Frankie, I have just written 2 posts and deleted them, because I am so full of what I've just learnt. Originally, I came on here to respond to your post, and give some advice about de-cluttering, then I learnt something as I wrote, and deleted that post. So I wrote another one, and learnt something else, and whew... I have had a major "aha" moment. I was going to tell you I didn't exactly know what you meant by "churning", that organizing is simply a matter of keeping only what you love and use, and getting the rest out of your home. But even while I was typing I realised that I do know exactly what churning is. I even use the term a lot, because that is how I worry. I churn in my mind. I churn over my thougts. I'm a stressor and a worrier to the point that if I haven't got anything to worry about I'll worry about someone else's worries for them! LOL. DH is not a worrier, thankfully for my sake, and often tells me to "Stop worrying!", So last week I sat up in bed and said, "Ok I want to, but HOW do I do it". His answer, "Just stop thinking about it.". So I gave a sigh and said, "But HOW? No one says HOW to stop the thoughts." "You just do it, don't think of them anymore, put them out" he says. Right! And then as I wrote to you, it clicked with me. I have successfully de-cluttered and organized our home, and it's a peaceful calm haven that we love to come home to. I no longer churn when it comes to the house, so I DO know how to stop churning my thoughts. Exactly the same principle. I've read Flyladies "De-clutter your body", and even then it didn't actually click. I understood the principle, but didn't know how to "do" it. Just the same as when I read of people who have trouble getting rid of stuff from their homes, I think "Huh? it's obvious isn't it, you just take it away somewhere else or you trash it, what's the problem". Well, I see now why people get stuck, because I get stuck with my own thoughts. Well, I'm trying not to write such long posts, so I'll just say that I'm going to give my mind the same treatment I gave my house. Ask each thought, Do I love you, do I need you? Are you still there because someone gave you to me? Am I hanging onto you because you might fit in the future? Am I hanging onto you because you fit me in the past? Oh, I could go on and on with this. Now tell me, where do you trash junky thoughts to? I recognize all the "stuff" now, but I have to take the steps in getting them out of my mind. Frankie, thank you for your post. It helped it all to finally "click" for me.

I would love to hear your DH's take on it, Klutz! (what's your real name? Hate to call you by your login!) Here is bankrate.com's article on how long to keep financial records. It says to keep seven years of bank statements. Gosh I was hoping to purge some of mine! It also says to keep tax returns permanently. I thought tax returns were disposable after 7 years. The only thing I ever heard you should keep forever is evidence that you paid off student loans. I hear a lot of calls on Clark Howard where even though you paid it off, they come back to haunt you years later due to glitches in their own record keeping. Part of my reason for this is that my Sis'IL's mom died unexpectedly in July. SIL had to go back home and deal with settling the household, etc. SIL's dad had died 2 years ago after a long cancer battle. And I think her mom realized after dealing with his death, that losing a loved one is hard enough without having to deal with a mountain of papers. So she had purged, and only kept what was needed for legal purposes, nothing else. SIL said it made things a lot less difficult than they would have been otherwise. Well, let me tell you! I would HATE for my loved ones to have to go thru THIS MESS! (also I want to have it manageable so when I return to work, I can maintain it). Anyway, I'm in Shredding Purgatory now, paying for years of non-maintenance! But it feels good! Funny thing is, after two days of shredding, my cabinet doesn't LOOK that different! LOL But I can tell, because there is actually some slack in the file drawers now. I guess I had some hopes of actually getting a drawer empty, but guess not! Done: Insurance papers sorted, purged some of DH and my investment papers purged and organized Shredded check dupes going back to 1986 in some cases!!! Shredded some obsolete papers for things we don't have or things having to do with our last house we moved out of 9 years ago. FOUND!!! (An added benefit) DH's passport and birth certificate. I have been searching all summer for it! Anyway, back to shredding! Here is a link that might be useful: Bank Rate dot com's article on financial records

Hi Susan, I have a lot of fatigue issues that increase tenfold when I am stressed, depressed, anxious, etc. I understand how hard it can be to just get the bulk of daily chores done. I tend to take mental stock of what is around the house- thinking of things that I know are there and that I wouldn't mind parting with. No need to necessarily go through a whole cabinet, but pull out 4 old beer mugs that I know are in there and put them in a box to donate. Sometimes I aim for just 10 minutes of this type of work a day, depending on what is going on. If you do 10 minutes a day, a few days a week, in a year, you will have spent a fair amount of time and probably eliminated a lot of things. It's that old adage about how you eat an elephant-- one bite at a time. Where I live, we are fortunate to have several organizations who will happily pick up any donations you might have, and they are available to come by once or twice every week, even for just a bag or two of stuff. This is great for me because it means I can schedule a pick up, put a few boxes and bags in one space (add to them as the date approaches) and then just stick everything out in the front entry on the given day- and it is gone to new digs by the end of the day. I just finished reading a book that was very good- Clutter Busting by Brookes Palmer. He emphasizes over and over again that 75% of the stuff in your house is weighing you down, and that you are more important than any material item in your house. Reading his book gave me a lot of clarity on how to go through things, he's got a lot of tips about recognizing when you don't need or want something, but are making excuses up to keep it. It's been a helpful and inspiring book for me to get going again. I'll warn you that he has a few stories in there about people who have health problems that he decides are just mental clutter, and related to the outer clutter, but if you can accept that there are some hypochondriacs out there, and don't feel like he's telling you that all your health problems will go away if you declutter, then the book has a lot of value. One thing that I will contend is that, you will probably feel better as you make this go away. But be patient with yourself and do things as you can, and one day you will wake up and realize that it really has changed. (((HUGS)))

I agree w/ the power of back-of-door storage. Make that the place where you store the stuff you use MOST often. Especially the smaller stuff. As for the little alcoves on either side of the door: Maybe that's where you line up the paper towels, or other similarly shaped things (cereal boxes?). They're big, and easy to grab, and can be lifted over the other stuff. If you're not handy, you might need help with your pullouts. Got a handy relative/friend/handyman? Though...there is a company that makes pullouts you can mount to the shelves (base mount, or bottom mount), if your shelves are fixed and solid. And that's something you could probably do as long as you can run an electric screwdriver, or maybe a basic drill. You might consider having pullouts only on SOME of the shelves, or maybe on some AREAS of the shelf (and tuck things like paper plates on their edges, or paper towels, or cereal boxes, or tall skinny plastic containers of cereal, into the space between the pullout and the wall. These are base-mount. This company has lots of different designs. I'm a fan of full-extension slides, but they're pricey. https://www.shelvesthatslide.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=AS58EWH&Category_Code=SS One thing about combining pullouts and back-of-door storage: The back-of-door baskets will jut out, and they may be in the path of the pullouts. So, something to think about.