Dont know how to get house tidy

[ManeNachger]

I am unsure what to do. We have a lot of stuff. Small house. What to do. Lots of books. Sigh. Storage, decluttering, usual, sigh. Arts and crafts. Books. Feel overwhelmed. Working on living room. Would pics help?

Err, no, you do not need taller bookcases!! You need to get rid. Books you have read, give to charity shop, you will not read them again. If kids are bedtime story age, then maybe keep about 20 books for that.
I see you have a Tom Gates book - my daughter read the whole set of them, yet they don't clutter up our house because we borrowed them from the library!
Keep special books only, such as favourite bedtime story, autobiography of someone you really like.
Kids drawings, keep your favourites only. If you have several kids, and can't remember which kid did which drawing, then you can get rid of those drawings for a start!
Games, crafts, cuddly toys, if not played with then get rid. Memories are in your brain, not in 'stuff'.
Personally I'd hang onto the keyboard for now, as that is something of more monetary value, and might be used once you create space for it by getting rid of lower value things.
Stuff like sun cream for me would live in either kitchen or bathroom, so put it there, and sort through again when you get to that room.

I'm the same, OP. Part of the problem is that I'm overwhelmed by it and just don't know where to start.

Might look at the organised mum bootcamp to get started. The mess is getting me down!

I want to share one thing that Does work so I dont look completely hopeless. Got some drawers and keep all our stationery strictly in there.

Definitely a mindset thing.

Reading and cooking so thanks for all comments.

Its a little hard to take. I kinda Like having stuff too... suncream not mine .. bin! Tom Gates is one that is reread.

You may go crazy hearing this but we have to keep 3 bikes in our hall too as no garage... shed too tiny.

Some books are cos unread but on the list of ones to read. I think I will start making a list of books to read. Some are so lovely (snd expensive) like graphic novels.

Nobody thinks you are hopeless!
I had a feeling you were going to say you had books you haven't read! How many times in the week do you get to read? - I know I can read a paperback in a week, sometimes 3 days if it is really gripping, but I never take out more than 5 books at a time from the library.
If you have a pile of say more than 20 still to read, I'd suggest not letting any more books come into the house until you have read and got rid of the ones you have now.
Again, with expensive books, you could always re-sell rather than charity shop.
It's absolutely fine to like lots of things and to have lots of stuff around you, but if it is affecting you by being overwhelming, or you are losing stuff, or have no clear spaces then it's a problem. Once you get rid of a bit of it, you will have more room for the books and objects you really value.

OP, your last post made me smile. Are you me?

Making a list of the books I'd like to read is exactly the kind of organised procrastinating that I like to do when I don't know where to begin tackling all the clutter!

OP, you need to put stuff away as soon as you've used it. Like the suncream should have gone into a bathroom cupboard/wherever you store it. I find that putting stuff away straightaway helps a lot.

I like stuff too and realised I could never be a kon Mari style declutterer. I've heard this described more positively as being an 'abundance lover' as opposed to a minimalist.

If you want to keep stuff but don't have enough space, box it up and store it in the attic or back of a wardrobe. Important: review and rotate it regularly - every season for clothes, every year for books, every few months for toys. On each rotation you may feel ready to get rid of a few things.

Keep one shelf or drawer clear in every room so that you can dump stuff into it. Clear and tidy it one a week.

Decluttering: go round the house and find 10 things to declutter whenever you think of it. Or: do fly lady style 15 minute blitzes in a given zone.

My name is ManeNachger & I have a problem!

Got rid of 3 bags of stuff for charity and couple of bin bags. Still looks absolutely shit but one of you lot did say it will take time :D

I generally binge read rather than regularly everyday.

I agree with you all and can see all the advice is sensible.

I would say biggest problem is many many things dont have a home. (As well as too much stuff obvs). Esp things in progress / to do e.g. paper work to fill in.

I will admit to being slightly lazy with gumtree etc. I have a bike and a playmobil castlegoing up. I think my lovely expensive books will sell for so little it would be painful. Sunk cost fallacy.

I have 3 items on guntree!

