Secret stashers
Posted by Dory @ Lucky Dorito on Friday, May 1st, 2009
Ok, yesterday I asked some fun questions (which I’ll get around to answering also) … but today I have a serious one.
Seriously, I need to know.
I’m spending my Friday cleaning my messy house and it occurs to me – does everyone have this much stuff?
Tell me, where do you keep it all? I have random receipts that I hang on to in case something needs to be returned, insurance eobs (explanation of benefits), paycheck stubs, schoolwork papers the girls bring home, random things in the mail – seminars I might attend (or my hubby might attend), magazines I want to look through, professional journals I need to read, professional journals my hubby needs to read, yada yada……. the list is endless. It all ends up in stacks here and there or in one of the 197 junk drawers in my house (ok, slight exaggeration) and it’s beginning to drive me bonkers.
Everyone has this, right? Surely it’s not just me. (right?)
Here’s what I need to know: Where do you keep it all?
Fess up. I gotta get a better system. Ideas?
Filed in Life,Me,Randomness,Weirdness in my world | 10 dorito bits so far
megon 01 May 2009 at 12:06 pm 1Same thing around here (only slightly better because there are only 3 of us instead of 4 like you
) I’m a stacker- there are neat little piles everywhere 
All the paper is the worst part- I have files for most of this stuff but don’t spend the 30-60 seconds it takes to put them there- but if I was honest, most of it just needs to be pitched.
Tracieon 01 May 2009 at 12:22 pm 2Piles! What piles?? JK
Hubby’s stuff, I put on his dresser, in a pile, till someday he sorts it. Each girl has a magnet on the fridge that their schools notes & such goes. I’m not happy with the way that looks, but I am able to find those reminders when I need them. I have a drawer of catalogs and when it’s too full to shut, I sort & throw. But there’s a couple drawers in the sofa table that are catch alls that need to be sorted. BAD! I generally have a pile in the kitchen too. I try to sort the mail as I look at it and throw as much away right then so as to avoid a pile.
Jeanon 01 May 2009 at 12:49 pm 3I’m the world’s worst packrat.. Keep every piece of paper..I’m slowly learning to pitch it as it comes in. I’ve identified the things I really DO need to keep, and the rest hits the trash.. this is, obviously, a work in progress!!LOL
The Gaelic Wifeon 01 May 2009 at 1:15 pm 4Yep. I could be a packrat – the kind that you see on TV where the county comes in with a trash trailer and basically shovels everything out the door – if I don’t stay on top of things. I have piles. I love piles. Until they fall over. Then I hate piles and start planning how to get organized. Which brings in more stuff. It’s a vicious cycle. LOL!!!
Vonnieon 01 May 2009 at 1:56 pm 5You are not alone. I am a paper piler and I hate it! About once a week I sort the stuff on the dining table and file it. You know, I think I was way more organized when the kids were all home!
Beccaon 01 May 2009 at 2:33 pm 6I am working on us not being that way anymore. There is a shredder just to my right. Everything that has been paid, like bills gets shredded so that I do not have piles and piles of paper and wonder “did we take care of that?” But we still have lots of other stuff!
Shannonon 01 May 2009 at 11:34 pm 7I think we all struggle with having too much stuff- and paper seems to especially be a problem. I’ve tried hard in the past few years to cut back on all the paper we have- but it’s still a battle. Here are a few things that have helped me:
-Never setting mail down without going through it. Things that are bills get put on Tony’s desk to be paid and junk goes directly in the trash. No more mail piles makes a huge difference-I have a magazine rack and when it gets full- I spend an evening going through it. I cut out recipes or things I want to keep and the rest gets recycled.
-We have files for stuff like EOB’s and receipts and everything else gets shredded.
-As soon as I get papers from school or dance- I fill them out immediately and send them back- so they don’t get lost in the shuffle.
Ms. Kittyon 02 May 2009 at 8:27 am 8OMG! this is so strange/funny to read because I have the same problem…I have taken off this last week just working on getting our house in order…remember George Carlton? How he would talk about “our stuff”? where do we get this “stuff” and why do we need to keep “stuff”. Well I made sure my husband did not take off this week…because he LOVES to keep “stuff” . It’s really funny each day after work I would show him another closet that I had FOUND…and after nearly 30 years of marriage…I knew just what not to throw out ..and sure enough he say Oh, yeah I’ve been wondering where that was?…the only thing that really help me this week was this…I would ask myself “If we were moving would I take this with us”?
Great blog, Dory….you’re not alone….gotta go…need to find the top of my desk.
Stacyon 03 May 2009 at 6:33 pm 9We have talked about this several times and you know I am among the best stashers in the world. I hate, hate, hate it but can’t seem to break the cycle. I go through spats where I toss everything and then sometimes feel guilty about it. In the past few years I bought a Rubbermaid container (Medium) for each of the kids. I let them decide if they want to put some of their projects and such in it, if not we toss it. That has helped cut back on a lot of their school papers.
Thotladyon 04 May 2009 at 10:10 am 10Same here. Mail is my number one enemy. My husband loves to get the mail each day…I just wish he would then go through it and do what someone else recommends. (sort and pitch)
Bills go in the bill paying container, we rip out the addressee on all junk mail, shred it and throw away the other part of the junk mail.
What has really helped is…recently I decided to scan anything I want to keep (PAPERLESS IS MY NEW MOTO). I am so sick of all the paper. I am a fairly neat person but the amount of paper the two of us accumulate is mind blowing.
Sometimes I feel like John Connor in the Terminator series, instead of the machines taking over, my stacks of papers are going to overtake my home. Yikes.
So my suggestion is, if you don’t have a scanner, buy one, and scan baby scan!