Keeping your house tidy - how do you do it?

[PorridgeOatsSuck]

I have clutter. I am a maximalist. DH minimalist.
I always blame lack of storage (we do lack storage) but yesterday I realised it isn't just that.
I have life 'detritus' everywhere. For example, I order a phone screen protector. Two arrive in the post. Where do I store the one I don't use? In a drawer. I go to the drawer but it's overflowing with similar bricabrac. Pens, lipgloss, string (so much useful string), paperwork, receipts, scissors, sticky tape, random leads...I could go on. Yet my sister's house with significantly more people per square meter doesn't have any of this stuff. They have one drawer each. They have no detrius on surfaces nor overflowing cupboards and drawers.

How do people manage to have tidy houses? I suspect they throw away a significant amount before things get 'stored'. If I need a second screen protector, I'll order a new one not keep the one I have until I need it. I think that's what my sister thinks.

Is that right? Where am I going wrong? I'd love to rein in the mess!

'A place for everything and everything in its place' as my Mum used to boringly repeat. But she was right. You can only tidy up if things have places where they belong and you know where those places are, otherwise you get those drawers full of chaos.
If you seriously want to change, there are many resources online to help you sort things out and declutter.
Oh, and string is a particularly bad if untamed. As a starting point you could collect all the string together, wrap it neatly round a cotton real or a suitably sized piece of cardboard cut from a cereal packet, and stick the whole thing in plastic bag to stop it unraveling again. It would take a few minutes to do and your drawers would be easier to deal with already.

I had a child at 43.

I knew other women as a teen who had children in their late 40s naturally.

Until you reach the menopause then you need to be careful.

This is your mission, should you choose to accept it.
Gather up every pair of scissors you have. Put one pair in every room of the house so you never have to search for scissors. Do the same with pens, string. Cellotape
Bin all but one lip gloss plus all surplus pens strings cellotape in the bin.

You have already discovered, by your failure to sell, that if it’s not good enough for you nobody else wants it either. Including charity shops. Recycle clothes in the recycling centre.

There are so many professional sellers on eBay and Vinted that you can never compete.

What are you sitting there for? Get our of your chair and throw away one thing and you will feel so much better😀😀

I personally prefer things to go speedily to a good home than to try and make any money off of it. (Obviously this is a fortunate position to be in - and maybe if I had nicer things, I'd feel differently :) I love how quickly things are picked up if I use Freecycle, Facebook marketplace (and list at £0), Gumtree, etc. I'm always amazed at what people need - I had people lining up (online) for a broken suitcase once. I haven't used Olio before but have heard good things. There's also websites where you can scan all your books and they pay you a pittance for them, but at least they're getting out of your house and hopefully to a good home / recycling instead of straight to a landfill. I really agree with everyone about having a place for everything. We have a box for unwanted gifts (e.g. if toddler given a duplicate of a book she has), a box for charity shop, etc. We have a box for batteries, tech (where we'd keep the screen protector). If you can go through your house and ruthlessly declutter and then recycle/give away etc., it'll feel amazing! It's so nice how many options there are for stuff to go to. E.g., Bravissimo stores take old bras for recycling. After a ruthless declutter, definitely be SO careful when you buy things and only buy if you really need - and know where it will live!

Listen to the Dana K White podcasts as you start your de cluttering journey, she makes so much sense!
As a rule I am quite tidy, but even I learned quite a few things from her, the pen thing shakes head why did I think I needed 20 blue pens?
My latest thing is ANY charger cable than comes into the house is labelled with the item it is a charger for, I am not having a drawer full of 'spare' cables ever again!

I always think of a quote 'have nothing in your home you don't know to be useful, or believe it be beautiful.'. If a drawer is full I get a bag and chuck everything in it that i don't know is useful. Not tat that might be useful one day, because when you need it you'll forget you have it or forget where it is.

This is why we have so much crap in landfill and oceans

This, plus think about everything you bring into the house. Even if it’s a free magazine or similar. Otherwise if I buy things it’s one in, one out.

I accept the challenge! I literally have a long, pretty green ribbon in my pocket doing nothing, with no future utility. It was on a lovely Xmas gift and I didn't want to just chuck it <wobbly lower lip>. It's going to the bin 😭

I am messy, but we did clear out the playroom over a period of a few months. We've had to empty it for redecorating and it was so much easier, it really feels like we have been rewarded for our efforts!

All we did was each weekend we tackled one box of things with no home / one section of kallax etc and then it never felt too depressing. Also the rubbish fitted in the wheelie bin because it was never an excessive amount.

Brave @PorridgeOatsSuck thats the spirit.

Have a look at the podcast A Slob Comes Clean.

This is not a maximalist attitude, it's more bordering on hoarding.

I suspect you mean that minimalism doesn't appeal to you because it looks stark and empty - I agree - the method/mindset changes in this have worked wonders for me, though :) I can still have lots of stuff but it doesn't take over the house.

