Where do you keep your...

[Naetha]

...cat litter trays
...half-worn clothes
...medicines/vitamins
...nappies/cat litter/bulky items you bought on special offer
...paperwork

etc etc!

I'm terrible for clutter, and I've been watching programmes like houses behaving badly / house doctor for inspiration, but all it seems to be is a lesson in house-dressing where they replace pratical things with pretty things (i.e. it's OK to have shiny pebbles in the bathroom, but not shampoo and conditioner .) We currently have 3 cats and a 4 month old baby, so please bear this in mind if you make any suggestions!

We don't have a utility room, and our cat litter trays (we have 3 cats and 2 trays) are kept in the corner of our sun room on a square of old vinyl, but the room is carpeted and hardly practical. The only place in the house with hard floors is the kitchen (nowhere to put CLTs and hygiene issue), and the front porch (don't particularly want everyone greeted by cat poo, also pushchair takes up most of the space).

We currently keep half worn clothes at the bottom of the bed, but it's very messy, and only works because it's a king size bed...what do people do with clothes they're going to wear the next day...do people really hang them up every night??

We moved in a year ago and haven't really got round to fully furnishing our house yet; what storage do people find most useful? Any useful tips for reducing/preventing clutter, bearing in mind that me and DH are both terrible at cluttering places up, and don't really prioritise tidying/cleaning.

All advice gratefully accepted!

no cats
half-worn clothes???wtf?
meds - in high kitchen cupboard
huge stuff on offers - usually twenty-odd bog rolls lol in the cupboard under the stairs [as much shoving as necessary to get it there]
paperwork - my big box files in the computer room. sounds beautifully organised (isn't) but i am a stationary addict so it looks very nice

Cant help on the catty bits.
But, half worn clothes go on an antique towel rail at the foot of the bed against the wall (one ofthose freestanding victoriany looking ones)
Most medicines live in the bathroom cabinet.On the wall in there.Then we have wall mounted toothbrush cup thing, and one white box for daily use things such as hairbrushes and make up, that lives on a ledge behind the taps. daily vitamins are in the same kitchen cupboard as coffee, as both get used in the morniing.
We have one small drawer in the kitchen that is the allocated crap drawer! toys to be fixed, takeaway menus, spare bus pass for visitors, light bulbs etcetc.
Paperwork is filed in 2 of those metal suspension file boxes, slid down the gap between wall and wardrobe.
99% of toys live in the boys room, but the ones downstairs live under the coffee table in a box.
we have one of those huge ikea corner pc cupboards that all our technical stuff goes in, aswell as craft stuff (£220 in Ikea but qwe got an ebay bargain!), and it all gets shut away wonderfully.

Our cat died in feb but we used to keep her litter tray out by the back door. it was one of those ones with a lid and a cat flap to get in to it so the litter wouldn't get wet. I hated the smell of cat litter.

I hate to say it, but I do put my clothes away every night (actually they're usually covered in puke so they go straight in the wash!) but dh doesn't and it drives me bonkers. If we ever divorce I'll be citing that on the petition!!! Arghhhh!

I have a fireproof metal filing box for all my personal paperwork which tucks in to a corner of our bedroom behind the curtains. I tend not to hugely bulk buy stuff cos we don't have a lot of room, however we do have quite a few nappies at the moment and they're in the top bit of ds' wardrobe.

I'm a complete stickler for putting things away, I'm obssessed with it and dh is the total opposite. On our dining table we have a huge teetering pile of unopened bank statements, old magazines, letters, old receipts and other detritus. That'll also be going on the divorce petition!!!!

I'm pretty unsentimental about stuff, dh has kept every receipt/postcard/plane ticket/bus ticket etc from when he went travelling, I chuck everything. I take a bag to the charity shop at least once a month, mostly clothes, but also old paperbacks I've read and am not interested in reading again, old lamps and ornamental things and so on.

My friend keeps her litter tray in the downstairs loo! The cat sits outside & waits to go in (Her house is immaculate btw)

Clothes get "hung" on a chair in bedroom, or on kids radiators etc. Jackets on hangars on doors.

A shredder is great!

When I had cats I had a cat flap and no litter tray - they went outside.

