aunt Jen I've had kitchen drawers like that in the past (they can drive you nuts!), but there is a really quick easy tip that you might try. Get a regular parafin wax candle, take out the drawers and really rub the candle along the edges of the drawer at the bottom, and the area along the bottom sides of the cutout where the bottom drawer edges run back and forth. It makes them slide in and out much better and not stick so much. It really does help.

I also reuse zip lock bags, I freeze herbs and I keep reusing the same bags until they tear or fall apart :)

When I purchased my home, it had a combination doorbell/intercom that was wired into the house's phone system. It never worked very well and finally quit working altogether around Thanksgiving. I know that I need to have the house rewired, but that's too much expense and bother right now so I just bought a wireless doorbell from the home improvement store and stuck it right on top of the existing doorbell! Problem fixed!

When I met my hubby he bowled five nights a week and wore the same "lucky" velour shirt every night. Yes, every... single... night. I came to hate that shirt. When we married I thought about hiding it, but I'm not cruel so I made sure it was washed and joked with the other wives and girlfriends about it. I thought for sure when it became thread bare at the tips of the collar he'd give it up. But no, no such luck. So for two or three years I washed it and he wore it to bowl in. When he finally gave up on it, guess what? I couldn't part with it. Over a quarter of a century later and that shirt hangs on my side of the closet. I actually love that shirt.

My pictures are hung with perfection; dish towels, potholders, drinking straws (yes, drinking straws), and trivets are precisely matching the kitchen d�cor; DGC�s toys are meticulously stored and out of site.

BUT, my car is a mess to the point where I am embarrassed for the bagger person to load my groceries in the trunk.

Mustangs,

That is me! I keep my house clean and orderly with everything in it's place (usually) but my minivan (kids, I'll just blame them) is an embarrasing mess.

Our dining room can be "seen" from the front door a tiny bit, but you really need to walk over there and peer in if you want a full view of the back corners. So, beside my silk panels currently sits two sets of snowboarding equipment, 3 boxes that I got for stuff I may return at Christmas, and sitting on top of the dining room table is a cookie sheet that serves as a place mat for my cat's dinner! My dog will scarf up every shred of his food, so the cat's the only one who eats in the DR every day!! Of course, I have a strategically placed plastic disk to protect the table's surface under the cookie sheet, but it has sort of dampened my desire to eat in the DR since I have to move all the athletic equipment and the cat's dishes to do so.

I've been married 24 years and just recently threw out towels I got at my wedding shower. I have a crock pot I got at the same shower that still works, but was so encrusted with god knows what I finally got a new one for Christmas this year because I was embarrassed to use it if anyone outside of family was coming over and could see how gross it was on the outside.

My husband is a true saver though. We have text books from his college days, file boxes full of papers he did years ago - he wants to save them just in case he's ever famous and they may come in handy. :-) He used to run triathalons back in the mid 80's. He has kept everyone of his teeshirts from these events and still wears them. I caught my 18 year old wearing one the other day - he thinks they're cool - vintage sports tees!

I also save ziplock baggies I use for crackers to reuse for the next sleeve. My perfect white bounty paper towels? If I use one to dry my hands, I'll put it on the counter and reuse it to wipe the counter or my hands a second time before throwing away.

Some men who are not remotely domestic manage to keep cars as empty and clean as the day they were bought. Many tidy women seem to treat their cars like a gigantic rolling purse.

My DH refuses to go through any old clothes. There are pants with 30" waists in the guestroom. He's not big, he's about a 34", but I doubt he will be a 30" waist again or even want to wear these again though some of these are just Levi's jeans. He just sees no reason to clean anything ever. So, when he complains he can't find anything, I have no sympathy.

The guest room in general looks like a college dorm room. It is a bit embarrassing when we actually have guests. Oh well, that will be a summer project.

I have everything nicely labeled, even the light switches; but OMG the magazines are out of control!!

My closets are my "other hand"......scary full of things I have no need of.

ML

I like those switchplate labels, Mustangs, how did you do those?

