These tips I gleaned from my husband. 🙂 He keeps all the receipts from Christmas (he also does this on birthdays, etc.) in one envelope so that if something does need to be returned, he knows right where they are and has them handy. He keeps his in his desk; I keep mine in the top drawer of my dresser in the bedroom because I usually wrap presents on my bed (the bedrooms are the only rooms in the house where we can shut the door — everything else is open to other rooms. Well, except the bathrooms, of course. 🙂 ) From time to time I clean out the accumulated receipts when that designated spot gets too crowded.

When it comes to major purchases, like appliances or electronics, he staples the receipt to the owner’s manual and keeps that and any service contracts in a file for such in the filing cabinet. That way all of that information is together and easy to find is the product breaks down or needs to be serviced.

For more workable tips, go to Rocks In My Dryer.

I thought this anecdote was hilarious. The author is unknown: I don’t even remember where I got this from:

It arose one morning from the bowels of my desk, a formless mass that spread and covered itself over anything I was looking for. “Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Clutter,” the mass answered, “and I am here to confound your life. I am the things you refuse to throw out though you haven’t used them in six years, the miscellaneous papers, phone numbers, business cards, and checks you accumulate and don’t put away. I am the inevitable manifestation of your sloppiness. I am Clutter.”

I grabbed Clutter and moved it from one end of the desk to the other. Clutter chortled, “That’s my favorite pastime. Moving from one end of the desk to the other.” “What do you want?” I asked.

“To frustrate you. I will resist all attempts to remove me, reduce me, or otherwise eliminate me. It’s my purpose to hide whatever important piece of paper you need, whichever phone number you must call.”

“I’m throwing you out,” I stormed. Clutter shook his untidy mass sadly, as in pity.

“Not without looking through me to see if there’s anything you really need,” Clutter answered. “the odds are slim, but you won’t take that chance. And while your sorting through me, I’ll re-form in another pile.”

“But you’ll be smaller, more manageable.”

“Not really. You’ll decide to keep 90% of me, as you always do. And soon, new papers, numbers, documents will gather, making me more obstructive than ever.”

“You won’t ruin my life, Clutter! I’ll start a filing system! I’ll put a bit of you where you belong.”

Clutter gazed at me contemptuously. “The last time you tried that, you created my cousins, Chaos and Disorder. It’ll never work.”

Clutter had me and I knew it. Attempts in the past to file things alphabetically had only created 26 piles of mess instead of one. I was desperate, so I decided to bluff. “I’ll take a time management course,” I threatened.

Clutter quite rightly ignored my remark. I wasn’t dealing with an idiot, after all. “Then I’ll buy a computer and store you on my floppy disks!”

“And within a month your disk-filing system will be in total disarray, plus you’ll have another pile of papers waiting to be entered onto disks. Face it, you can’t win.”

Exasperated, I ran to the closet. “I’m getting some air.” Clutter had been to the closet before me. Shoes were scattered, shirts were unhung, clumps of pants and underwear lay strewn next to towels and a lawn chair. Socks congealed in small piles, looking like the waste product of some nylon-eating monster. Cliff notes from A Tale of Two Cities lay atop the heater.

“Clutter,” I yelled. “You have crippled my productivity for the last time. No longer will I be late, no more will I miss appointments, never again shall I be overwhelmed by your size and withdraw into reading old magazines. I am going out to the store to buy a paper shredder.”

I looked around for a long moment. “Now where did I leave my keys?”

Clutter burped.