I am in a similar position but based on your pics I have way more books (and way more other random crap for that matter). I am going to go against the grain and say I actually don’t think books are too bad in terms of clutter, as if you have enough bookshelves they look tidy & I love being able to lend people favourites and I do re-read many fairly regularly. When love a book, I love to own it. That said, I have in the past had massive culls of books and most of the things I donated I have not missed.

With the sunk cost thing - use that to your advantage, look on Amazon/abebooks/ebay and see how much (or little) you would get for the expensive books you would be willing to get rid of. If it is very little as there are lots of available copies, you can let them go because if you really want them in future you can replace cheaply. Any that are selling for a good price, pop them on for sale and see if you can make a bit of money.

Other thoughts, would your local library take them/do they have copies already? Then you could access them for free when you do want them. My school has a book swap scheme for both children and adult books. Look out for something similar perhaps?

You need to declutter everything before you start organising and buying storage.

Try the KM book previously recommended. The biggest thing that stood out of that for me is to decide not what to get rid of but what to keep.

Think there are loads of us like this going by the amount of threads about clutter so you're not alone. I think most are bothered about it even when they say they're not. It's just not having the energy to tackle it. Once you start and don't worry about the whole house at once it's easier. Last week I spent 5 hours sorting the garage out in the heat but was determined to do it. Still needs tweaking but feels better now. House isn't sorted thou. One room in particular is my bugbear. Your house from photos doesn't look too overwhelming to me. The organised mum site looks good but looks like a cleaning ritual rather than a clutter site. Just start a corner/square at a time and continue from there. No looking at the rest of the room and sighing. Put the radio /music on for company. Sometimes I have a discussion programme on/a play on. Get off here and get going! This afternoon I'm tackling some much dreaded paperwork.

@ManeNachger ignore the book binners......if you want to keep your books do so but you need to find storage for them that are bookshelves not Kallax not the floor not the windowsill etc but bookshelves and then sort your books out.
Games need a specific storage area boxes under beds work well but throw away any that are not complete. Do NOT give incomplete games to charity shops it is a nightmare for them checking to see if it's complete etc
Cuddly toys heap them all ( every single one) on the owners bed and then sort them out sensibly. We had a rule of no let can be on the bed than will fit when an adult ( important that it's an adult) lays in the bed ( kids scrunch up to try and get more toys on )
How old are your kids ?
Also when we moved we operated a no triplicates policy, if it was practical you could keep duplicates ( so 2 makeup bags or 2 pairs of gardening/decorating clothes) but only 2 so no triplicates. It helped us slim down all the additional versions of items we had.... I had a handbag habit so that got that under control, 1 of each colour was enough. Also we
Found we had 3 atlas and 4 dictionaries we have 1 of each now and it's up to date lol

Hey hey. I spent alot of the weekend shouting (constructively!) at my 7 yr old boy - he is the main culprit of leaving paper/toys/everything around it seems.

Good point about the low cost of goods on amazon/ebay - means I can just kid myself ibto saying I can just buy it again. I am happy to get rid of pretty cookbooks etc.
I dont think I have a massive toy problem. At 7&9 I wont be buying any more so let them use it for a couple more years before they grow out if it e.g. Playmobil.

I neee to use the kitchen. We have a lovely table but its got stuff wll over it. E.g. dryng crafts; things we are selling; odd damp washed socks; things with no home. I will do kitchen next.

Oh and let me add post- pics to this thread too

@MissCherryCakeyBun tlyum yum. I need an atlas!

We have about 7 cuddlies. Not too bad. I bought 2 of them last week

You just need to buy more cupboards 😂 no open shelves unless just for books. I'm quite a tidy person on the surface but all the drawers and cupboards in my house are a bloody riot inside but only we know that. I'm a Monica 😂

Just to say your house looks lovely and just so homey and comfortable. The place you would just want to sit and chat and drink tea ❤️

Open shelves always look messy imo unless you have neatly arranged books. Could you buy a trunk for all of your DCs things??

We have dirty elves in my house. They are blamed for everything getting a big old mess. The only way to keep the dirty elves away is to fill a bag of broken toys, ripped magazines, odd socks and so on and leave it out overnight. This method seams to work well with DSs.

Wow, that looks like you've made a massive improvement to that room! Well done. Everything looks useable and livable in, which is what you want to achieve.