What great ideas and progress - I love this topic! It is amazing how a small change can be so profound. I also have found for me that the more organized I become - the more I'm inspired to keep my house even more organized (without becoming too perfectionistic of course which will always be a challenge). Start small: I started with my closets, cabinets, fridge and pantry. Each of these projects I could get done within a few hours and I committed to doing them right (labeling, buying appropriate supplies etc). This motivated me to 1) keep up the change and 2) realize my results would make a big difference. Pantry: The Pantry deserves its own mention. I got tired of spices falling out or being hard to find. So I put each spice in alphabetical order with a label in front of the pertinent shelf. This way - I can quickly find a spice and since they are clearly labeled DH puts them back as well in the right place. My pantry now functions rather than being shelves with things I can't find. I also made each shelf within the pantry serve a function (baking, cans, noodles etc) Dresser Drawers: My dresser was almost unusable. I used Linda Koopersmith's book and borrowed her ideas for folding clothes "vertically" I was able to several more shirts that didn't need hung up in the drawer and it looks so nice I let it stay that way. Visualized: Seems silly but I took the 'junk' out of each room, room by room. I then made the room look like I wanted it to once done. I did not stuff the junk behind closed doors - I sat it right aside the room (ie lining the hall so I HAD to either toss, store or donate) This approach helped me work quickly so I wouldn't get distracted. Trash can: I bought a 2 dollar trash can (a small one like you'd see in an office) and put it right behind a decorative chest I have in our "foyer" (it's really just an entry way). I then formed a new habit that I immediately sorted the papers from the mail as I came in the house. Anything I planned to recycle IMMEDIATELY went to the trash can. The chest hides the front of the trash can and then once a week I empty the trash can into my box for paper recyling. Recycling containers: Everday my kitchen counters would clutter with recyclables until in a few days I'd take them out to the bin. Or cardboard would sit to the right of the trash can. I bought these containers below and they work WONDERFULLY. If I have guests I can hide them outside (or even just leave them). All the recyclables are corralled this way and either go out for the weekly pickup (or paper and cardboard I drive to the site once a week). http://www.dwr.com/search.cfm?Ntx=mode+matchpartialmax&N=0&Ntt=recycling (DWR) Hot spot cleaning: Modeled after Flylady I identified my hot spots and hit them every night. I also informed my DH and DS of the same. It shocked me but they actually help pick up now too (guess its that whole modeling of behavior) The beds are made immediately in the morning before work - DS is 3 and makes his own...loves doing it as he feels like a 'big boy' and he learns a great habit. For me if I 'see' things that look organized I keep up. Dining room table: We have an eat-in kitchen with a large dining room table. Our table often became the source for sorting and piles. Not trash but papers, or things in bags (non food but things we bought and hadn't put away) etc. I set the table and keep it this way. When we finish dinner the dishes immediately go away (dishes were an issue before) and new plates go back on the table. By keeping the table set it looks nice and I don't use it to store clutter. Put away Immediately: I made a new rule that I immediately put things away. I was never super messy - but always had little piles I had to care for...especially if we'd come back from traveling (items still in luggage, cars, etc). So if someone swung by I'd stuff the pile somewhere to deal with it later (which of course always got put off). I changed that... If I buy something now, it gets put away. If I use something I put it back. It took me about 2 weeks to really 'learn' this habit but it makes a HUGE difference. An idea box: Ok I'm a dork and can admit this. But when you get a good system going - you tend to want to do more and more. To keep myself focus if I see or think of an idea I want to change (for instance I want to catalog our DVDs and organize them) I write the idea on an index card and store it in a recipe box in my desk. Assuming I actually am caught up on work, family stuff and my house is clean I'll pick out an idea and then implement it. It makes me feel accomplished and its like a dorky reward after I've done what I need too... Laundry: Laundry used to be a major problem. I consolidate the laundry baskets every other day. When they are full I do laundry (usually every other day) and I stay on top of it. Ok I wrote a book and not sure that those ideas will be that helpful but I hope they are. Thanks for all the inspiration! Laurie

My ongoing goal in life it to keep it empty. I have more counter now than I did but I also have more storage area. And I seem to be the only person who sees the clutter. I had a cubby built for my microwave/toaster oven away from the counter area and now they live there. My coffee pot is always out. I keep two cutting boards on the counter at all times on opposite sides of the room. I have several marble and subway tiles as trivets. I stuck those little rubber cabinet door bumpers on the back of tiles I bought at Menard's for the trivets. Pretty. Cheap. Doesn't scratch/stays put. Works perfectly. Right now I do have a very few almost antique do-dads setting out just to break up all the white. White counters, white backsplash, white walls. I'm still working on the best place for everything but my goal is to have a place for everything that used to occupy the counter. I've not put the papertowel holder up yet.........I chase the roll around. I want it attached somewhere but I don't want to put holes in anything. AND I don't like the roll of paper towels being a focal point. That really narrows the places to put it where I would need them. The best way to see how it looks is to take pictures. Then look at them. When The Blob starts growing, you'll see it.