My parents need those labels at their lakehouse. They used blue painter's tape and every light switch is labeled. Five years now!

Whoever mentioned the bacon ziploc. I love turkey bacon once or twice a week. I also reuse the ziploc, but only three, four times tops. I feel like it "grows" something, so it gets replaced now and then.

I mentioned my pair of French os de Mouton chairs that have been sitting in the great room and/or dining room for the past 18 months uncovered. I did finally purchase the fabric and need to find leather for the backs. Then off to my upholstery guy - who has the most gorgeous eyes. But that's another thread. ;)

Not in my home, but I'm helping DD2 with her new home. She moved in Nov 2009. Did a lot between then and Aug 2010, when she married. We're feeling the clock ticking on getting things done (dare I say "finished?") before the baby arrives in Aug 2011.

a small tribute to the other thread, Publix has these boxes which seem PC enough to go anywhere. The tissues are off white, box has a white on ivory design.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Switchplate Labels

If you covered the green band with white tape...perfect:)

My husband's office. It's a mess. There's stuff piled everywhere. He won't put anything away because then OMG he'd have to get it out if he ever needed it. And the worst part is, he can find any obscure document you ask him for in a matter of minutes. Oh well. It's his home too, so I guess as long as it's only the one room I can live with it. Just have to remember to close the door when we have guests.

Totally Confused

justgotabeme, super cute story!

mustangs, love the switchplate labels!

I still have three Christmas trees up....

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Dirt is a true friend. Neglect it, it will still be around waiting for you. Push it away, it will always come back.

Palimpsest,

You must be a mind reader or my brother b/c yesterday as I was typing about my obsessions all I could think about were those things that follow my "It is what it is" rule.

So of course we are in our temporary home that we have flipped and flopped on about remodeling or moving for three years now. Yet we are currently not in a financial position to do either, so the list of things that have been let go is getting longer by the day!

First, is the hardwood flooring in the hallway leading into our bedroom. The AC in the hallway has leaked several times, most of which happened before we moved in, and the wood of course buckled. To fix this problem we have ripped up a large portion of buckled wood leaving the exposed concrete, with glue patches no less, in a linear streak that is completely uneven through the hallway and into our bedroom. Does this bother me, not in the least, and we have beaucoups of the matching flooring in our storeroom that I have no desire to patch the floor with b/c I am waiting on that full remodel.

I have had the same Lowe's temporary shade, the kind you hang when you move into a place, in the bathroom window for five and a half years. It's paper in a high humidity area imagine what that looks like. Does it bother me, nope!

When we moved in, I painted several of the rooms to perfection but not all. So when I was pregnant with DS2, I wanted the rest done. I leave to go visit my dad leaving DH to paint. Perfection is not what he was striving for! Paint is all over the mouldings in the hall(the same hall with the missing flooring) and kitchen. The hall paint kind of bothers me just b/c he could have done that easy peasy without a mess. Does it bother me enough to fix, nope.

We have the same kitchen cabinets that auntjen has as well. One has most of the face ripped off, again waiting on that remodel. Also in the kitchen, an entire length of moulding is missing exposing a beam and wiring that is waiting on the remodel. DS2 has written on every wall and now most of the house needs to be repainted. Don't care!

When we did paint several years ago, we never put the light switch covers back on in the kitchen or our bedroom. I was going to buy new ones. Still haven't made it.

All of the window trims need to be repainted, the dishwasher is broken, there is some wood that needs to be replaced outside, but none of this stuff bothers me.

Oh and lastly, we have a half bath that looks like the magnolia tree in the front yard threw up in it b/c of the wallpaper and to it make it worse has 1970's fixtures. This could be such an easy redo. But why complete an easy redo when can wait for years on end for a full remodel! I just don't go in there and all is well.

These two threads have been great Pal!

Open any closet or cabinet door or any drawer in my house and everything's neat and organized and tidy. There's empty space in some cabinets.

