apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

One trick from childhood that has always worked for me (when living on more than one floor, in a house) is to put things that go upstairs or downstairs ON the steps in that direction. Next trip, take them where they go. They make stepped baskets for this kind of use, but we always just put the items right on the stairs. They are kind of in the way so you are motivated to move them, but you are saving steps by waiting until you are going in that direction anyhow.

I do this every day when cleaning, tidying, coming home fro work, whatever.

Excellent idea. I have to confess I fall victim to the "leave the room" syndrome often. But I've made it work for me. One of the ways I combat distraction is to set the timer for 15 minutes and tell myself I can only do the task I've set out to do until the timer rings. If I'm hanging up clothes, or sorting and filing papers, I cannot stop and pick up something else that might distract me. Focusing on the task rather than the room seems to reduce the clutter and give me more of a sense of accomplishment than having worked at organizing and still seeing piles of everything.

put like with like. That way you see how much (surplus) you have, then get rid of the shoddier of the two items!

I usually have a basket in each room where "roving" items go. In the living room, it's an actual plastic bucket that fits under a chair. In the kitchen, a small tupperware (lidless) on the corner of the counter. In the bathroom, the sink. And so on :) That way, when I'm tidying things next, I can just take those items and put them away.

I do a quick run through of the house to pickup everything that is out of place, (clothes, shoes, dishes, mail are the main offenders in our house) and quickly deposit in the right room: dump all clothes in bedroom, all dishes in sink, all mail/magazines/paper on desk in office. Then I'll go back to each room and clean or put away everything. This way if I don't get to putting away the clothes, they're at lease in one pile on the dresser and not scattered all over the house.

i once was told that a good rule of thumb when cleaning the house is "never touch something more than once"... because people (ok, me) have a tendency to pick up and, not knowing where to put something, put it on a "deal with it later" pile... which just becomes the makings of the next mess. That flies in the face of "don't leave the room"... thought the person who recommended the "only touch it once" lived in a studio.

I'm in the middle of a major home reorganization now and run into this all the time. I do create piles for things that need to be moved, but the following through on moving the piles is my downfall. So I end up with a room that is only organized to my eyes. I fall victim to the fact that so much of what I'm organizing doesn't belong where it is and doesn't have a home to go yet.

I think it's also important to identify two different steps here--1 is general pickup and cleaning, whereby everything or very nearly everything has a home already identified. Then, yes, only touch everything once. Touch it and put it away. OTOH, if you're organizing and arranging, then you're trying to find the best and potentially new home for lots of items. Then, I think you do better with the not leaving the room system.

I tend to pickup first (or more often, my spouse does!), and then lay out the stuff that as a category has outgrown it's home. From there, I can either cull back items and then put them away; or choose a new home for them if they're all needed.

I leave the room every time I encounter something, I feel as if I am killing two stones with one bird... I walk around and things are getting organized. It takes twice as long, but I am doing two things the entire time. I have tried to skipping and side stepping thru the house, but don't have the endurance for that the entire time just yett.
Now, I have noticed a backfire to my habit, I hate staying in one room too long, but on the brighter side I tend to start purging if I have too much in that one room.

Ok, am I the only one thinking some of us wouldn't even have room for the multiple boxes we are "supposed" to sort things by room.

But living where the living areas are all open to one another helps with organizing since when it gets cluttered, it all looks bad.

I make piles when I'm putting anything away. Even groceries... I generally end up sitting down on the floor when we get back from the market or the grocery store and sorting everything into bags - fridge bag, counter bag, pantry bag... It's a habit I developed over produce - the SO has no idea what goes in the fridge and what goes on the counter or when to freeze the chicken breasts, so I sort and he puts away.

We have an open floor plan, so things that go in the bedroom or the bathroom end up thrown on the steps. Things that go in the kitchen (or from the kitchen into the living room) end up on the breakfast bar, etc... Those are surfaces that it irratates me to have cluttered because they're at eye-level, so I clean them off, and it keeps me from having to go to the bookshelf every time I see something that belongs on it. Also, I find it involves other people in the cleaning process some :P M know's that if I put something on the bar i want it put away and he jumps in to help.

This is some great advice and I need all the help I can get. I don't know that I necessarily have a system for organizing but I probably do and it's not a very good one. I think most of my problem is that I have too much stuff. Too much of everything, really. In a couple weeks I'll have time to do a massive purge and I'm really looking forward to it.

We have to say that we have a love/hate relationship with organizing.

Our biggest achilles heel is the mail. Mail tends to accumulate on our island in the kitchen. It takes a good sorting session every few days to plow through it, throw the junk in the recycle bin and get the bills, eob's, and stuff to keep down to the desk in the basement for filing.

Books are a big headache too. Once read they tend to clutter nightstands, end tables, and wherever other flat surfaces there are in the house. These really create the temptation to run them down to the bookcase in our guest room, when found.

Our idea?

Be consistent, go through these things regularly (weekly for some, twice a week for others) and stay on one floor until you've got everything together that is going downstairs. It's good exercise, but who really wants to make multiple trips downstairs for small items? Who's got the time?