The state makes some of us wear ankle bracelets for electronic tethered tracking. Well the state doesn’t make you wear it, the state gives you a choice to wear it or go to prison. The free enterprise system gives me a choice too. If I want to stay in the 25% tax bracket, I will continue to keep my Apple 8+ phone on me at all waking hours and charging on my nightstand, right next to my Wilson Combat .45, when I’m asleep. So far, the Apple has created much more mayhem than the .45. It used to be that the biggest got all the work, now in the internet age the work goes to the fastest, hence my conjoined phone. I swear I’m not making this up, but I got out of the shower to take a call yesterday. Apparently the strippers at the club and I are the only ones making money dripping wet and naked. Good thing I bought the waterproof case. If you can’t stand always being a little bit at work, self-employment isn’t for you. I recently enabled my Verizon account to allow me to take calls in Mexico when my wife, Lynn Anne, and I stayed at a fancy 5-star resort as guests of friends. I so wanted a break, but I had a print ad publishing several days before we would return. I considered an answering service, voice mail was out of the question, but soon realized that the peace of mind of answering the leads from my ad immediately would far outweigh the several minutes of vacation interruption. It was, me, my wife, my friends, and my phone, drinking margaritas poolside at 11:00 a.m. I haven’t forgotten that this, like giving every 4th dollar I earn to the government, is a first-world problem. Forty years ago, Lynn Anne and I were living on government food stamps in a cockroach-infested apartment her father owned. Our neighbor, Artie Johnson, was bitching about how much he had to pay in taxes as a railroader. I remember thinking “I wish I had your problem.” We outgrew our poverty and the government got a very nice return on its investment in keeping these future taxpayers fed. I not only pay my and my wife’s cell phone bill, but subsidize 4 other family members. I’m grateful I can, however, judging by how many voice mails I have to leave and how few returned and unsolicited calls I get, they don’t feel the same tethering obligation I do. To prevent inconsiderate ringing, I put my phone on Airplane mode when I’m at the movies or other performances or in an actual airplane. It was disabled while I was being rejected for jury duty for a full day last month, per the judge’s stern orders. I can only think of one circumstance under which I would deliberately let a call go to voicemail, but I’m going to let you guess what that may be. Here’s a hint: My phone will probably be on my nightstand. Sometimes tethering is just too high a price to pay.

Rereading through this thread. I'm not sure this is a "first world" problem so much as a "modern life" problem. Back when no one hardly moved anywhere, kids just transitioned into their parents house, no need for sudden, dramatic downsizing. Now we're so much more mobile, we are transitioning into a more mobile culture as far as our possessions. I was talking about this to someone I met and they recommended the book "Boomer Burden." It's about how the material-intensive lifestyle our parents and grandparents and even great grandparents held is not working for current generations. In that old world, treasured possessions were passed down from generation to generation, just getting them in the first place was quite a labor intensive accomplishment. Now, we are inundated with cheap disposable "stuff" everywhere. And overflowing landfills, which is not good. I think our generation is the sandwich between the two lifestyles, trying to sort out what is worth saving for generations, and how best to do it. And the younger folks are trying to figure out what they should never accumulate in the first place . . . constant effort at "de-cluttering" and moving isn't any less stressful than maintaining a lot of stuff. De-cluttering as opposed to fleeing with whatever you can stuff into your coat IS a first world problem . . . On the one hand. On the other hand, I cringe watching all the carp my grandkids are surrounded with, and the rate is is all discarded. I used to think my parents were mean by only getting us a few toys for birthdays and Christmas, and all the hand me down stuff. I now realize they were being good role models . . . but when you have so many families torn apart, there's no coordination and a lot of competition for who can shower the kids with the most "stuff." At some point, we must all realize "stuff" is a fool's love . . . I quit my job to downsize. It is proving VERY difficult. For me it is a matter of time. If I've invested a lot of time in something, and if I ever want it again, it's not that I regret not having the thing if I throw it out, it is not being able to get back the time previously invested to get it in the first place . . . an ironic example is my yogurt strainer. Had it for nigh on 20 years, got it as a hand me down from my mother's downsizing, who probably had it as long, never having used it. So two years ago, off to the Goodwill it went. Now that he's retired and we got an Instapot, hubs is getting into making yogurt which benefits from straining . . . this is why we happily shop at Goodwill!! Kind of a cheapie example to a serious topic, but on a serious note, I get so frustrated with my Dad not being able to let go of absolutely inanely useless and unproductive things cluttering up his home, (literally trash like envelopes and old boxes) and he's 89 so I continually wonder why he doesn't want to focus on happier items . . . A friend once remarked that as we lose control, we tend to focus on the banal things we could possibly control. One has to learn BEFORE one gets into a bad situation, what to let go and let God on . . .