It's every horizontal surface in the house that's covered in paper. You see, I've figured out how to organize the kitchen cabinets and the linen closet and my bedroom closet. There's a set amount of space--all I have to do is figure out what I want to put in that space and then get rid of everything else. And I can't control all the paper that comes in--the catalogs, the take-out menus, the junk mail. I've opted out of a lot of it, but more just keeps coming.

But my house didn't come with a clearly defined space for paper. So magazines and catalogs and letters and printouts and receipts and goodness only knows what else tend to pile up. Once again, this year my main New Year's resolution is to figure out how to handle the paper.

It's annoying, because most of my space is neat and tidy. It's just the surfaces you see when you enter that are a mess. So people think I'm really messy, totally messy, incorrigibly messy, when really it's just that I need a paper storage unit and a system to deal with the stupid paper. Go ahead, ask me what's in the left-hand drawer next to the sink--I can tell you what's there and where exactly in the drawer it is. Just don't ask where the electric bill that came Saturday is.

Dirt? It's not dirt but rather the dust of ancient civilizations (as described by Pigpen from the comic Peanuts).

I have:

loads of ancient dust surrounding my radiators that no sort of brush will remove.

a bathroom that is practically unheated

cracked ceilings

cracked window panes

windows covered in plastic

window trim in desperate need of paint (indoors and out)

roman shades in my bedroom covered in cat hair. (Hopefully this hair is all from my cats and not from the cat that lived with the previous owners of this house)

That's enough for now as I am getting depressed.

I have said for years that my house is messy enough to be fun, but clean enough to be healthy.
But no thanks on the tissue box-still not allowed -well maybe in the closet.

Ooh, Camlan, am I with you. Not to hijack the thread, but what do you do with all that paper? The end of my kitchen island ALWAYS has a pile.

Oh my. Not sure where to start...maybe with the door to our master bathroom. It was removed when the bathroom was remodeled, because I planned to strip the umpteen layers of paint then reprime and paint it white. Still planning that. Almost five years later, while the door leans against the shelves in the garage. One day it's gonna fall over onto my car and then I'll be sorry.

There are the boxes with the results of my decluttering frenzy (which I shared with the conversations side) a few weeks ago, waiting in the foyer directly in front of the door to go to Goodwill.

There is the office which is packed with random paper-linked material like the extra invitations and stationery from the moms' luncheon I hosted before my son's graduation from HS. That would be the class of '07 graduation. Those are mingled with the random clusters of cat hair/dust balls all over. Of course it all works with the fiberboard homemade computer desk/workstation my husband built 10 years ago, using material that had been thrown out at work, which has various chips that expose the paper innards.

But in the office EVERYTHING else pales when I glance up from the monitor to see the pair of jars that contain half-hatched baby sea turtles preserved in formalin. These are the property of my husband who collected them *35 years ago*. He doesn't ever think of them, much less have any earthly use for them. However when I even hint that maybe it's time for them to go...WWIII. God forbid a cat ever knocks one of those bad boys down and it breaks open. We'll probably have to just burn the house and move.

Although, some things do eventually get done. Like our bedroom closets-my husband claimed for 20 years(not kidding) that he couldn't possibly put doors on them, because the openings were something a couple of inches off from standard size doors. That lasted till my son got old enough and handy enough to go with me to Home Depot, buy the closest size doors in stock, then install them with an extra 2x4 nailed to the sides of the closet door frames to make up the difference. Ever heard the phrase 'the perfect is the enemy of the good'? It was written by somebody who lives with a systems analyst.

Ann
who is greatly relieved to know I'm not alone on this topic either

The plastic bag thing makes me laugh. My husband was the captain on a (relatively) smallish yacht that had only one other crewperson. The owners were, as you can imagine, quite wealthy. The wife, though, is very thrifty. So everyone got a paper napkin and a napkin ring and that was your paper napkin for the WEEK (for all three meals) unless you had some sort of major blowout. She also insisted in reusing the plastic baggies, which was fine except that they accumulated a massive quantity of them and she refused to throw any away unless she deemed they had been used enough (on a boat, storage space is at a premium, so dedicating more than one drawer in the galley to plastic baggies was not realistic), so my husband came up with the idea of labeling bags "Rhubarb 2003," etc. so she would think the baggie was from several years earlier. Worked like a charm.

