progress, I swear!).

For any of you who struggle to keep clutter at bay - do you have any successful tactics for keeping the clutter from infiltrating again? I can't tell you how many times I've cleared the kitchen bar, just to have receipts and other items pop up like weeds. It's so demoralizing.

We used to have piles of mail and whatnot on the stairs, but a few months ago I insisted on a "no stuff left on the stairs" rule, and it seems to have stuck. So I'm thinking of going room by room, and for each room, saying, once it's been decluttered - okay, that's it, we don't leave stuff on these surfaces. Of course, I can't just impose rules on my husband - he's an adult - but we do both want less clutter, so I think we could pull this off, or at least confine the clutter to a couple of allowed rooms.

Anyway, do you have any strategies that stick? My mom says "just put everything away right away" - this has never been my strong suit.

 

[altagirl]

I'm with you. I know part of our problem is that DH won't put anything other than dishes/glasses/silverware away because he "doesn't know where it goes". So pots and pans and tupperware gets spread all over the counter until I put it away. (And it's gone in the same couple of cupboards for almost 10 years, but no amount of explaining that will convince him that he knows where it goes...)

And I'm with you on the paperwork - there are plenty of things that if I file them or put them out of sight - I'll be searching for them for an eternity. Stuff like concert tickets and car registration paperwork and that kind of thing that I still need. They live on our bar and I'm afraid I'll forget about them if they go out of sight.

 

[pinto]

I'm with you. I know part of our problem is that DH won't put anything other than dishes/glasses/silverware away because he "doesn't know where it goes". So pots and pans and tupperware gets spread all over the counter until I put it away. (And it's gone in the same couple of cupboards for almost 10 years, but no amount of explaining that will convince him that he knows where it goes...)

And I'm with you on the paperwork - there are plenty of things that if I file them or put them out of sight - I'll be searching for them for an eternity. Stuff like concert tickets and car registration paperwork and that kind of thing that I still need. They live on our bar and I'm afraid I'll forget about them if they go out of sight.

First paragraph: yes. Don't get me started.

Second paragraph: I agree ... I do have a very large bulletin board in my room where I tack up things like this so they are still visible but not piled on horizontal surfaces. Not that I don't still pile stuff up here and there, I do; it is definitely a constant battle, but the board helps a little. I have filing cabinets for less-used papers, just cleaned it out last summer. Now they have things piled on top of them, so I guess I should purge again.

 

[tinymoose]

OK, I'm glad we're not the only ones with piles of papers.

 

[MissySki]

OK, I'm glad we're not the only ones with piles of papers.

I was just thinking that!! After ski season is the worst because we let it go all winter.. guess what I'm probably doing this weekend? I think I've put it off long enough, it's hard to keep excusing lol

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We are a pile of papers household also. I am not a fan of clutter and DH likes his paper. He has a habit of when he opens his mail to just throw it on the table when he's done, junk or not and there it stays. I like the kitchen table clutter free so our solution is I take what he throws on the table and stack it up and put it on the shelf in a neat fashion next to the kitchen table. He goes through it from time to time and weeds it out, etc. He has another stack of "important" papers on the shelve you see as soon as you walk in our place where he puts things he wants to remember to handle. Not sure how important this whole stack is as it tends to build up over months but its out of the way so I pick and choose my battles.

I love the corkboard idea, might try that.

Don't get me started on how the bottom shelf on the coffee table becomes a shoe repository. One the weekends I make my rounds and take all shoes and put them in the shoe basket, repeat every saturday lol.

I know I tend to have my coupons/flyers build up when they come in the mail all week so I try to practice what I preach. I grab them and keep them in a neat pile and on sundays when I'm out back drinking my mimoas and perusing the paper I take this pile and go through it.

 

[bounceswoosh]

@surfsnowgirl - shoe basket, huh? This is new to me, and sounds like a great idea. 99% of the shoes in this house are mine, and I confess I leave them absolutely everywhere - but even when I don't, lining them up side by side for miles doesn't look great.

@pinto - I like the idea of getting things off of horizontal surfaces. I think one of those vertical paper organizers might be good for me. I've managed not to buy anything but necessities for the last week or so (shush - it's a start!), but I think this might work for me. You know, assuming I use it ... https://smile.amazon.com/Universal-Three-Tier-Organizer-Black-20007/dp/B0071BJNEK/ref=sr_1_7

What *is* it with men not knowing where things go, or where to find things? I hate generalizations more than most people, but I swear ... somehow I must have been brainwashed into noticing where everything is at all times. Yes, I do lose things (my phone, mostly), but when DH can't find something, I usually can precisely picture where it is. And the other day, he texted me asking to buy some more green Tabasco sauce - I said, uh, I'm pretty sure there's a spare at the top of the cupboard with the spices. And checked - sure enough. I'm also the one who, generally speaking, makes sure everything gets replenished before or just as the old stuff is finished off. I suspect he doesn't notice - condiments, coffee, etc are just magically present when he needs them. @altagirl - my husband also claims not to know where anything beyond dishes and silverware goes. I suspect it's a quiet rebellion because he hates tupperware. Granted, I need to weed mine out - I have bazillions of storage containers that we almost never use. I am going to start paring down the kitchen contents after I get the dining room into working order. It's currently a ski gear storage facility, and then has accumulated other clutter along the way.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

The shoe basket was actually something DH came up with which surprised me since I'm the "organized one". It works very well and we try to put all shoes in there. Well I kick off my shoes when I walk in the door and in the basket they go. His often get put in there by me after he kicked them off at the coffee table . Of course little by little all my shoes from upstairs make their way downstairs but I try to go through it once every week or two and migrate them back upstairs into my shoe rack.

