excel spreadsheets? lists? rooms dedicated to wrapping? Sheesh that's far too organized for me. I thought just getting the ornaments organized by tree was a HUGE undertaking! For wrapping I use the desperately rushed, christmas is in 4 hours, need a bottle of wine approach. I spread out the entire mess of crap with a hole in the middle for me and the wine, and begin digging my way out carefully :p I actually am organized when it comes to the decorations though. I have one attic for trees, one for ornaments that go on the trees that are on the 3rd and 4th floor as well as the decoration, and then I store the decorations and ornaments for the first floor and second floor are kept on the second floor. Less hauling down (and up) stairs that way :) I also label the boxes for the appropriate tree which is helpful when distributing boxes around the house. WHile I can obviously see what's vintage and what's traditional as well as all the other themes of a tree through the plastic boxes, I don't know how many vintage go to each tree unless I put them in separate boxes. THat leaves me just enough ornaments for each tree without taxing my little brain. I wish I could apply that kind of organization to presents LOL I do actually wrap all but the Santa ones in advance (so that's the 23rd verses the 24th btw) and those can go out under the main tree. I have been known to buy the same thing more than once...perhaps that list idea is a good one LOL Gad a room dedicated to wrapping and holiday storage...well I'm a bit nutso over christmas (major santa barf is in EVERY room) so that would have to be a big big big room! But it's a lovely fantasy!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have to be honest, if there was a scale for clutteres, I would probably be at about the 80th percentile, in other words I am still in the range of normal but just barely! You can walk in my house (unlike some other places I have heard of but never seen where theere is just room for a path) and I allow company in but no one walks in and says how well organized my house it. Most of the compliments focus on the big yard (it is) if that tells you anything. Thanks for all your words of advice. I get at least 15 account statements each month not including basic bills such as cable, electric etc. We have retirement accounts and each kid has his own account. a lot of it is crap but some I do need to keep but not to access immediately or do anythign with. Scanning would take forever although I have previously done that with certain important papers that need to be shown from time to time such as birthcertificates, I print one out when I need it. Also I have had computer crashes in the past so I worry about that being lost. I have tried drawers, those narrow plastic Iris ones and that just does not work, I ended up dumping things in there. I have bought a lot of baskets in the last Two years with the idea of just having one basket in the dining room with my important stuff and one in a To be filed but I just ended up with a lot of baskets of junk. Twice I tried the small file for important papers, one using a plastic magazie thing and once getting a pretty Blue Toile one from Target. That one sits in my bedroom with my important papers from 2003 still in it! Obviously they were not that important. I have a file cabinet box (3 stacked 12 x 20 boxes that sit on top of each other). That has my important papers from 1996 in it including things like instructions for a cannister vac I no longer own and yes I know for the most part I no longer need to keep any of it for tax purposes). It takes up room in my upstairs closet. As for for the kids stuff, I really have no place to put it on the walls since I am painting and its a long term project. My solution is to get soem plastic bins and store the stuff in the attic. I will usually put their most recent 100 test or project on the fridege. I have a walk up attic that is great as storage space but cannot be used as living space by code. Since there is still plenty of room up there I figure storing it neatly in plastic bins is a solution (yes I know that this will just lead to more sorting in a few years or when we sell which could be only a year from now). I worry that in my old age or when they are adults they will want to see their early work! I know its silly but I cannot get over it. I guess the litmus test for me is whether its worth scanning into the computer, if its not then its probably not worth keeping. Still I hate the idea of thorwing out their work. Its frustrating and yes I do like to clutter and I need to get over it. Gloria you are absolutly right. However I am afraid of purging. For example Two days a go I was sorting my dining room mess and threw out what I thought were duplicate menus to our local Chinese place (at least 3 of them). Last night we got home late and the kids wanted Chinese! It tok me 30 minutes to find a menu that I had. Stuff like that always seems to happen! I threw out a light cover to a lamp I thought was broken (kids had gotten hold of it so it was off the lamp). Right before I considered tossing I gijjered with it and got it to work but now its missing hte little plastic sleeve that goes over the bulb and my lamp store does not sell them! I am definitely of the what if I need it variety! Drives DH crazy. He tosses his clothes if they have not been worn in 6 months, I have my lucky exam sweatshirt from college I tried going on the flylady site to find instructions on paper clutter but found it difficult to navigate So I guess there is no perfect system and I still have not found the one that I can stick to, sort of like a diet Thanks Saph