And where do you think things go once you've ruthlessly binned everything? They don't just cease to exist.

Exactly! We have quite a bit of storage and its full to the brim.
I am a ‘keep that just in case’ person, its the hoarders mantra amd Ive probably inherited this behaviour from my mum.
I am working on this with baby steps - declutter a drawer a day or week, whatever goal is achievable.

Unless you’re struggling for money, give stuff away, don’t sell it. We have a facebook group called ‘I need a whisk’ for our local area. You just post a picture of something you want rid of and where to collect it from and whoosh.. someone who needs or wants it comes and picks it up. I feel less bad about this than chucking things it as I hate to be wasteful.

One thing I have done is to do each room up one by one and make sure that everything has a home.

My home s spotless 24/7.
Because i have no man no kids no pets no clutter.
Just me positive vibes and happiness.

This definitely doesn't come naturally to me - I'm not sentimental but I get overwhelmed trying to organize and frankly just am not very good at it. But we have a family of 9 and a busy life and I've had to find ways to keep it in check. The podcast rec above is great. I also use the one-in-one-out approach as my default (we do this with our DC as well - one new stuffie or book or pair of shoes means one goes).

But I think one of the big things for me has been realizing that I buy fewer unnecessary things and make more use of my spendings when clutter isn't an issue. A second screen protector for your current phone is a useful item worth keeping but not if it goes in some random spot along with dozens of random objects and covers and cables from devices you ditched years ago... if you do that then when the time comes to need a new screen protector you're just going to end up ordering two new ones. So avoiding expanding your storage and being ruthless about getting rid of things that you don't expect to use in the near future (not just "it's possible this could have a future use...") will allow you to actually make use of the items worth keeping. That nice ribbon can be used to wrap up lunch for one of the DC tomorrow or wrapped around some flowers and then go in the bin, because that's more use than it will get if it gets stashed away in an overcrowded bin.

You have too much stuff. Bin/charity everything you haven't used for a year. Use stuff you buy. No one should have a collection of candles/stationery/napkins/posh coffee etc. Buy it, use it and only then do you buy another. And never ever buy anything without getting rid of something similar. Buy a pair of trousers=throw away some shorts. Buy a locket=chuck a necklace.

My mum has a huge house, just 2 people in it, beautifully decorated...absolutely full of clutter. She cannot get rid of anything. And buys more stuff. Drives me potty. She had a huge new shed built and filled it with piles of old stuff that she doesn't use.

I have a small house and ruthlessly declutter and reorganise regularly. I do keep things with sentimental value or that could be useful (that I know I will use) but generally, clutter free. It does take work and persistence however. Plus, having places for everything to live.

I randomly but relatively frequently have impromptu "this drawer / cupboard / area is doing my head in" moments where I dump the whole lot on the floor then put back only the really good stuff. Or move it to its proper place.

Anything useless / broken / bit crap / actual rubbish / multiples gets binned. No mercy.

If you did that for a few months you'd then have more space to move clutter from work surfaces.

You also get better at binning rather than storing stuff.

It's hardwork and even harder work if u have little ppl that are messy (my 2 are and I can be a bit messy myself). Everyday I have tidy up. U need a place for everything.

As well as that, I am constantly having a clear out and I'm quite ruthless or we wld be bursting at the seams. I sell lots on eBay, take stuff to the charity shop and the dump. We do have a lot of space and storage but I also hate clutter.

Ask yourself: How much did I save vs how much stress does storing them create? Even if it it's another £24 cheaper to bulk buy, that's less than £2 a month....

I'd buy smaller packs but put on subscribe and save or similar.

Or alternatively... I've collected all the spare gift tags, nice bits of ribbon, unused Christmas cards and so on into a shoebox and put it in the cupboard for next year.

I think it would help if all of us who have been inspired by this post to get cracking , make a list of what has gone. Even if it is just a bit of ribbon.

DH has finally got rid of a load of mounting card to do with his hobby.
I have got rid of
2 pairs of shoes
A big strappy thing that came with my fur bed cover
A press button phone
an IPhone, an IPad and an Ipod
a black sack of goodness know what.

I had help as DD and GD came today, purposely to sort out the spare bedroom and the granny flat - AKA the cupboard under the stairs.

@FusionChefGeoff You're absolutely right. We're stuck in this mindset I think because we don't drive (tesco deliveries instead) so we keep a 'healthy stock' of everything non perishable, especially size 8 nappy pants (son is 5 but enormously leggy, overnight use only) which only arrive in 1 of every 4 orders!

But then I'm pretty sure there are 30+ usb cables in my crap drawer that keep arriving with things, that I absolutely don't need, as the ones I need are left plugged in... I'm concentrating on this low hanging fruit first, as especially with small kids, decluttering is clearly an ongoing project!

I also have a second screen protector...