Sunday, January 13, 2008

Being Organized

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
~ Confucius


Those who know me well know that I am organizationally challenged. First of all, I save too much stuff..... (I did, after all, still have the 'Living Guide for 1997.') I'm also a piler, that is, I put my stuff in piles, rather than putting everything away.


I visited the website Zen Habits, which has some great ideas about living a simpler life. Specifically I liked the Four Laws of Simplicity about how to overcome clutter:

1. Collect everything in one place.
2. Choose the essential.
3. Eliminate the rest.
4. Organize the remaining stuff neatly and nicely.

Sounds so easy, and yet, so hard.
With the recent fires in Southern California, and personally knowing a lot of people who lost their homes, I know that it is just stuff. And stuff doesn't really matter. But I still have a hard time not keeping things I like or feel attached to or think I might 'need' one day.
(I know, I've read enough of the clutter 'self-help' books to know I must have some deep-seated fear/problem that I need to overcome.)
But I still keep too much, and have a hard time parting with things.

Feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions you have to help me with
this clutter addiction!


My friend AJ (Primitives~Life~Art) made these signs for me years ago. . . so ME! They make me smile . . . . and think about my proclivity to collect stuff.

5 comments:

aj said...

Well Beth, if you want to at least FEEL like less of a 'clutter collector', you need to come up to Oregon and have Michael give you a tour of the property! HE has more stuff than just about anyone you'll ever meet.

Now, we DO use a lot of that "stuff" for creating the things we sell in our store, but STILL! I swear, even if he stopped dragging stuff home for YEARS, we would not run out of building materials!

I've lost count, but I think he has almost a dozen small storage sheds (that he's built WITH his collected stuff) to store MORE of his collected stuff in!!

And now some friends of ours who are planting a vineyard a few miles down the road from us (repurposing an old dairy farm) have given Michael part of an old barn for his use to store MORE stuff in?!?!?!

Oh how I WISH I was kidding.

aj
Sophie's Cottage

Beth said...

The difference may be that you guys actually use the 'stuff' eventually. . . mine just collects dust, I think. And, there's that little matter of having to find things when I need them ----- I'm at the point now where it's just TOO MUCH!! And while Michael may be okay with the 'clutter' my husband is driven slightly crazy by it all. But I'm trying. . . it's hard to change a 'clutter collector'-----I think we're just born that way! : )

aj said...

And I suppose having the boys back at home for the time being and losing your 'carft room' hasn't helped the problem, eh???

OR having such a busy work AND school schedule!!

I've completely organized my craft room a couple of times over the years. But I find when I tidy up TOO much and store everything away where I can't see it, that I forget what I have and just end up buying more!

Your idea for using the photo hanger for some of your embellishments is a perfect idea. It looks 'decorative', but keeps it right in sight for when you need it. Especially little 'one of a kind things'.

One idea I used in the store for some of the 'onesies' of papercraft embellishments is to store them in a little photo album. That way you can quickly and easily flip through and find what you wanted.

For things that you have several of, the little coupon file folders work well. For big pages of stuff, those expandable cardboard file folders.

Bulletin boards with the elastic strips across the front that you can just 'tuck things into' would work too.

In the most recent organizing of the papercraft section of the store I put lots of embellishment stuff (spools of ribbon, brads, rubber stamps etc) in glass bowls and jars on a hutch. Kind of a 'candy store' look.

Of course stores SELL all kinds of big and small systens for any kind of organizing. But they are SO expensive. Maybe jsut browse a storage store and get some ideas to 'make do' with what you have on hand. Like just your saving empty glass jars. If you want to 'gussy them up' just tie a ribbon aroung the top, or cover the lid with a square of fabric and tie on a piece of string.

Now, you notice that all my organizing ideas ONLY have to do with crafty stuff!! That's because it would be completely hypocritical of me to offer HOME organizing tips. Our house is a mess. Like you, Michael is a PILER! He saves junk mail in piles ALL OVER the house and goes through them maybe once a year!

Good luck.
aj

P.S. If that RETIRED husband of yours is so bothered by your clutter, put him to work building you some storage shelves! hehe

Beth said...

Ha! I'll have to send you pictures of all of the organizational things I own for all of my scrapbooking & crafting stuff! I think I'm already utilizing every suggestion you gave me.....and yet, I still have problems keeping it all organized!

I must give my retired husband credit. . .even though my clutter is the #1 thing we've argued about over the years, he has learned to live with it in the 25 years we've been married. He knows not to touch my piles, so he just puts them in a box when he gets sick of seeing them laying out for too long. He bought me my own small 'shed' to keep some of my things outside. Still. . . . I still have issues. Racks in the garage, binders for embellishments, files for papers ---ugh, it is still too much! Again, I've read just about every organizing book there is. . . Here's what I think: (1)somehow, I think I feel the need to hold on to things, maybe because----we moved a lot when I was a kid, and I hold on to things to feel the "permanency" that was missing as a child (how's that for a psychological evaluation?!?!) and (2) I know the best adage is "a place for everything and everything in its place" BUT I have a HARD time with getting everything back IN its place!

Okay....enough about my neurosis for today! : )

aj said...

Hey Beth,
Just came across this papercraft supply organizer and thought of you!

http://blog.paperwishes.com/sara/2008/01/getting_organized.html

aj