by Keair Geliga

Created on: January 12, 2007   Last Updated: March 01, 2007

How I tamed my clutter.

Right now, my husband, daughter and I live in a 1-bedroom apartment. As my daughter got older (she is five now), with all of our combined clutter thing like papers, arts and crafts projects and clothing it became a nightmare of all sorts. In the closets, on the kitchen table, in bags and boxes even in the entertainment center that should house the TV it housed papers.

We have big 5 to 10 gallons storage bins that should have been used for seasonal storage it became a home for junk mail. We are currently in the process of closing on our first home and I did not want to take the clutter with us especially the papers I wanted to start fresh.

When we first started looking for a home in October, I started first with my daughters things because I knew that it would be the easiest. I sorted out her winter/ fall and spring/summer clothing; Got rid of all the smaller size clothing by giving them away and putting them in those donating clothing bins that are all over now.
Then I headed for the toys in which we both went through so we both agreed on which toys she didn't play with anymore. Then the arts and crafts section, we threw away old drawing from preschool and sort through broken crayons, dried out markers and paint.

The next task was my husbands and I clothing in which we both had clothes we hadn't worn in years, bought but never wore and things that we said we were going to loose weight to fit (hah). I did that over the course of months. With our old clothes put them in the donating bins also.

Last but certainly not least, I tackled the task of gathering all the papers from all around the apartment. We purchased a 10 sheet double crossed shredder that also does CD's and credit cards and it had a large basket. Over the course of 2 months every day I sorted and shredded all old pay stubs, canceled insurance policies, junk mail, high school programs, and basically anything with our name and personal information on it.

Now when I look around I get a sense of peace and we can now have company over and do not have to have prior notice so we can stuff the junk away. What we do now when we get new mail we look through it to determine what is worth keeping like bills and others like credit card applications we shred right away. When we come in the apartment, our drop off point is in the kitchen so that is where we keep the shredder so nothing else goes to the rest of the apartment. Now we have total control on all of our clutter.

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