For as much as he complained about that stuff to me I always told him there was a reason they were wealthy!

Another great thread!

My house is very clean and everything is put away, especially in the public rooms. However, I am a total closet slob! People always are amazed at how neat and organized my house appears. I always chuckle and say just don't open a closet door!

I am trying to get better. I have spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks cleaning out the basement and some closets. Ordered some organizing shelves for the pantry and when they come I will try to get that cleaned out and organized.

So, my paper towels are white, everything appears perfect and matched. Just don't open a closet!

OMG! You all have me in tears laughing! Ah, so nice to know we are not alone with our cluttered closets, cabinets, counters and drawers :) And the wonderful DH stories make me remember my mantra...it's all just whiskers in the sink (for in spite of any of his faults I would sure miss DH's whiskers in the sink should anything ever happen to him. So, I just clean them up myself). Now, someone point me to the other thread please! :)
Kath

I'm the opposite of jillinnj. My closets are incredibly neat. The rest of the house... I'd rather not say.

When he finally gave up on it, guess what? I couldn't part with it. Over a quarter of a century later and that shirt hangs on my side of the closet. I actually love that shirt.

Awww, that is so sweet!

maximavswife, it is called "concentration" started by palimpsest and it is currently on the 2nd page towards the bottom of the page.

Becky...great story!

magazines...check-
closets...check-
basement...check-
kitchen table...check-
they all need H.E.L.P.

When we bought our 1960 ranch 14 years ago (wanted a house we could eventually live in on one floor as we aged-or more accurately SINCE we are ...), my husband promptly removed all baseboards and doors to replace them with better versions. I expected a pretty quick turn-round because... why else would you remove them right away? Silly me. We lived for about eight years with no bedroom doors and the baseboards have just been finished...because I hired someone to do them!!!!

The clutter is everywhere since we cleaned out my parents' house three years ago-ugh.

Much of the furniture is covered in sheets because of the dogs. We do remove them when we are having people come over, but woe to the man or woman who just drops in. He/she had better have a good sense of humor or be understanding enough to wait as I pull off the covers. At least they aren't plastic-teehee.

Christmas decorations are on top of the dining room table waiting to be boxed and put away.

Really, this isn't me! I am organized and have a quite lovely home 24/7 in a parallel universe. I am sure of it! Nonetheless, we do always have fresh flowers throughout (he may not do baseboards, but DH still brings flowers) and we laugh at least once a day-often at ourselves!

Mitchdesi, love the tissue box! No Publix around here, though-alas.

Ok....I read the other thread...but since I am an " all white" girl I decided my post would be redundant so I read and laughed and that was that. But this one...oh my.

I have my bread bags folded in the freezer door. They are expensive. at least relatively speaking and I have to order them specially for my large Challah...anyway I can't throw them out after a couple days and I refuse to wash them as then they are wet and gross and my Momma used to wash her plastic bags and hang them on the faucet.

Now the rest of my house is really really neat....closets, drawers....but I have art work that has been propped against the wall waiting...waiting...and I WILL get it done. As soon as I get the picture rail hangers and cord...soon.

Then there are the partially stripped mantels...everyone says they look rustic and great....well yeah they are rustic...and I guess if you were intending this look they are great....but I ran out of stripper and stamina and interest...

Then there are all the arbors and fences outside....only been 2 yrs come this July....I will get them done...if I stay home and don't do anymore cycling trips....yep....they are going to get done....soon....

this is a great thread...I am tired...will think on more things to add....later...we are in NYC for a week...so nothing gonna get done anytime soon....maybe when we stop travelling :) c

Olliesmom, Terriks and Lori, I'm glad you enjoyed my story. Funny how you look at things differently with time, isn't it?