Its my "job" to know what toiletries we need because otherwise we'd either have too much of something or not enough of something else.

DH is pretty good about knowing where stuff in the cupboards are. One time I was gone for a few days and he decided to rearrange the dry goods, sigh.............. I couldn't find my tea and was nearing a meltdown when he said right cupboard, bottom shelf without even looking in there.

The fridge however, forget about it. He's said on numerous occasions we were out of something and I went in there and said out of what and produced what I knew was in there.

 

[bounceswoosh]

The fridge however, forget about it. He's said on numerous occasions we were out of something and I went in there and said out of what and produced what I knew was in there.

This actually happened at my house. I was at work already, while DH was just getting up. I texted him that there's bacon in the fridge. He texted back that there is not. I told him where to find it. Pause. "Yeah, but it's not cooked!"

Apparently, food doesn't exist until it's prepared? Except he also doesn't see leftovers ... sigh ...

 

[altagirl]

I have those over the back of the door shoe holders. In all three bedrooms... And DH built a shoe shelf in the garage for sports shoes.

My only issue is tall boots, which still get lined up in the spare bedroom.

 

[mustski]

Don't get me started on how the bottom shelf on the coffee table becomes a shoe repository. One the weekends I make my rounds and take all shoes and put them in the shoe basket, repeat every saturday lol.
.

Lordy, I thought I was the only one who believed the bottom shelf of the coffee table was a shoe repository!

As to OP's original question? I actually believe that it is a personality type. I have tried and tried and tried; however, I am a "messy" by nature. I recently heard it explained as "waffles and spaghetti." Waffles are organized with columns and boxes; they check when the task is complete. Spaghetti is a pile of interconnecting tasks and interests. Nothing really ever gets finished. It's a process and everything eventually gets back on the "to do" list. I've had students offer to organize my room, and I let them, but within the week it's back to "spaghetti time."

 

[bounceswoosh]

As to OP's original question? I actually believe that it is a personality type. I have tried and tried and tried; however, I am a "messy" by nature. I recently heard it explained as "waffles and spaghetti.

I suspect you're right. But when an area is decluttered, it feels so *good*. So relaxing not to look around and see a million tasks to accomplish.

Although - DH walked into the decluttered kitchen and commented immediately, "Wow - I see what you mean about needing new countertops." Um. This might be an added benefit?

 

[snowbeach]

I've been doing a bit of decluttering over the last couple of weeks, here a bit, there a bit! My plan tomorrow is to declutter all those magazines that are piling up. There's nothing like a good declutter!

 

[ski diva]

I tend to be messy, and my husband is more the put-everything-away-immediately type. We worked together for years, and my desk (and the floor around it) was always piled high with all sorts of crap spilling this way and that, whereas he'd have a single sheet of paper on his desk -- no clutter, no mess. It drove me nuts. (BTW, guess who was always losing things? Not me!)

Anyway, I really think I've improved. People who come in my house now always tell me how neat it is, while I'm apologizing for exactly the opposite. I try to put things away instead of letting them build up, though not always as quickly as DH would like. And even if I let things go, before too long I'll go on a tear and either get rid of stuff or put it away. I find it's better just not to let it go on for too long. Otherwise it appears too daunting and I don't want to deal with it.

Of course, all this is easier when it isn't ski season........

 

[mustski]

^^^ The benefits of summer. It's the only reason we can still live in our house. My DH is also tidy but it's impossible to keep the house that way if I'm around. It told him I need a sewing cabinet because that will keep me organized. He just laughed.

 

[alicie]

I like the term very lived in. It sounds better than saying my house is a tip. It's clean but it's a disaster zone. I do a once a week tidy and by the next day it's back to how it was before. I'm yet to figure out how to keep it tidy, I think there is just too much stuff. I'm going to have a big clear out at some point and get rid of anything I've not used in the past year, that's not important.

 

[santacruz skier]

The shoe basket was actually something DH came up with which surprised me since I'm the "organized one". It works very well and we try to put all shoes in there. Well I kick off my shoes when I walk in the door and in the basket they go. His often get put in there by me after he kicked them off at the coffee table . Of course little by little all my shoes from upstairs make their way downstairs but I try to go through it once every week or two and migrate them back upstairs into my shoe rack.

The shoe basket is great. I've had two actually.. One on my front porch with running shoes, flip flops, Chacos, etc. and one in the entry way under a table with, oh more of the same……….gym shoes, olukai's, BF's flip flops…..

 

[lynseyf]

I'm not a naturally tidy person but the key thing that helps me not having crap lying everywhere is having a place for everything and putting it there right away. So where do you put your shoes when you come in the door? If they lie in a heap buy a basket or shoe rack. Where do you put opened mail that needs something done? get a pin board or box to put it in. I just put a little box in the bathroom so the cotton wool pads and floss that is supposed to live in the cupboard but never gets put away isn't lying on the counter.

 

[ski diva]

I have a bin on the counter that I use for papers, and that helps contain the mess. I go through it when it gets kind of full and end up tossing a lot of stuff out. It's amazing how easy it becomes to discard things that once seemed incredibly important.

 

[Jilly]

That's exactly what I do. I finally filed 4 months worth of paper. Skiing cuts into file time!