Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bored? I Think Not
So, I've been on summer vacation since last Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. You'd think I might be laying around the house doing my own thing before classes start next Tuesday. Nope! It has been organization prime time. Last week, I spent my days deep cleaning the kitchen, floors, and bathrooms. Then, this week I started deep cleaning the guest bedroom and purging all clutter from our office. Man it feels good! I am at a loss, however, as to what to do with Justin's clutter. You see, I live with a pack rat. Sorry Justin, but it feels like the papers and bills everywhere are starting to cave in and give me claustrophobia. I'm not going to say that I do not have my share of clutter; however, most of mine is packed away or has now been organized. We've tried filing, in and out mailboxes, and other various organizing tools. In the end, though, they get filled and never get sorted through until I ride his butt enough to rid the clutter. The clutter never really rids itself you see. I swear he just hides it, re-arranges it, or what-have-you to make me happy for the time being. Maybe I just need to sit down with him and help with the organizing projects. I don't know, any tips on how to rid your husbands clutter?
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When you figure it out, let me know! Haha. With Ryan, I just do it with him and tell him "no" all the time, until he hands over the crap and then we have 3 piles: Trash, Sell, Keep to organize. When he starts to think about making money off our crap, the sell pile grows and grows! As for papers, I bought one of those wire bins that sits in the office. Ryan is responsible for organzing and paying the home bills and keeping all the statements and manuals and when I see them in the house or on the counter, I throw them in the bin. When it gets full, he feels responsible to get the papers filed because if the bin is full, that is a lot of papers!
ReplyDeleteWe do all online bill paying now and that seems to help. As for the rest of the mail and papers, I try to use the "one-touch" rule. You only touch it once...if you don't need it, recycle it right away. If you do need it, file it as soon as you're done reading it. Magazines tend to sit around a little longer just b/c we don't have a chance to get to them right away, but as soon as we're done reading them, we recycle them.
ReplyDeleteWait 'til you have baby toys every where. :) Talk about clutter!
Let me know when you get the husband to throw stuff away, I used to donate some of my husband's old cloths (IOU shirts from high school) to good will and have now been banned from even that. Miss seeing you since summer va-cay has begun!
ReplyDeleteOh my dearest sister in-law, I'm afraid you will never rid my bro of the habit. My dad is exactly the same way, only prolly 10 times worse. I admit, I have the problem once in awhile...you just don't see it when you come to our house. Becuz I've spent the day before racing around pitching and stuffing into a drawer :)
ReplyDeleteHA! Now that is a tough topic.
ReplyDeleteAMEN to the "touch it once" thing!
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I did not marry a packrat, but he definitely lets the papers pile up.
My coping mechanism is to get the mail from the mailbox myself. I walk past the recycle bin before i get into the house, so typically over 1/2 of it goes into recycling, and then I keep the other half for reading/bills.
Another great tip is to sign up with your bank's Online Bill Pay. If they offer E-bill (the method where your utility companies email you the bill versus mailing you paper bills), saves a TON of clutter also!
Pretty soon all your mail is magazines or junk mail or those rare personal letters/cards.
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Anyhoo, it's not perfect but that's what works for me.