Medicines live in a high kitchen cupboard.

Paperwork lives in a filing cabinet in a little nook that we grandly call the study but is really a space off the landing where we keep a filing cabinet, a bookshelf and the PC.

I hate clutter and regularly throw things away or Freecycle them. The children's toys are in big buckets or wicker baskets, books on shelves and paperwork either filed, shredded or put in the recycling bin. Clothes not worn for a year (by adults) are recycled/freecycled/charity shopped or thrown away. Kids clothes are kept in storage bags in the loft for passing down.

We have a cupboard under the stairs that I keep big items in like washing powder boxes, loo rolls, bottles etc.

Storage is the key I think - use what you have wisely, and if you don't have enough cupboards then buy them or get a carpenter to make some built in ones for you.

pmsl @ cat waiting to go in loo

...cat litter trays

No cats

...half-worn clothes

You means clothes previously worn but not yet ready fror the wash? Generally back in the wardrobe to one side.

...medicines/vitamins

In a vanity case in the bottom of DH's wardrobe

...nappies/cat litter/bulky items you bought on special offer

tend not to buy buly things much these days

...paperwork

Until filed - in a plastic drawer thingy in the kitchen
Once filed - in a small filing holdall thing in our bedroom

...cat litter tray -in the utility room

...half-worn clothes -either put away (if its something that is still clean and hardly worn ), or on top of bedroom chair if its to be worn the next day

...medicines/vitamins -some on a high shelf in the bathroom, some in a basket on top of the kitchen cupboards

...nappies/cat litter/bulky items you bought on special offer - depends, utility room cupboards, bathroom cupboards and (in the days DC used nappies) under beds

...paperwork -filing cabinet in the understairs cupboard

cat litter trays-no cat
half-worn clothes-we dont half wear-we wear or dont
medicines/vitamins-high cupboard in kitchen
nappies/cat litter/bulky items you bought on special offer-now only use 1 nappy at night and use cloth so gets washed and put in draw.buy bulk tiolet roll which goes in bathroom cupboard.
paperwork-everywhere!important stuff is filed,other things is shooved in random drawers to be sorted one day!

OK, I have 2 cats...the litter tray is in the hall cupboard with the door wedged slightly open so cats can get in but the wedge makes sure the dds can't open the door and fiddle around .

The huuuuge bag of litter is in the cupboard too along with the boxy thing that I scoop the cat shit into.

I have a "bulk" cupboard in the kitchen for bargainous stuff and medicine is in a (quite big) box on top of the kitchen cupboards (PITA but dd2 is a rummager so can't keep medicines out like I did with dd1 ).

Hmm, what else...recent paperwork is on top of the microwave then periodically filed in a wee concertina file or shredded. Be ruthless, you don't need bills from 1997!

Half-worn (wtf!) clothes are - mine: draped over the laundry basket, dp's: slung on the floor .

Cat Litter Tray - sorry gave up when she refused to use it, it was in an awkward place before then.

Half-worn clothes - Mainly sutff has to go straight into the washing basket (me) after 1 days use or on the floor, down the back of the sofa (DH), Anything that does get used agaon goes back in the chest of drawers - no cupbaords here as ceilings are too low to accomodate them

medicines/vitamins//cat litter/bulky items you bought on special offer - we have no airing cupboard and have shelves above the wasing machine instead where we store all these items (mainly in plastic boxes) also keep all the cleaning stuff and toolbox / torches there too

Nappies - we use cloth so all stored in a box in DDs bedroom.

Paperwork - in labelled cardboard wallets filed vertically in a plastic storage box. Anything that we will not need to refer to again gets thrown out. We have a cupboard for these too but used to store it under the bed.

We have a small cottage so storage space is at a premium. We freecycle / ebay charity shop stuf regularly. Use vacuum storage bags (ebay has them quite cheap) for out-of-season clothes and clothes waiting to be grown into (the bags then get stored in the loft - make good insulation - or under the bed). Under bed storage bags for spare towels, bedclothes etc. Tub truggs are fantastic for toy buckets, just chuck all toys back in at the end of the day - they also make good laundry baskets.

As a general rule, if you haven't needed to use something for 6 months, rehome it!