I am so glad I started reading this thread before it got so long that I felt I was neglecting my housework. Tee Hee. If you only knew.....

We were the contractors for our custom home. Custom as it we found the plans worked with a company that helps you be the contractor and offers the use of an architect to make any changes you want to said plan.

April will be nine years that we broke ground. It took a year and a half to ready it for occupancy. Would have been a year, but our son was deployed to Iraq for a year. Our daughter and I did what we could but were not strong enough to help with drywall so that was hired out. One of the very few things we didn't do ourselves.

We've lived here 7 years, 3 months, 1 week & 2 days and we still don't have doors on all the doorways. The only rooms with trim are the two smallest, though hubby is working on trim again. I could go on, but I'll just add the worst. We are still climbing construction grade stairs from the main level to the second floor. Our daughter says she'll not bring anyone home until we get oak stairs installed. She's in S.Korea for a year so I'm thinking we need to get them done as a surprise while she's away. Did you hear laughter?

Oh I guess should add, and Lori I know you know this one, that I've had fabric for the five windows and french doors for WTs for, well long before we broke ground, lets just say a decade, and I've yet to make them. It will be a while longer since I just realized that I absolutely hate the rods we built and put up countless years ago so I have to take them down, repair the walls which means I have to fix the paint that just happens to be a double roller paint treatment that is pretty much impossible to touch up, and then buy the new rods, which I at least know what I want, and then I can measure, cut and sew the panels.

"BUT, my car is a mess to the point where I am embarrassed for the bagger person to load my groceries in the trunk."
Gasp! Mustangs say it isn't so! ;) I just love how organized the photos of your home are!

Pal - I had to laugh at the "gigantic rolling purse". I don't think mine's quite that bad but I wouldn't want any of your to ever see it. Also, the outside is crazy dirty thanks to all the dirt roads I travel on a regular basis.

Justgotabeme - Love that story. :)

Closets and cupboards: organized

4th bedroom (family room over the garage - FROG): Sanford & Sons - seriously

Wow, it's kind of a relief to read this thread, which provides useful perspective and reality!

Our poor home has plenty of skeletons, and not all of them are in the closet, either--several of them are in plain sight!

Maybe the most awful one is the black plastic trash bags duck-taped over the basement fireplace and windows, to keep out cold drafts in the winter. (My DH is nothing if not practical and frugal.) Looking at them now as I type. Nice.

Oh, and I'm not sure what this says about me, but I might be found in a chaotic, messy room, meticulously organizing my purse. The room looks like a tornado went through, but boy does my purse look great.

Okay, just previewed my message, and I'm laughing at the (real) picture of myself earnestly perusing GW in the room with the black plastic trash bag window treatments. :)

I asked dh if I could entertain you all with his circa 1975 groovy shirt from his band days that is hanging in his closet. He responded "Sure, which one?" Yikes! I had no idea he had more than one. The stuff you learn even after 30 years...

This thread makes me think of so many other skeletons in my home...
leaky garage roof
lower level gutted and waiting for drywall
windows need washing
and on and on......

Oh, dear. SO many skeletons.

For instance...there are three drawers in mt DR below the pass-through to the kitchen. Top drawer is bills and bank-statements. Middle drawer is health insurance stuff.
Bottom drawer is receipts and such for taxes. That is our "filing system." It's all in there...but it can get...ugly when we need to find something specific.

Palimpsest...I lived with my mother's cat-scratched-too-short-for-my-LR red Henredon sofa as it was for YEARS because I couldn't afford a sofa that I thought compared in form and comfort. Then our senile cat made the decision for me...and seven years ago I found an upholsterer who could not only fix it...but LENGTHEN it. I made the mistake of getting brushed twill...which is why I have to keep smooth fabric on the single large cushion...or it would be covered in fur...(LR is no longer arranged this way.)

If I were doing it today...I'd probably at least LOOK at Crate and Barrel's Azure sofa in Whitney Apple. It's all about how a sofa "sets" as my grandmother would have said. But I like a single seat cushion and I must have a tight back. And my sofa must be red. Can't tell you why...it just has to be.

