A place for everything - how long did it take you?

[Letmesleepalready]

Ever so often I try to declutter but we've never got to the stage where everything has got a proper easy to reach place (apparently piling things up in not quite stable mountains isn't the best organisational idea)
So I was wondering, if you weren't always tidy, how long did it take you to reach that pinnacle of tidiness?
I've just ordered the Kondo book, in the hope she'll spur us to perfection. I have high hopes but I know we'll all have to be ruthless to fit everything in the space we have (we have no attic/loft or garage for surplus stuff)

The thing is with kids 'everything' keeps evolving! I just try to celebrate any progress we make. I think Kondo would approve of not using attics etc as storage though.
Ideally I would only store seasonal stuff in the attic (Christmas, camping).

Yes, I have to remind myself that we had to get different storage solutions due to DD2 being much more into things than DD1 was. But there still so much that we haven't sorted yet, and it's starting to feel claustrophobic in here.
I don't think it helped seeing the Argos catalogue with their very minimalist photos!

It will depend on how much you have. I think once you start with kondo you just keep working through the categories until you are finished. I think you have to allow months rather than weeks but it will depend. It will be worth it in the end..

We've been going through cycles of decluttering so we have less than before but still too much for our storage, and I refuse to buy anymore storage as it's already taking up most walls. In the end I'm hoping we can get rid of some of the storage altogether.
I think a slow approach might be the best, but I also get very impatient, so we'll see!

That sounds a bit like our place at the moment! Did you do a little every day?
I find I'll get started and then get too much out so I can't put it all back at the end. I really need to learn what my limit is for one session!

I've started hanging all my clothes as they are easier to access than my chest of drawers. But even with the majority of my clothes hanging my chest of drawers is so disorganised!

That's a good plan, thanks!
I've decided we need to be quite ruthless with books because we have 2 bookcases and too many books to fit!

I had a massive clear out when I was pregnant with ds, literally every cupboard, every drawer was emptied and stuff thrown away or donated. It helped that we lived in a small house. We moved about 18 months ago into a bigger house which has a basement, it's a nice room (it's an occasional bedroom if we have guests)with three huge cupboards in, one big cupboard houses the washer, one the dryer and freezer and the third has everything else in it. It has become a dumping ground and needs sorting out again!

22 years in this house. Eldest is 23. Still not decluttered. I'm about to embark on a big redecoration project so I seriously need to declutter. Painter starts Monday and so far I have moved lots of clutter into a cupboard.

musical it took me 2 years after getting married before even realising that decluttering would be a good idea... DH has always been more minimal than me.
So we are slowly working towards it, although it seems to go 2 steps forward, 1 step back!