—Author Unknown

~~~~~~~~~~
Clutter isn’t quite that formidable to deal with — it just seems like it! 🙂 Whole books have been written about how to deal with clutter, and I haven’t conquered it totally yet, but here are a few things I’ve found to help:

* If I don’t have time to clean out the whole attic or closet or refrigerator or whatever, it helps to break it down into smaller portions. Clean out a box at a time, a shelf at a time, a drawer at a time.

*If you have the space somewhere, it is helpful to have a box or shelf set aside to place things to get rid of as I come to them rather than having to sift through a drawer to get them. Then when the box or shelf is filled, take it to the mission or Salvation Army.

* I do keep sentimental things, but ask myself realistically if I will ever use or look through the items. For instance, I used to keep all my son’s Sunday School papers until I realized that after eighteen years that stack would be daunting. So as we get such papers I try to pick out representative or especially meaningful ones and (wince!) throw away the rest.

* I try not to set something out of place “for just a minute” but rather go ahead and put things back where they belong as I get done with them as much as possible.

* I try to encourage the kids to brings their “stuff” in from the car whenever we get home.

For more tips and helpful hints, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Drip pans and rings from the stove used to be cheap enough that I tossed them out when they got covered with hard, caked-on grunge. But then they went up in price, so I wasn’t comfortable doing that as often. Yet it took a lot of scrubbing even make a dent, and getting them thoroughly clean seemed impossible. Then I came across this tip in the Frugal Living section of About.com: Dissolve about a 1/4 cup of baking soda in a large pot of warm water. Add the drip pans ands rings and boil for a few minutes. Let it all cool and then scrub the drip pans. I was amazed at how well it works.

I also started sprinkling baking powder on pans that are hard to get clean and scrubbing with a sponge that has an abrasive side. Works great and doesn’t have the fumes and irritants to my hands that other cleaners have.

Visit Rocks In My Dryer for more real live workable tips from real live people who have tried them. 🙂

Shannon over at Rocks In My Dryer hosts the weekly “Works For Me Wednesday” conglomeration of tips offered by scores of folks. She asked us to consider going back into our archives and posting a “classic” tip this week…..but since I have only been contributing for a few weeks, and therefore all of my posts would be within recent memory, and since I already had something else in mind, I’ll post my “new” one.

It took me seemingly ages (and a lot of frustration) to learn this, but it’s better to prevent clutter that to have to sort through it. One of the best ways to avoid clutter is the OHIO principle: Only Handle It Once (I first heard this from my former Home Economics teacher, Mrs. Karis Wickensimer. I don’t know it is is original with her). Most clutter comes from setting something out of place “just for now until I can get back to it ,” and by the time we get back to it, it has multiplied somehow.

Here’s one example from my early married years. We used to have a trunk in our bedroom, and at night when it was late and we were tired, we’d lay our clothes from the day across it. After several days I’d have to make time to sort through the pile. Anything that could have been worn again originally was now wrinkled and needed to be ironed or washed. Taking the few seconds to go ahead and hang clothes back up or put them in the hamper as soon as I took them off saved time and frustration and certainly made the room look a lot better. (Looking back, I can’t believe I ever used to do that. :oops:)

An example from current life: when my son brings home a permission slip for a field trip, if I set it on the counter or the desk, I’m likely to forget about it until the last minute, when it’s a mad scramble to try to find it on the day it’s needed. It’s much more efficient to go ahead and sign it, make note of the details on my kitchen calendar, get out the money for it, and have my son put it back in his bookbag right when he first gives it to me.

Using this principle not only prevents clutter but also saves time by not having to deal with the same paperwork or item again. And usually dealing with these things right away makes them a whole lot less complicated.

There are, of course, some household tasks for which this would not work well: clipping coupons, for instance, is usually best done as an assembly-line procedure with the Sunday paper insert rather than filing each individual coupon as you clip it.

And it is meant to be a general principle, not the law of the land with which you beat yourself (or anyone else). There will be times when it’s not possible. But when it is, it will save time, energy, and frustration and prevent clutter. And that works for me!

For other great tips, see this week’s WFMW posts here.

The start of school begins the influx of papers to sign and items to remember to take to school. If we leave it til the morning to try to take care of these things, we generally forget, or, if we remember, it just adds a layer of frustration to an already busy morning.

For school papers (permission slips, parental notices, etc.), I try to go ahead and sign it and give it back to my child immediately for them to put back in the bookbag. If it’s too rushed to handle right then, or if there is some reason I need to wait before signing it, I’ll put in on a spot on the counter where I keep the current mail, my keys, etc., so I’ll see it and remember to deal with it. I don’t put it in my desk. The desk has a fold-up panel which wonderfully hides the stacks of papers there — but it also makes me forget that there is something there that needs attention soon.

Getting piano books, P.E. clothes, or whatever else needs to be taken on certain days together is usually best done the night before. As my children have gotten older, I’ve tried to transfer this responsibility to them. But I write a little note to myself to remind them and leave it on the counter the night before (I keep a small notepad on my counter both for taking phone messages and for my little reminder notes).

If there is anything out of the ordinary (a plate of cookies for a class party, etc.), I either leave it out on the counter next to my keys, or on a table near where I keep my purse. If it’s something that needs to be refrigerated, I leave myself a note on the counter by my keys or by my purse. I had a friend who would put her car keys in the refrigerator next to something she needed to remember to take (that was before keyless remotes — I don’t know if that would be a good idea for them). For a long time I would leave a post-it note on the door to remind me of things I needed to take with me.

A couple of times in Family Fun magazine I’ve seen a neat little doorknob reminder of what things to take what day. I’ve never made it — but I thought it was really cool. 🙂 They have tons of neat ideas there!

I always get a kitchen calendar that has enough space to write notes for each day, and I try to transfer dates for upcoming events from the school newsletter onto out kitchen calendar as soon as possible. That’s also where we keep track of appointments, recitals, sports practices and games, birthdays, trips, etc., etc.

I’d love to hear what organizational tips you have, too!

For more neat tips, check out the Works-For-Me Wednesday posts at Rocks In My Dryer.