Here is a link that might be useful: Whitney Apple Azure Sofa

In 1988, we bought a really old house in need of complete restoration. Fast forward to 2011 & you'll find only about half of the woodwork painted - because I refuse to paint over wood that needs stripping. Most of the rooms have a combination of finished & unfinshed surfaces. New kitchen installed in 2003 & I've yet to paint the pantry cabinets or put up cornice because I haven't found the perfect profile; it only took 5 years to find THE backsplash. But I only use white paper towels & color coordinated dish towels!

For $50 I bought a heavy old sideboard that belonged to a creative but sloppy gal who kept it on her porch and slapped some more colors on whenever the whim took her. I carefully sanded coats away to display all the various colors, then decided I didn't like it anyway. Unfortunately, everybody now thinks I'll be ruining a piece of art if I paint it, so I'm waiting for them to get over it. In the meantime, this big multicolored thing that doesn't "go" has anchored our living room for some months, and, since I haven't bought new handles yet, we stick two large threaded bolts in the holes whenever we need to open a drawer.

Oh Rosie, we need to see that.

Reading this thread I just realized that my organizational skills are finally perfected- I am already decorated for next Christmas! :) taking a break now.

I wasn't sure I would have enjoyed having 'those' folks on the Concentration thread drop by for a visit, but y'all? Yeah, everyone of y'all are welcome...LOL

I thought it was the same y'all! :)

Let's see.....

My son's room (he is 20 months old) is piled high with stuff, has never been painted and was once sort of set up for about a week. Since he doesn't sleep in there it is a storage room.

As soon as fall hit and we stopped going out to the pool and the three season sun room it became a storage room too. I keep the curtain drawn at all times so I don't have to look at it.

Most of the time my living room is the "on deck" room for things that are in mid process and you can't really walk in there.

My closet is a disaster. In the winter I usually wear boots and I can never find matching socks so most of the time I am wearing two different socks. Today it is one white and one black.

yep looks like the same "all y'all" as in the other thread. Just the dark side. :)

I too have this idea of a perfect home in my head. My house appears very tidy & neat in most areas.

I can't stand water spots on the mirrors, but it seems I could clean them daily because someone(DH & kids) continues to shake their toothbrush so hard the water splashes everywhere. How can anyone spash that much water brushing teeth. I guess that is my fault, because I asked them several times a day if they have brushed their teeth. DH says it is a wonder I have any gums left because I brush them so much.

Every piece of mail that comes in my house seems to fall on the kitchen table alone with my laptop that I am sitting at now. I hate to put the mail away because I might forget something.

I concentrate so much on things being the way I want them, but if it can't be accomplished quickly, I don't do it. I am "all or nothing". DH says I go on a rampage every once & awhile & drive the whole family crazy. He says "you can leave piles of coupons on the kitchen table to be filed in your notebook", but if me or the kids leave one piece of clothing on the floor, we have committed a crime. Guess none of us are perfect. I just have visions of it.

I also have fabric that I bought last summer for dining room drapes that is still in the plastic sleeve in the coat closet.

One day I will accomplish all that I dream of, but for now I have to enjoy life as it is. Both of my kids have friends over tonight, so tomorrow I will be in a panic cleaning everything again.

Oh dear. Well, where to begin? Papers. Piles and piles of papers. I'm getting better, and now the worst of it is a smallish pile on top of the filing cabinet, waiting to be filed, and a smallish pile on the kitchen counter. I started a new system last year that's been working OK. I bought a trash can for the garage that fits right by the door, so mail that comes in that way can be sorted and junk tossed before it even comes in the house. I also bought an expanding file so that remaining mail can be roughly sorted for dealing with "later"...uhem.

I'm bad about buying things for the house, then changing my mind, or the thing just doesn't work where I planned, but I still like it, so it all gets crammed in closets.

I collect many, many things, and sometimes those collections spawn other things, and frankly, I think it all multiplies when I'm not looking, so yes, clutter can be an issue.