Katie: When were first launched on this now nearly finished remodel, I went a bought 50 extra-large, like 60 quart size, plastic boxes from Walmart. Buy more than you think you need (and return what you don't need) b/c this is the time of year that people buy storage boxes: after Christmas to store the stuff that this crop of presents replaced, so boxes start flying off the shelves! I have never regretted buying that many boxes b/c I will need storage boxes for years and rotate them to where they are needed. I bought Sterlite, but unfortunately the lid of the boxes didn't support a stack of them on top of it, so the lids are flattened. But at least the boxes are clear. You have a hard job ahead of you b/c you still need childrens clothing and it might not be time to give away your baby clothes. But I would give away as many baby toys as you can bear to part with. I found that the more children I have, the less we needed baby toys since the babies found the larger pieces of the older children's toys just as fun to chew on. So I parted with a lot of Fisher Price stuff, and that was hard. I loved those toys. But toys are easily replaced once you move via garage sales and birthdays. And next Christmas. I'd also get rid of lots of winter things that you might not need in Atlanta. And my guess is that you might have a lot of artist's supplies: paints and the like. Can you move those items? Do you have a Hazardous Waste center in your town? I'd dump/give away house paints, fertilizers, bug and weed killers, etc. Any chemicals. Extra ladders and tools that are useless. Wading pools and beach toys. Katie, the day before the carpet installers came, I called the City of Dallas Sanitation Department and paid them to do a special bulky curb-side pick-up of junk from my house. We missed the November pick-up (we thought it was cancelled due to Thanksgiving). It cost me about $86 to have them haul a sofa(with a bed inside, it weighed about a ton), two upholstered chairs, an enormous sink base (from old laundry room), mirrors, mismatched ceramic tiles (like three boxes from our OLD house), and stacks of junk. It was just great seeing all of that stuff go. We didn't want the junky furniture on the new carpet, so we had to have it talken away before the carpet was in. In anycase, you know the drill because of Flylady. If you can enlist your husband's help, it would be good b/c you can deal with the clutter that he probably had a hand in creating, together as a team and urging one another forward. Have wine on hand and lots of garbage bags. Make it a date! Drat, my baby's crying.... got to go!

List all seeds in a spreadsheet program. Record the name, special treatment (freeze, cool etc.) and the plant date. Then do a sort by date and run off a hard copy for quick reference. Start seeding in January and go through fall to keep organized. If the seeds are absolutely dry and you have a dry place to store them, plastic containers may be used for storage, e.g. Photo albums with slots for each photograph. Add a catalog picture & any pertinent information. Put the seeds in small baggies or Saran Wrap before putting in page. 35m film canisters in a plastic box, especially the transparent ones. Label with felt marker. Tackle boxes with lots of compartments. Jewellers have neat little (1" square or larger) zipper bags. Square tin flour cannister during the winter. In spring, stand the packets up in a bread pan, divided by planting date: inside cool for the basement, inside warm for my plant room, outside cold for peas, etc., outside cool, outside warm. Oblong Tupperware boxes stack handily in the refrigerator freezer, and keep moisture and air out. Stick those little silica gel packets among the seeds to absorb moisture, and dry the packets out once a year or so. It is better, however, to avoid air tight containers. Seed companies prefer paper. Save all the return envelopes from your junk mail. They can be stored in a spare box, drawer, or hanging plastic shopping bag. In the fall, collect the seeds into used glass or plastic jars along with a piece of newspaper or paper tissue to absorb moiture. Later, pick the right size envelope, label it with the plant name and the present year (very important) and any other information worth remembering. Fill out several envelopes, some to give away. Then fill them with seeds and seal them. Keep the envelopes in a cool basement or in the garage, either in big cookie jars or in the camping cooler which does not get used in the winter time anyway. In the garage, the container has to be tight to protect the content from mice, in the house it doesn't matter. But most people's basements are too warm to store seeds. Keep seeds in paper coin envelopes. These come in many sizes and can be ordered through office supply businesses or catalogs. The envelopes I keep in a box with cardboard dividers to help hold the packets upright. You can also put commercial seed packets in this box. File seed packets in several file boxes, one for flowers and one for veggies. File them by the month that they need to be planted.