Organization Tips

Help! I have to clean my room and I'm such a pack rat...there's not a clean spot on my floor. I've got books, papers, random junk all over the place. Anyone have any handy organization tips?

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Millie- do you want to throw it out or just organize it?

If you are planning to throw it out, take it to Goodwill or something like that.

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lighter fluid and a couple of matches.

I'm a bit of an organizational freak, and besides what others have already suggested, the best tip I can think of is -- ask yourself whether you'll REALLY need an item in a year from now or whether you're truly going to look at something more than once in a year. I parted with a lot of essentially useless papers and magazine clippings using that method. To be honest, I don't remember a single one of them that I threw away.

The same method can be used with books. If you've already read the book, ask yourself if you've actually looked at it within the last year or if you plan to look at it again soon. If the answer is no, donate it to charity. Place books in a certain order to your bookshelf -- coffeetable books you want to keep forever, novels you love so much that you can't part with them, and novels you want to read once and likely give them away.

Go to www.containerstore.com - or visit a location near you.

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I used to stuff everything under my bed- so then my mom bought me a bed with drawers underneath it.

If you're gonna stuff random crap somewhere, put it in the trash. (Then you'll think about it twice the next time around).

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Move.

Ugh! I have an organization problem too! My problem is not that I keep useless crap or too many sentimental items, it's that I have trouble thowing away useful items. For example: I have three reams of notebook paper and about 15 half-used spiral-bound notebooks that I will never use. Or worse! I have a box with about 20 boxes of tea that I never drink but I find it very difficult to just throw this stuff out. Like I'm being wasteful or something. And for things I could give to the goodwill it's difficult because I live in the city so taking things to the Goodwill is next to impossible when I don't have a car...and Goodwill doesn't pickup just a few boxes of stuff. So now I have two boxes full of stuff to donate that is just taking up space in my room. (and two boxes has a big impact in my room) I have enough stuff to fill a whole apartment crammed into one tiny room. Every month or so I go through my stuff and throw things out but it never seems to make a difference. I need a major overhaul. I want to live a simpler life. Just the essentials. But it's difficult for me to throw away things that are useful.

ETA: My problem, in a nutshell, is that I have alot of stuff that's not trash, but that I can't really give away or sell.

God! What a long post! Sorry!

Updated On: 7/20/06 at 10:23 PM